Gateway Cities

It’s a new year, and annual census figures for US cities were recently released. MassINC has combed through these numbers to provide a fresh look at the state of the state’s Gateway Cities. This analysis reveals a sharp dichotomy. Gateway Cities are fairing well economically. Most are gaining population and most have recovered the jobs lost in the Great Recession. But as is often the case with cities, residents don’t always do as well economically as the urban economy in their midst.

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 Ben Forman

A new study by the Brookings Institution argues that today’s manufacturers are increasingly small, specialized firms hidden in plain sight in American’s urban areas.

By John Schneider

The current edition of MassINC’s CommonWealth magazine features several items related to the Gateway Cities.  If you want to learn more about the state of affairs in Lawrence—including the city’s embattled mayor—check out Gabrielle Gurley’s feature story “Lawrence on the mat.”  Also, Robert Fishman, real estate partner at Nutter McClennen & Fish, LLP, describes the financing deal for the Quincy Center project.  He says the deal, “among the most complicated documents with which I have been involved during more than 30 years of real estate practice,” might just be the “creative solution” needed to move projects in the Gateway Cities forward today.  Finally, Lowell resident John Schneider puts his own Gateway Cities spin on a review of Ed Glaeser’s book, Triumph of the City.

By John Schneider

Secretary of Education Paul Reville is quoted in today’s Boston Globe story about underperforming schools, “It’s a lot of hard work ahead.  There are no magical cures.”  We agree, and with 71 percent of Gateway City students attending a level 3 or 4 school, and with 23 underperforming schools in a Gateway City—10 in Springfield alone—we have no time to lose.

By John Schneider

The Brookings Institution has released its latest analysis of metropolitan economies and Massachusetts is one of fifteen states where the bulk of economic output comes from one metropolitan region. 

Forum explores local cultural institutions as catalysts for creative economy growth

By Ben Forman

John Schneider

Smith and Wesson has received a $6 million state tax credit to add 225 jobs to its plant in Springfield.  Meanwhile, local officials in Pittsfield are sitting on pins and needles to see if federal funding is coming their way for components of a defense project to be built in their city resulting in 500 or so new jobs (looks likely).  It’s looking like a white Christmas for folks in Western Massachusetts.

By Ben Forman

The Colonial Theater had been dark for over 50 years when the City of Pittsfield bet that bringing it back to life would make a bold statement about the community’s future. We met recently with leaders from the across Western Massachusetts to learn about what Pittsfield has achieved since successfully reopening the theater in 2006, and how that could be applied to other Gateway Cities and regions looking to grow the creative economy.

By Ben Forman

I participated yesterday in a forum on the connection between housing and the economy held by the Home Builders Association of Massachusetts. The event marked the release of a report demonstrating the large net revenues residential construction provides for state and local governments.

By Ben Forman

Last Friday was one of those gorgeous spring days meant for venturing out. Instead of following my normal routine (getting on the T and riding east), I got into the car and drove west on the turnpike to the historic city of Holyoke.

By Mary Beth Meehan

American cities don’t die; they change. Global forces push and pull – industries move and take their jobs with them, economies shift focus, wars around the globe drive people from their homes – and our hometowns struggle to keep their balance.

An interview with Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, New England Council of Carpenters 

"To understand what’s ahead for the American worker, you have to look back on what’s been happening in this country for the last three decades. From my years in the labor movement and certainly in my lifetime, I’ve watched us become a different kind of society with a different set of values. Over the last 30 years, there has been an unprecedented growth in income inequality.  Eighty percent of Americans have seen their wages diminish or stagnate.  Now it takes two wage earners in a family to make the equivalent of what one used to earn. Not only is this alarming on its own but it represents a dramatic turn in a society that was on a trajectory to greater parity after World War II."