OPINION: “New Bedford’s Clasky Common Park has become a depressing, run down, shadow of its former self”

“It is with great sadness that I again observe the holiday displays return to Common/Clasky park in New Bedfords West end. Not because I dislike color lights or Christmas, just the opposite, because I love them.

Unfortunately for those of us who love the holidays, lights and celebration, Clasky has become a depressing, run down, shadow of its former self.

For years now the displays have been showing their age, the lights have been missing from their sockets and the gears and cranks have been visible through the fabric of animatronic clothing. For years now, despite these issues, the display is returned to the same location unrepaired and worse each year.

It’s a sad and depressing statement about how something once enjoyed and appreciated by the entire city can become run down due to neglect. I would like to see a project spearheaded to not only repair the Clasky display but reinvigorate it and improve it. Leave it down for a year during the process to do it right.

Perhaps the students at the vocational high school who were instrumental in creating the display could rally to the cause again! New Bedfords Clasky display has been a joy for generations. Let’s not allow it to sink into the ground forever.” -William Joseph.

Christmas lights are out for the annual Festival of Lights at Clasky Common Park in New Bedford. Photo by Josh Souza/New Bedford Guide.