Development Council
Name: Robert J. Luongo
Position: Executive director, New Bedford Economic Development Council, Inc.
Age: 52
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Background: He worked as a planner for Quincy, Mass., community development director for Wakefield, Mass., planning and development director Chelsea, Mass., economic development director for Lawrence, Mass. Luongo joined the New Bedford Economic Development Council in September 2001.
Education: Bachelor’s degree, Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., and master’s degree from Northeastern University in Boston.
Residence: Weymouth
PBN: Industrial cities like New Bedford have struggled to put less reliance on manufacturing, looking to the service sector to help diversify their economy. How has New Bedford done with this shift?
LUONGO: Obviously, New Bedford is similar to other industrial cities in Massachusetts and the Northeast, which have lost their manufacturing base over the last few decades. These cities are constantly trying to reinvent themselves. It’s hard for communities like New Bedford to figure out how to latch on to the new economy, because these inner cities have a lot of problems – as well as a lot of assets. The problems include infrastructure needs, mill buildings that are not adaptable to new uses and an immigrant population that needs to be educated and trained. The hardest thing to overcome is the lack of training and education of the new immigrant populations that move into these urban areas. New Bedford works with the SouthCoast Development Partnership, a regional entity that takes in the area from Wareham to Fall River. Through the partnership we are looking at what opportunities we can create for ourselves as a region. We are slowly figuring out what our niche might be, whether it is in financial services, distribution, the telecommunications industry … or biomedical. When (Massachusetts Governor-elect) Mitt Romney visited the city campaigning recently he pointed out that the Boston/Cambridge area is the hub for research and development for a whole host of industry. He wanted to see if he could lure those companies into manufacturing their products down here.
Does the new leadership at the state level help or hurt New Bedford and surrounding communities?
There is a lot of talk about some of the infrastructure projects we have pegged for New Bedford, like the commuter rail line. (Romney) has not come out and supported it. So I think it is too early to tell, particularly because it’s been overshadowed by the fiscal condition of the commonwealth. There is not enough revenue coming in to support some of these infrastructure projects. I think the projects in New Bedford are good solid projects that will help the city improve its functioning as an economic development engine for the region. It might take a little bit longer to get the funding but I think in the end New Bedford and other inner cities will do well, because when the governor-elect looks at the landscape he will see where investments need to be made to stimulate the economy. There is a lot of talk about how New Bedford didn’t support a Republican candidate, but I think (Romney) wants to build bridges.
Tell me about the state pier project in New Bedford?
Basically, there are two components to it. As you might be aware we have been having this running battle with Martha’s Vineyard relative to the passenger ferry service to the island. New Bedford has been added to the board of the Steamship Authority. What we are trying to do is get enhanced, improved passenger ferry service from the island to New Bedford, to the state pier. Also, we want to become the hub for freight cargo from the islands. That is a project the city has been working on for a couple of years, and over the next few years you will see enhanced passenger and freight services to the islands.
What the city’s mayor would like to do is make New Bedford a transportation hub. The city has plans for not only the passenger and freight services, but also that commuter rail line and a freight terminal in the downtown area. The idea is to become a transportation hub for the SouthCoast. This is not only important in sustaining the Port of New Bedford, which is a very strong port, but also to encourage manufacturers to move into the area, because they can ship their goods via water, rail and highway.
Your economic development office is a public/private venture, an entity we are seeing more and more of in cities today. What do you see as advantages in this type of operation as opposed to a city-run economic development office?
I think there are pros and cons to it. Like anything you have to work at it, it’s like a marriage. You have to make sure that it is functioning like a real partnership. The positive of a partnership is if you get a strong business community and representatives of the local minority community, minority businesses, they can be a sounding board for the city administration on economic development policy. The mayor is looking to us for input from the business community and the minority community. Partnerships can also be good from the point of view that when administrations change they can hold new administrations to a course of action. Each new administration will always have its own pet projects, whether it’s housing, community development, etc. I don’t think communities progress when new administrations come in and scrap all the policies of the old administrations. The most successful communities in this state are the ones that build on their predecessors. It takes a long time to develop infrastructure improvements. A partnership can help a mayor stay the course over a length of time.
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