Well....So, you want to live in fall river, huh?

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mbhenty
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Well....So, you want to live in fall river, huh?

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Former residents recount reasons they chose to leave Fall River
Is this article accurate?

By Grant Welker
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Mar 26, 2011 @ 08:16 PM



For those who have left Fall River, the reasons they give are often predictable: poorly performing schools, crime, drug use or the feeling of being stuck in a city whose heyday was decades ago.

“If I have one regret about leaving my birthplace,” said one former resident who moved to Utah, “it’s that I didn’t do it sooner. Fall River offers relatively little and expects relatively much.”

Kim Fielding raised her children in Fall River and moved to South Hadley, where she goes to school full time and works.

“Fall River is a wonderful city,” she said. “It’s where my roots lie and where I raised my children. Fall River is a big part of who I am today, and I love it.”

But after having moved, Fielding named some of the reasons she did: the education system, economic development challenges, better public transportation and more things to do.

“I would love to see the arts have more of a prominent role in that,” she said.

Another former resident, a 40-year-old man who moved to Rhode Island because he couldn’t find a job in Fall River, also wanted to see the arts, as well as tourism and clean energy, play a central role in revitalizing the city. “I would love to be a part of some rebirth in the city, but I don’t see much of that going on,” he said.

Like most others who told The Herald News about why they moved out of Fall River, he asked that his name not be used.

A former Fall River couple that owned a business in the city said they retired and moved to the South because taxes were too high. “We realized years ago that Fall River was never going to change, and we could have done far better elsewhere,” they said.

A 42-year-old man who moved to Swansea in 2004 blamed crime and drugs. “I used to have friends in the Corky Row neighborhood, a place I wouldn’t go during daylight hours on a dare today,” he said. “Welcome to the new Brockton. It’s a shame — this used to be a city deserving of pride. This is definitely not the Fall River I grew up in.”

Tinamarie McBee, who graduated from B.M.C. Durfee High School in 1984, moved to Palmer six years ago. People are friendlier there, she said, and other places offer better job opportunities. “In Fall River, if you just look at someone the wrong way, they want to thrown down.”

A 22-year-old woman also mentioned rudeness from many in the city. She moved to the rural Rhode Island town of Burrillville three years ago but recently moved back to the city after she and her boyfriend broke up.

“I hated even being associated with the city,” she said. “It’s been nothing but misery in Fall River since I had to move back.”

Someone who moved to New Hampshire blamed taxes and the city’s inability long ago to diversify its economy.

“At first, only scratch tickets and used paper cups were thrown into my fenced-in yard,” a resident who moved to Westport said. “Then I found a soda can that had been fashioned into a crack pipe. Then I swept up hypodermic needles and broken beer bottles from the gutter a few times.”

The man who moved to Utah said he finds his new location to have a better environment — with cleaner air and cleaner water — friendlier people, and an ability to buy more for their dollar. “All things considered,” he said, “our move out was a move up in many ways.”

But not everyone is moving out. And there are younger families and couples moving in.
Lawyer Brigid Mitchell and her fiance, Nick Crist, who works in banking, just purchased a century-old Dutch colonial on Valentine Street and plan to move in next month. They now live in a home off Highland Avenue and had been looking everywhere from Seekonk to Westport for places to live. They chose to stay in Fall River.

“It was really conveniently located for so many things we wanted to do,” Crist said, mentioning trips to Cape Cod, Boston or Providence. “Everything you want is a short drive away.”

Compared with surrounding towns, Fall River also offered far more for their money, said Crist, a 29-year-old who commutes to Newport, R.I., for work. Crist grew up in Fall River, went to school in Providence, then moved back. He knows the impression people have of the city and admits it has flaws.

“I think a lot of the stereotypes of the city may be true,” he said, “but it has a lot more to offer than you’d think.”

Mitchell, 27, said she always wanted to get a home in a city after college and never wanted to abandon Fall River. She grew up in Westport but went to Catholic school in the city.

“I love the community, and I love helping the community,” she said. “I didn’t want to be one of those people who turned their back on the city.”

She’s also attracted to the city’s history and architecture, and served as a tour guide at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast when she was younger.

“We looked at houses all over, but Fall River kept pulling me back,” she said. “I think Fall River has a bad rap, and it isn’t fair.”

Email Grant Welker at gwelker@heraldnews.com.

Copyright 2011 The Herald News. Some rights reserved

Comments (28)


anthonyfr1811 week ago
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It's not rocket science why people are moving out, just take a good look around.



zygmunt20061 week ago
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Why does one leave a 'Cultural Wasteland?'

