With over 800 acres of park space in New Bedford, Mass., the parks, recreation and beaches department plans an extraordinary amount of programming and improvements each year.

The park space is widely spread throughout the city, so 90% of the community has access to recreational open spaces within a 15-minute walk. There are over 50 parks, including playgrounds, and the city boasts three miles of shoreline, a public golf course and three nature trails.

“We really enjoy what we’re doing because our work is impactful,” Mary Rapoza, New Bedford director of parks, recreation and beaches, stated.

Since the 1960s, New Bedford has held a full-day Kennedy Summer Day Camp at Fort Tabor Park, which provides youth ages five to 14 with a camp-like experience that includes swimming, activities, and arts and crafts. The program normally serves between 200 and 300 people.

Free lunches are part of the department’s programming. Lunch is offered at various sites from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with fun, supervised activities for children. Activities can include board games, soccer and more and are specific to the site based on what the children there most want to do. Three free dinner sites have also been designated, with activities available from 4-7 p.m.

The lunches and dinners are available at a total of 15 sites. Last year, a new “rec and relaxation” van was added to the programming as well: It is packed with outdoor activities and visits 10 different parks throughout the week.

During the pandemic, Brooklawn Park became home to a nature center specializing in nature programming and featuring Ricketson’s Natural Trail. The department partners with the local Audubon Society to do special programming, and there is also a partnership with the local art museum for an art-in-the-park experience where participants are able to go out and observe nature, discuss a specific topic and then return to do an art project about it.

In 2021, the department also did a social media push called Hop a Park Day to encourage the community to get out and enjoy the parks in the wake of COVID-19.

There is a great deal of sports programming in New Bedford. Pre-K soccer, flag football, swim lessons and tennis lessons all see strong signups.

Lifeguards are hired for the main beaches, West Beach and East Beach, along the 3 miles of beachfront. At West Beach, the bathhouse has been renovated. The changing rooms, lifeguard station and restrooms are all new. The Blue Lane consists of paved walking paths that follow the shoreline so that residents and visitors can walk the whole length of the peninsula.

The Andrea McCoy Recreation Center provides the community with the opportunity to play basketball and volleyball and features a multipurpose room that can be rented for parties and conferences, a messy room for art projects, and a public computer lab. The department partners with local organizations to provide karate and a local theater and performing arts center to present a program called 360 Degrees, which involves interactive activities for kids, such as trick bikes. An organization called Third Eye uses the space to create a hip-hop atmosphere that empowers and mentors youth through dance, graffiti art and recording.

One thing the department strives to do is eliminate or reduce any barriers families may have in making the most out of the parks and programming. Programming is distributed across the many park systems throughout the city so that families who experience a transportation barrier still have some type of programming they are able to access. The department ensures programming is either free or at the lowest price point possible, and scholarships are available for programs like the Kennedy Summer Day Program to help all youth be able to participate.

Partnerships with local community organizations help to supplement the department’s programming and offset costs.

“More than 50% of the programs are free through a lot of grant writing,” Rapoza detailed. “We want to make sure kids who don’t have other options have something safe and productive to do when not in school.”

For the employees hired to help run summer programming, one of the qualifications is that they must be a New Bedford resident. Rapoza said the department tries to hire individuals from the neighborhood being served by a particular program.

“We try to hire those tied into the culture of the neighborhood so that many people already know the staff who are working,” she explained. “We have a very diverse community, and for some, English is not the first language. Having someone from that neighborhood involved makes it easier for parents to send children to programs.”

Stormwater improvements are important aspects of managing parks. The New Bedford department is using nature-based solutions to assist with flooding and erosion surrounding a duck pond in Brooklawn Park. Pond construction with a wetland-type solution began this spring at Buttonwood Park.

Installing shade structures is also a goal of the department. It is hoped that they will help work against the heat effect in urban centers. As a long-term solution, the department is planting many trees so that in 20 years the city should see a large change in the heat effect.

Recently, a new park was created with help from the local historical society. The homes on two lots in the city were considered historic homes before they were tragically lost in a fire years ago, so the lots were used to create Abolition Row Park.

As a prominent abolitionist stop in the past, New Bedford was frequented by slaves seeking freedom by the sea. “We had a really robust abolitionist movement in the city,” Rapoza noted. There was a freedom bell that would be rung when someone came to town trying to round up those formerly enslaved.

As a young man, Frederick Douglass even lived in the city and started his first job earning his own wages. There is a sculpture of Douglass as a young man in Abolition Row Park.

“Parks can tell the history of the city,” she said. “Abolition Row Park is a clear example of that.”

In another area of the city, a new skate park is currently in the design phase. The city has an active skater population, so the department teamed up with the skaters to find the design team that would design the skate park. The local skater population is very knowledgeable and knows what they want in a skate park, Rapoza found out.

Following recent landscape improvements to a space called Ashley Park, the department is now focusing on what playground improvements need to be done. The landscaping was completed using community development block grants.

At Ashley, there used to be a softball diamond near a busy intersection. A new diamond was built at a different location so stray balls no longer threatened to hit passing cars, and at the same time the department got to design a new entrance, a big lawn space and walking paths. “With those improvements, we thought it was a good time to look at the playground and splash pad and start improving those as well,” Rapoza added.

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