Strong Communities

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

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 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."

By Marj Malpiede

One of the many lessons that has come out of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, if not the entire economic downturn, is the need for new thinking in the areas of financial literacy and consumer protection.  As part of new program called Family Financial  Skills, MassINC pulled together a group of experts to discuss what can be done to increase citizen’s education on financial services while addressing the increased risks families are forced to undertake.