Name a City to live in with the Initials FR where you are always being you are getting somewhere when you know it's a one-way dead end street.

Which section of the State has the highest concentration of people with the lowest IQ?

Where do you go if you want to earn the lowest average pay scale in the State?

Where in the state do you have the most foreigners yet still be called an 'All American City?'

What city in Massachusetts do nostogia buffs go to when they want to return to the 1930's?

One good thing about Fall River ---It is no longer a dumping ground for the surplus population of the Azores. (Who still wants to live in the 'Catholic Middle Ages?' )

Another good reason to leave Fall River is that it is now a dumping ground for the rejects the Upper Middle Class Suburbs don't want to handle.

My suggestions: --- Drink coffee milk, eat a chirico-sandwitch and have a claimboil then go back home the same day. Better yet try long-distance take-out delivery service.
angelic1 week ago
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zygmunt2006, If you plan to throw out these 'facts' please state your sources. Sticking your head out the window and looking around does not count as a source.
Highest concentration with the lowest IQ? I've been invited to join Mensa.
Lowest average pay scale? Same could be said for Worcester.
Most foreigners? Show me the numbers. And aren't we all immigrants?
The only thing I see from the 1930's is your way of thinking.
Dumping ground for the surplus population of the Azores? If you are from this area you have an 80% chance of having an Azorean in the gene pool. And as a person of Azorean descent : We came. We saw. We moved to the suburbs.


My suggestions: Learn how to spell chourico sandwich. Bad spelling can weaken any argument. Also, back up your facts with real resources.


villagerat1 week ago
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Just look at our politicians. While some have certainly tried over the years, like John Medeiros and Earl Gaudette, look what we have today and have had. We currently have a long term councilor who cannot speak proper English and he and another do not know how to get email. Fine example.

We have been overrun by people who have no life goals, no respect for others, do not contribute anything to the city, just take. Parents who do not care if their children get a good education and who do not teach about courtesy, respect and pride.

I respect all those people, elected and not who over the years have certainly tried. Like the Fall River Celebrate America celebration that became a big success because of the hard work of people who wanted to do something for the city.

Fall river is becoming another Detroit.


Arnold Wray1 week ago
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You can offer all of the negatives and yet no place is perfect....however, the bottom line is jobs...pure, plain and simple. As for attacking those who came from the Azores...wake up...if they had not come here....Fall River would definitely be a true New England Ghost town....with nothing to offer but Lizzie Borden. DUH!!!!!!!!!!


Kookey Core1 week ago
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Two words - Ken Fiola.
He needs to go but somehow he hangs on.


westportfarmer1 week ago
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Start by lowering our public housing to 50% of what we have, get rid of a large amount of multi-family houses to create some open space. Make education and crime top priorities and do not allow teenagers to get a drivers license unless they at least have a GED. Maybe in 10 years we will have a city that people want to move to or we can continue down the current path and be the repository for the trash that no one else wants.


fr transplant1 week ago
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I used to live in Fall River. Imoved in in the early 80s it was a nice a quite little city then all of a sudden it went down the toilet. in the late to early 90s drugs, more guns. Look at it today it looks like another 'Dodge City.'


hit and run1 week ago
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Get rid of all the section eight housing tell the bums to get jobs were ever they can.No more welfare food stamps.People love to milk the system stop it all.The parents that treat their kids like best friends instead off kids dum you know whats. I read the paper that said a stepfather that was the same age as his stepdaughter that got into a fight.Come on lady your that ugly you can't find someone your own age all losers.Fall River my home and a junk yard for losers.


benoit1 week ago
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does the MAYOR visit other parts of the city besides the HIGHLANDS does he notice the trash
everywhere even on main street ? he should drive by SUNSET HILL and see all the parked cars and
they don't move all day long except to get food stamps and welfare checks so the pajama mamas
can get their cigs & booze and drugs thats why the city is in the shape its in to much scum and all
the good people are going away and not coming back.


johnnybfallriver1 week ago
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My ancestores moved to FR in the mid 1800 from Portugual they moved all the way here for a better life, what would they say to me if I stayed here?? They would say move do what you need to do to keep at the strive for a better life. Living in the same area you grow up gives you tunnel vision, and in some cases makes you close minded. I moved becuase there is nothing in FR it is not the same place I grew up I would rather remember it that way then what it has become today. The country is a big place and they are all different, some better some worst but to stay in one place just becuase you were born there is doing your self a huge diservice. New England is a great place but taxes are high, the cost of living is high if you can make it in this area you could move anywhere in the US and make it better.


