Best commentary yet on Home Depot’s plans for the Fairhaven Mills site in New Bedford is a letter to the Standard-Times by architect Ricardo Romão Santos. After pointing out that Home Depot has made architectural concessions in other communities, he concludes by saying:
Those of us who see a greater potential in the Fairhaven Mills site have been wondering how to engage Home Depot officials in a dialogue that would at least result in saving the historic Fairhaven Mills structures. But they simply won’t do it. It would be fair to say that Home Depot is not in the least concerned with our community. If New Bedford’s relationship with Home Depot is starting on this wrong footing, I wonder how it will end.
Obviously, Home Depot sees New Bedford as a poor, disempowered community who will roll over and play dead, while they do what they want….
Home Depot needs to read “Lovemarks” (see above).
Home Depot, when are you going to advertise for a community outreach/public relations director? Obviously the post is vacant and corporate officials are not reading the trade magazines for that industry.
Fairhaven Mills is a cheaply built structure whose sole purpose was to provide income for its owners using cheap labor. Home Depot is a cheaply built structure whose sole purpose is to provide income for its owners using cheap labor. Why is the former sacred and the latter evil? Will future generations of morons debate preserving the historic home depot structure?
Habib — You have a good point, and it may not be worth keeping the old mill building. At the same time, what we’re seeing is that Scott Lang has been able to push them to give additional concessions to the community, so I’m afraid that Santos seems to have been right when he wrote: “Home Depot sees New Bedford as a poor, disempowered community who will roll over and play dead, while they do what they want.” I have also noticed that Scott Lang is saying absolutley nothing about trying to save the old mill building, so I have to assume that is not part of his strategy.
My current thinking is that one big box retail store is hardly the “highest and best use” for that particular site. With easy access to I-195, common sense indicates that we should be able to get a better mix of businesses in there to create more jobs and to funnel traffic up to the existing businesses of the North End. What I’d like to see is better business planning overall for New Bedford, so we’re not passively responding but actively going out and seeking the kind of businesses we need to settle in places where they’ll do us the most good.
Another mystery. Mayor Lang eagerly anticipates 100 mediocre “call center” jobs at Soveriegn Bank, never questioning the number of jobs, the wages to be paid or how many of these jobs will be full time with benefits. Yet, Home Depot gets scourged over these matters.