Opinion: Mayors must travel to attract investments, solutions – The New Bedford Light

I write concerning the article about Mayor Mitchell’s travel. I am a co-founder and ardent supporter of The New Bedford Light. I was the mayor of New Bedford from 1986-1992. I think this story is some of the worst reporting and editing I have ever seen.

It starts with the faulty and unsubstantiated assumption that travel is bad and builds a hatchet job around that baseless assumption. My political opponents used to accuse me of traveling too much. I responded that my job was to solve New Bedford’s problems and seek out opportunities and to learn the answers to the problems, the resources to solve the problems, the people to help us, the examples to learn from, the companies to attract, all of those things existed outside the city’s boundaries. You cannot do the job of mayor by sitting inside its boundaries. You have to travel.

Like Mayor Mitchell, I was very active in the U.S. Conference of Mayors because you could learn cutting edge ideas from what other cities are doing to solve problems in New Bedford. Like Mayor Mitchell, I went to Jerusalem because we have a sizable Jewish population and Teddy Kollek was the best mayor in the world. I wanted to learn from him. Like Mayor Mitchell, I went to our sister cities because I wanted to learn what I could of the immigrant experience: what it is like to leave the familiar to seek the American dream in New Bedford.

If you look at the hundreds of millions of dollars that are transforming the port of New Bedford, you see the results of the relationships built over time by Mayor Mitchell’s travels. You have reported on the plans to transform all of our aging schools and to build hundreds of housing units. You have also reported on the city’s investment in the arts and how it impacts our economy, and must realize that is the result of a vision born of mayoral leadership that continually learns from others and takes the best ideas to apply to our city. It is also the result of relationships made over time by many nights spent away from family as you go from office to office with plans and tables and briefs explaining what the City of New Bedford needs.

People who don’t travel for a living think it’s a junket. I’ve spent far too much time in hotel rooms, taxi cabs, airports, and other people’s offices. It is a grind. And all the time you miss your family and dinner with your kids. But you do it for your city or the work that is your mission.

New Bedford Light, teach us about what this incredibly intricate city of New Bedford is. You are way better than this.

John K. Bullard was a three-term mayor of New Bedford, head of the first federal office of sustainability at NOAA, then served as regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries in the Northeast. He is president of the New Bedford Ocean Cluster and is also a co-founder of The New Bedford Light.

Editor’s note: The New Bedford Light’s newsroom is scrupulously independent. Only the editors decide what to cover and what to publish. Founders, funders and board members have no influence over editorial content.