GI JOE1 week ago
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due to slow progress in class due to low achievers hindering high achievers to move forward and nothing new to learn cycle after cycle.
bellucci1 week ago
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I moved out in the early 90's. We were saving for home, both working full time and I was going to school. We moved four times in five years- at each location there was always another tenant in the house who was up all hours of the night, loud, and likely drug involved. Once we had someone show up at 2am and scream from the street to the second floor tenant he wanted his 'works' back (a heroin addicts needle and such I am told). Another time I called police because the woman in the next apartment was having the snot beat out of her by the boyfriend. My car was broken into. After five years of this, the day we were moving to an apartment in Somerset I encountered a man running by me talking into a radio- (thank God he was an undercover officer who was surveilling a drug dealer ...I heard what he said on the handheld radio). This was the South End. I grew up in Fall River and there was a time there were working decent families there that outnumbered criminals. No more.
tired_in_FR1 week ago
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Oddly enough, the Azores is a better place to live than Fall River. People in the Azores and Portugal in Generally don't even want to visit Fall River. They have true High speed internet, because our governable feels it necessary to limit internet speeds. They have jobs, health acre and to quote an Azorean resident 'going to Fall River will be a step back in time for me.' I have visited many European communities and countries and many of the people only come to the United states to do business here, they would not want to live here as they feel it difficult to exist in a closed minded community and governmenet like Fall River has.

Fall River has catered to the low of the low in offering and promoting public housing and public service programs like drug clinics and the like. If we as a city put our foot down with the city administration and the city council and say enough is enough and actually vote some new blood in when they do opposite to what we demand than maybe we can see a change. But until Grandma and grandpa stop voting for there bloody chow mein sandwiches and the good old days we will not see change. So go ahead Grandma and Grandpa keep killing Fall River and the future of your grandchildren, especially when they move away because you the senior voter can't open up your eyes
bar5451 week ago
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Unfornately Fall River like Brockton , New Bedford and Poor rural cities all over this Commowealth are Victims of a State Goverment and Legislature that has one been Liberal for years and two have created a Welfare enviroment where crime , poor education ,substandard living conditions , High Taxes and limited private business growth have engulfed such small cities and towns such as Fall River .and has forced many people to finally say enough and move to places where the situations are far better in order to fix this problem we need to see these problems and change the way we do things in this city and state and that has to be a the Ballot Box
kyllacon1 week ago
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Many of us who would like to leave Fall River just don't have the means to do so, if you live paycheck to paycheck it is extremely difficult to save enough money to buy a new TV or pay for vehicle repairs let alone fund a move.
MasterCory1 week ago
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Fall River 'the Scholarship City' has become stagnant and stale. I rec'd a scholarship from the city after graduating from Durfee and was extremely quick and eager to leave Fall River in order to explore other cultures and mindsets/attitudes. Unfortunately, I returned to FR for a family obligation ... to only find an overabundance of closed and run down schools, no more FRCA, etc.; while some of the same-old City Administrators (Councilors) are on the Board and making the (same) decisions! Why!?
Fox Mulder1 week ago
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It's really bad to see what this city has become. There are sections of the city that I used to running through that I don't do anymore. Not just crime, but the lack of opportunity. I'm currently enrolled in college. I'm not going to put myself in debt paying for an education to stay in Fall River an be unable to get a job in my field. I may have to go elsewhere to achieve my dreams.
xxrosie57xx1 week ago
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HI I lived in fall river mass for 54 yrs , my my mom rip she did work all her life dont judge section 8 cause some people need it talk about putting things back into fall river there isnt anything for the kids to do, wake up smell the roses!!!!!! where the bowling alleys movies out doors a six flags buliding houses a briges bring things in for the children;s maybe they love to work i wont vote anymore for anyone,, cause they dont do anything for use billions of dollars on things we dont need ,,,,, what about the rents are so high,, peopl cant live we should get a tent live there,,,,,,,,,,, hello open your eyes ,,,yes get rid of the gangs., drugs,, put more out here fall river gone down i pay 800 for a bedrooms,,.. peopl need help jobs, and more we write but no one cares,,,..,,.,,,l
Fix Fall River1 week ago
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Left in the early 90's city is dangerous, filthy, no oppurtunities I was making 22,000 maxed out where I worked. The Taunton River is gross you can't even eat shellfish. The last time I was in the cesspool someone just opened their car window and dumped an ashtray full of butts on Pleasent St. I have my LTC and do so everytime I have to enter the city I used to call home, no I am embarassed to mention where I was raised.
rfn1 week ago
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My parents left Fall River for Swansea in 1943. At the time because they could pay the mortgage on a house, taxes too, for less than they were paying in rent for a reasonably decent apartment. At that same price there was room for a previous generation and an aunt. With gas at about 15 Cents a gallon, even with the low wages at that time, commuting to a job wasn't a problem. Of course there were two fully-functional bridges across The Taunton River at the time.

