INCSpot

Republished here from CommonWealth magazine's Fall 2011 Editor's Note.

By Bruce Mohl

In 1996, the first issue of CommonWealth magazine featured a cover story on the changing economics of middle-class life in Massachusetts. The story focused on Heritage Road in Billerica, where the residents were doing reasonably well but having some doubts about the promise of the American Dream.

By John Schneider

Creative placemaking is highly collaborative work requiring active public/private partnerships to marshal the resources, will, and energy to change a street, neighborhood, or city.  State and local governments need to work with artists, entrepreneurs, and community and business leaders to advance successful projects.  Creative placemaking requires broad community support, especially from the voters who not only determine the outcomes of elections, but the public agenda that follows.

By John Schneider

There’s something very appealing about downtown Holyoke. The city has some great old buildings and public spaces, it was the birthplace of volleyball, and has one of the niftiest city halls you’ll see anywhere. Locals say that their city hall’s clock tower was built high enough so that folks in Boston 100 miles to the east would see it. Holyoke was an early example of a planned industrial city and the paper industry flourished there, providing good jobs to immigrant families settling in Western Massachusetts. However in recent years, like Gateway Cities throughout Massachusetts, the city has seen its share of hard times. More than 26% of the city’s population live below the poverty line making it the poorest city in Massachusetts and one of the poorest small cities in the nation.

By John Schneider

Walking around downtown with a city’s mayor, you get to know pretty quickly how things are going.  For Jim Ruberto, the four-term mayor of the Gateway City of Pittsfield, MA, things are looking up.  It’s been a pretty good summer for the city and you hear that from shop owners and constituents you meet along the way, and see it in the vibrant store fronts and public art displays along the city’s main street.

By John Schneider

It takes a lot of “mojo” to help smaller industrial cities turn things around.  For 11 mill cities in Massachusetts, what we at MassINC call the Gateway Cities, sparking economic and social innovation often requires thinking out of the box.  That’s where creative placemaking can help local leaders think about their communities in new ways and shape the character of a community around arts and cultural activities.

Have you checked your “diversity density” lately? Coined by former MassINC colleague Robert Sullivan, diversity density is an indicator of not only of the range of diversity in a city bit also the likelihood that city residents actually encounter each other around town.

Concentrated poverty is a big problem for many urban communities, including a number of the state’s Gateway Cities. Studies show that concentrating poor families in neighborhoods with other extremely low-income residents magnifies the negative effects of poverty. Crime, high school dropout rates, teen pregnancy rates, and substance abuse are all higher than they would otherwise be when poverty is highly concentrated in a neighborhood.

Research from Andy Sum and Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies documents the important connection between holding down a job in high school and attachment to the labor force in later years. Professor Sum’s research tells us that high Gateway City teen unemployment rates could have economic consequences that persist well into the future. Budget makers have been struggling to preserve the programs that these communities need to give high school students employment opportunities. Here’s a quick summary of three youth job programs and their funding prospects for the new fiscal year.

By Ben Forman

New research by the Brookings Institution adds to our understanding of immigrants in Gateway City regions. The report looks at the balance between low-skill (those without a high school degree or equivalent) and high-skill immigrants (those with a BA or higher) in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas.

By Caroline Koch

In today’s economy, many working families earn wages at or near the poverty threshold. Supporting these families with traditional anti-poverty strategies, which focus on increasing income, is unrealistic given the current budget picture. Another more economical approach is emerging that involves helping these working families build assets, such as an education, a business, savings, or a home.