NEW BEDFORD — Continuing a city initiative to curb panhandling and other pedestrian use of medians on busy roads, city workers installed Belgian blocks at a 45-degree angle Monday and Tuesday in the Route 6 median near Route 140.

The project divided city councilors when the Mitchell administration launched it at a different intersection last year. Some called it inhumane, while others supported it.

The edges of the blocks face upward to make standing on them difficult and discourage people from panhandling in the median while cars are stopped at the lights.

On Monday and Tuesday, a crew from the Department of Public Infrastructure extended an existing section of blocks near Route 140 westward toward the Dartmouth line.

Jonathan Carvalho, a spokesman for New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, said the mayor has acknowledged from the start that he wanted to reduce pedestrian activity in the medians.

“It’s not a place that’s safe for anyone to walk. It’s a state highway,” Carvalho said.

The intersection ranked No. 3 on a list of the region's most dangerous crash locations in 2010, according to the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District.

City Councilor Scott Lima, who represents Ward 5, where the latest work took place, said he supports the angled blocks both for pedestrian safety and to encourage the public to donate to social service agencies that benefit people who are homeless or in need, rather than giving on the street.

Signs at some New Bedford intersections popular with panhandlers encourage people to “change the way you give” and donate to Rise Up for Homes, a city-sponsored campaign that raises money for the city’s cold-weather overflow shelter for the homeless.

According to the Mitchell administration, the extension of the section near Route 140 represents the completion of an existing plan for that spot, not a decision to make it larger.

In 2018, City Councilor Hugh Dunn, who represents Ward 3, drafted a letter to Mitchell signed by Councilors Maria Giesta and Ian Abreu, in which he said the arrangement of the blocks was “dangerous and malicious” and did nothing to address the social issues behind panhandling.

Dunn said by email Tuesday that he was saddened, but not surprised, to see more blocks installed.

"The city should be working hard to end homelessness, poverty, addiction, and to support those with mental illness," he said. "These are the causes of the behavior."

Dunn said the stones are not effective and move vulnerable people from one curb to the next at public expense.

"They stand on the spiked stones and continue to beg. This is a morally visionless approach to starting our new term in city government," he said.

City Council President Joseph Lopes and Councilor-at-large Brian Gomes said they support the placing of the angled stones.

An intersection in Lopes’ ward, Ward 6, has some of the stones, and they have minimized panhandling there, he said.

“The council has been collectively working for at least six years to address panhandling,” he said.

Gomes said he has suggested to the mayor that the city add no-maintenance planters and lettering that says something like “Welcome to New Bedford” or “Welcome to the West End,” depending on the location.

“It was done to protect, not to hurt,” he said of the angled blocks.

Belgian blocks, sometimes called “cobblestones” after their more rounded cousins, are rectangular paving blocks cut from natural stone.