There were neighborhood schools in those days so education was a push. Crime was not a big factor then, either. There was better bus service to the suburbs than around the city at that time.

I occasionally look at moving back and could easily afford to buy in Fall River but modernizing most of what's on the market and then paying the taxes on it? Not hardly. I don't know from experience if it's true but friends who still live in the old neighborhood tell me not to visit them at night though, come summer and longer hours of sunlight, my car might still be in front of their house when I leave.

kp19731 week ago
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I'd leave Fall River if I didn't have a house that I owe more than it's worth. The school system sucks so I put my child in a Catholic School and I hate going to the supermarket any time of the month because it's full of low life scum bags all the time.
People can say all they want about the Portuguese/Azorean families that moved here, but I was friends with many kids who had come over and they had decent families that cared for their neighborhoods and had respect for the city. Today, there is no ownership or sense of community. Therefore, people don't care if they cut you off, use foul language in front of your kids or throw their garbage in the streets. I'd rather have a city full of Portuguese/Azoreans than what we have now.


CorruptCongress1 week ago
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There is nothing to keep hard working folks in the city. The enabling (welfare, ssi, section 8, projects, cfc, etc) the city and state have provided to a large group of folks who do not want to work (there is a big difference between the working poor and the undesireables I'm referring to) and just want to receive handouts at every corner. Because these folks have not had to work for anything, do not own their property, do not have real ties to this area, they do not care if they trash their apartment, throw trash in the streets, vandalize (love the tagging - ugh), etc.
Time to impliment and enforce mandatory drug testing for any and all public assitance, section 8, project housing, etc. You want to get rid of the trash - drug testing, unannounced visits to ensure the gang banger daddy isn't staying w/ the welfare mamma, etc.


Scott027211 week ago
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If local Government was business friendly it would certainly make the place more attractive.
All local government tries to attract is welfare bums that can barley speak English. Too many Liberal Democrats running the show. Too many government regulations, building codes, EPA, OSHA and every other overbearing regulatory agency all trying to take your money.

Buy my house so I can leave too. I want to live in a Red Conservative State.


Scott027211 week ago
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My advice to the Mayor...FROED and Ken Fiola have to go as well. They certainly aren't part of the solution.


Oscar DeCosta1 week ago
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It was all downhill when Section 8 housing increased more, and more, and more beginning in the 90's. Before then your kids could walk to school. In fact most kids DID walk to school. The crime and drugs have skyrocketed since then.


safado1 week ago
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I moved out of FR almost 20 years ago, so I have no dog in this fight.

However, reading these and many other posts - it's very clear that the literate, cyber-savvy Herald News readers are seemingly unanimous in wanting less section 8 and public housing.

Why don't one of you run for City Council or Mayor on a 'lessen-public-housing' platform!?!?


Donna 1 week ago
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I grew up in FR when it was a nice city to live in. We could walk the streets at any given hour of the day or night and still be safe. People were friendly and watched out for each other. Yes, there was still crime back then, but nothing compared to FR today. I moved south five years ago to get away from all the drugs and crime. Before I moved away there were drive by shootings, gangs on the rise, more heroine and crack users than I care to see again. I returned to FR last June for a family event, I was in the city for six days and couldn't wait to leave. The streets were so dirty it made me sick, the roads filled with potholes, the prostitutes openly doing business downtown, and the drug dealers on the corners. It's a shame to see how much this city has changed over the years. The honest hardworking citizens of FR should get all of the current city officials out of office and reelect some new officals that want to clean up the city. They could start by hiring more police officiers and cleanup up the streets, gangs, and all the welfare familiy's that have taken advantage of this system for years that sell their benefits for drugs, and get free housing. I know that people fall on hard times and need some assistance when they are down, but to have children just to stay home and wait for the free money and food stamps each month while your boyfriend is working or selling drugs is just wrong. I may have grown up in this city, but I don't consider this city my home anymore.
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