a year ago, i wrote a blog about the time it would take for  the first homicide in the city to occur.  in 2007 the first one was in august of that year, in 2008 it happened a lot sooner on the 1st of january.  what would this year bring?  well obvoiusily the news cant be good because i am blogging about it.  the first homicide this year happened on the 4th of january.  there is something troubling about a city that is not what most would call a big city, having a new year start off with a homicide two years in a row.   it's hard to read about the city you live or work in such a bad light so early into the new year.  and of course because of the way my mind works, i got to thinking about this:
for those who may live outside the state line of massachusetts, let me explain a little something about new bedford.  do a google search on new bedford and you will find one word is synonymous with new bedford-whaling.  in years past new bedford was one of the wealtiest cities in america, on par with Newport Rhode Island and as financially as powerful as wall street is today ( well minus the stock crisis.)   as a history buff, it is incredible for me to think that the last of the wooden whaling vessels sailed out of the new bedford harbor in 1921.  but whaling declined and the city turned to textiles for its economic recovery.  that only lasted a few decades and new bedford became a economically challenged city. 

now i know there is no link to whaling and our homicide rate, but it is nice to know that even though this city does have occasional bed news it is still a great city to live and work in.  and for me it got me thinking, it does not really matter if the first homicide in on january 1st or december 31st, the city still had a homicide.  i am not foolish enough to believe that there will never be any more homicides in the city but it is a little harder to start the year on a positive note when it happens so early. 
and as for the other ramblings- our office just had a yankee swap for Christmas gift giving.  The gift i received was a great book on the history of WHALE, a preservation group in New Bedford and all they have done since their inception in the 60's.  if anyone really wants to learn about a great american little city that hit it peak in the 1800's, declined from the 1960's to the late 90's and is slowly rising again, check out this website from the National Park Service- http://www.nps.gov/nebe/