New Bedford Getting $224K Grant for Downtown Improvements
NEW BEDFORD New Bedford is receiving just over $224,000 in funding to help bring people back to the downtown area as the COVID-19 pandemic hopefully continues to wane.
The funding comes from the Baker-Polito Administration’s Shared Winter Streets and Spaces program, which doled out $2.8 million in the fourth round of funding to 17 municipalities.
Senator Mark Montigny worked to secure the funding for New Bedford in the amount of $224,224 to help bolster downtown dining, shopping, and arts and cultural programming. The money will be used to install lighting, wayfinding, and other placemaking elements in order to encourage a return to downtown.
I have to admit that I really didn t have a grasp on what a ghost kitchen was until a couple of weeks ago. I had heard the term floated around over the past few months but really didn t know what it meant.
To me, ghost kitchens sounded like the equivalent of underground college rave parties, but they are actually a little more common than you might think, and they make perfect sense, especially during the pandemic.
Basically, a ghost kitchen is a restaurant that doesn t have any foot traffic to a brick-and-mortar location. Customers will utilize services like Uber Eats, Door Dash and Got Chew to have food delivered to their home or work. They ll place the orders online, the food is cooked up at a (sometimes) undisclosed location, and the food is delivered. There is no dine-in option; sometimes, there is take-out but not always. This approach can dramatically save on overhead costs, which can make or break restaurants during the pandemic.