South Coast (Massachusetts)

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The South Coast of Massachusetts is the region of southeastern Massachusetts consisting of southern Bristol and Plymouth counties bordering Buzzards Bay, and includes the cities of Fall River and New Bedford and nearby towns. The term is recent, dating to the 1990s, and sometimes confused with the South Shore (a region southeast of Boston that includes Norfolk, Northern Bristol and eastern Plymouth counties).

1 Economy
2 Transportation
3 Media
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Economy

The "South Coast" label was born as a public relations effort to counteract the perceived stigma of former terms like "Greater New Bedford" or "New Bedford-Fall River," which conjured images, in many Massachusetts residents' minds, of depressed mill towns with run-down buildings and high unemployment. Local boosters, including The Standard-Times newspaper, began using the term in the mid-1990s in an effort to attract business to an area with "the Cape's climate," "better infrastructure" and "relatively low land prices," according to Standard-Times publisher William Kennedy.^[1]

[edit] Transportation

The major highways through the area are Interstate 195 (from Providence to Wareham, Massachusetts) and U.S. Route 6, which is the older route connecting Providence to Cape Cod. Highway access to Boston is provided by Route 24 and Route 79, both of which end in Fall River, and Route 140 which connects New Bedford to Route 24 in Taunton. Limited public transportation is provided by the MBTA and the Greater Attleboro Regional Transit Authority. There is a proposal to connect Fall River to Boston via commuter rail, but it has not yet been approved.

The South Coast is home to Massachusetts' longest bridge, the Charles M. Braga, Jr. Bridge, which connects I-195 from Somerset to Fall River.

[edit] Media

The term "South Coast" reportedly began with weather forecasts by Todd Gross on WHDH-TV in Boston. New Bedford's local daily newspaper, The Standard-Times, picked it up in the late 1990s, and other media have followed suit, albeit not without some protest by longtime area residents who protested the manufactured name.^[1]

Other newspapers serving the area include The Herald News of Fall River; "The Standard Times" with an online entertainment subsidiary "southcoast247" of New Bedford; the Taunton Daily Gazette; The Providence Journal; and, for regional coverage, The Boston Globe and Boston Herald. Much of the broadcast media in the area is local to metropolitan Providence and Boston.

WBSM 1420 AM serves as the premier news and talk radio station for the Southcoast.