[bwanab]

The old housing stock certainly supports the notion that it was very wealthy at one point. NB reminds me of Troy, NY - another small but very wealthy city that fell on hard times when its main industries left. The presence of RPI seems to be helping Troy experience a bit of a renaissance. Hopefully, the new MBTA commuter rail connection will be a shot in the arm for New Bedford.

[potato3732842]

While places like Lawrence, Springfield and New Bedford peaked when their local industries were booming money printers none of the outer Massachusetts cities really fell on the chronic "hard times" they're generally subject to now until the 1970s/1980s when shifting economic and regulatory circumstances finally killed the last of the industrial/manufacturing economic activity that had been sustaining them.

Lowell is a great analogy to Troy since it has UMass Lowell to pump it full of money and it's arguably the least crappy of the "not Boston" cities in MA.