[Ex-Ithacan]

Not a lot, but here's some pics of Fall River on an october day in '04 (pop~94,000). The city has a large percentage of people of Portuguese heritage.

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Hope You Enjoyed.

 

[ROCguy]

BAM!!!!!! (Emril lives here)

 

[xzmattzx]

i like the view of their harbor/river from the i-195 bridge. i haven't been through the city in about 10 years since that was the last time i drove up to cape cod (relatives up there), but i remember a small lighthouse and a wooden ship docked. fall river seemed to me to look like a great small coastal new england city.

 

[BuffCity]

I have been here, pretty cool place and the city has class.

Love the old buildingsl, the castle like structure really stands out.


what about Wood's Hole? lol

 

[blink55184]

No pictures of the war ships?!

 

[Ex-Ithacan]

@ ROC Guy - I didn't know he was from there, might have had a celebrity sighting :wink2:

@ Matt - I tried to get a pic while crossing that bridge, but it didn't turn out.

@ BuffCity - I'm not going near the Wood's Hole comment. :runaway:

@ blink - Only war ship I recall from the trip (though I may have gotten one in Maine) was in New London, CT (in an earlier thread). here ya go:

btw, thanks for the replies guys.

 

[SoBoChris]

You can't show Fall River without showing Lizzie Borden's house! Do you have a pic of that?

 

[blink55184]

I believe one navy war ship and one navy submarine are permantly docked there, and you can take tours. There is a museum for them as well.

 

[Ex-Ithacan]

You can't show Fall River without showing Lizzie Borden's house! Do you have a pic of that?

I was too afraid to go near it, and my parole officer told me not to.
:runaway:


@ blink - Sorry I missed those. I spent 4 years in the Navy, so that would have been nice to see. Maybe next time.

 

[bayviews]

More interesting pictures from another old Massachusetts milltown.

Along the old whaling port of New Bedford, Fall River co-anchors southeastern MA. Both are about the same size. Fall River seems to have a more dramatic setting.

Its true, both rival each other as the most Portuguese cities in the US. Last big wave of Azorean immigration occured in the 1960s & '70s. So the local mix is more Luso than Latino. More recently Fall River has attracted significant numbers of Brazilian immigrants as well as other immigrants relocating outward from Boston.

So the various migration waves have helped to stabilized the Fall River's population at about 93,000 in recent decades.

 

[DUBAI10000]

I lived in Fall River for 10 years and trust me when I say it's not a nice place. Fall River for a city with 85,000 people has a tremendous amount of crime however the cities metrop area also has the highest suicide rates and heroin addiction rates in America. Fall River has good classic architecture and has great topography with a massive river running right through it. However people ruined the city. Right now in 2015 Fall River is basically a crime ridden waste land. Not to mention the poverty level. Fall rivers average citizens salary is only 20,000 compared to Massachusetts 35,000 average. Less than half the people that go to high school graduate and the college acceptance rates are lower than 10 percent.

 

[Shawn]

^--- We have two pairs of old industry cities north and south of Boston, and with each pair, one member has done amazing things over the past ~15 years while the other still languishes.

To the north, we have two of the original North American mill cities: Lowell and Lawrence. To the south, we have the two original whaling cities: New Bedford and Fall River. Lowell has managed to turn itself into an attractive, more affordable bohemian alternative to Boston, while Lawrence might still be in state receivership for all I know. New Bedford has done great things with their cobble-stone downtown, and it's booming restaurant scene is reminiscent of a Portuguese Portland ME. Fall River, on the other hand, is Lawrence-by-Buzzards-Bay: still a pit, still trying to figure out what its charm point might be.

 

[Beccaaa]

Fall River is a misunderstood gem of a town. We went there a few years ago to stay at the Lizzie Borden B&B. My partner at the time didn't like it at all, but I found it to be an interesting post-industrial town. I know it gets a bad rep from some of the residents there, but it was nowhere near as scary as they made it out to be. If I can find the pics I took, I'll upload them here.

 

[boss-ton]

Trust me when I say this, if you are just passing through to see some tourist destinations and then leave a few days later you have no idea what it really is like there. People aren't crazy most of these old cities in mass are riddled with heroin use and crime. People are not really getting murdered in these cities. They are dying in huge numbers from drug abuse and committing crimes that wont so much make the papers like a bank robbery but more like stealing from family members and people they know which does not get reported but is all to feed drug habits. What is going on under the surface it is some very bad stuff that is kind of in the shadows unless you live there. Having lived in Worcester I can tell you it is one of the grimiest places I have ever been but its not so much dangerous to a passerby as it is to someone who lives in the community. In a nutshell its just a bunch of drug addicts robbing and stealing from each other and their community and then overdosing multiple times before they eventually die. There is gun crime but its not something that you are going to run into very often unlike seeing a junkie nodded off against a building or somebody shooting up at a gas station with their kids in the back seat- you will see this every day. I know of at least 20 people I grew up with who have died from heroin use and many more either in jail or constantly going back to jail between drug and crime binges.

 

[DUBAI10000]

^^^ Yes, Boss-Ton knows exactly what I am talking about. I grew up in Fall River, the waterfront looks very nice from the bridge and from a helicopter but when your actually there its disgusting. Highways under construction, crack heads everywhere and the majority of the people in the city are poor and crime-dwellers. Only the Highlands are decent. The rest of the city is a complete shit-hole. My uncle is a police officer there and you don't want to here the stories he tells me. Fall River is also one of the most dangerous cities in Massachusetts and New England. I'm not making this up, this week my friend (not a druggy, law abiding) was robbed by someone with a box cutter. This is only the tip of the iceberg. However I do agree with you, Fall River looks quite nice from the highway. I recommend not visiting Fall River. If you look it up on Google other options such as "fall RIver Ghetto" and Fall River Crime are the very first suggestions.