CUXHAVEN, Germany — April 22, 2013 — This small city on the North Sea is more than 3,000 miles from New Bedford, but for Whaling City officials trying to build local tourism while luring a new industry to town, the similarities between the two places twinkle with promise.
A bleary-eyed New Bedford trade delegation stumbled off the bus Sunday morning in Cuxhaven, a longtime seaside escape and former fishing hub in northern Germany that has received millions of public dollars from the European Union and state of Lower Saxony to create port infrastructure for the offshore wind industry.
The group, which includes city and state officials, business leaders and professionals involved with workforce development, is visiting Germany as part of a weeklong fact-finding mission focused on offshore wind.
After a sightseeing tour of Cuxhaven on Sunday, New Bedford officials said they were as impressed by the offshore activity as with the seemingly harmonious coexistence of industrial facilities with about eight miles of popular beachfront, including areas of protected environmental lands.
"What I found very interesting was how seemingly well-integrated it is," said Mayor Jon Mitchell, who will sign a "Sister City" agreement with Cuxhaven officials tonight.
"They've been able to accommodate recreation, fishing, cargo and offshore wind very well."
Cuxhaven, which sits on the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River, developed more than 100 years ago as a beach town and many of its historic buildings date to the turn-of-the-century, when it served as a base for the Imperial Navy.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times