It was 10 years ago that MassINC launched its Gateway Cities initiative with a report documenting the challenges — and huge opportunities — in the state’s once vibrant industrial cities. “Massachusetts’ proud, old manufacturing cities must be counted, on balance, as distressed,” it said. Yet, concluded the report, “For the first time in decades, these […]
Gateway Cities
Posted inThe Download
Courting the PawSox
Two suitors are still wooing the Pawtucket Red Sox, and the style of courtship couldn’t be any different. Rhode Island’s approach is loud and raucous. The state’s Senate Finance Committee is holding seven public hearings on the $71 million legislative proposal, and the first one lasted 7 hours and 10 minutes, wrapping up at 1:10 […]
Posted inThe Download
Grateful for the generals
A hallmark of American democracy has always been that a civilian, the president, is the ultimate commander in chief of the armed forces. It is perhaps the strongest signal we send that ours is a system of laws and representative government, not a military-ruled regime. What, then, to make of the fact that many people […]
Posted inThe Download
Trump’s disruptive power
Donald Trump signed 42 executive orders in his first 200 days as president. By comparison, Barack Obama, who Trump criticized for signing too many, averaged 35 executive orders a year during his two terms as president. His other two predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, averaged 24 and 25 executive orders, respectively, during their […]
Posted inThe Download
Here’s the Diehl
Geoff Diehl made it official last night by formally announcing his Republican run against US Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Somebody pass Charlie Baker the antacids. The Whitman state rep mixed his kickoff speech with sports references and denunciations of Warren as a soft-on-immigration, big-government enemy of the people. Diehl was a co-chairman of President Trump’s campaign […]
Posted inThe Download
On to the next ballot questions
Now that last year’s final ballot-approved law is in place (Gov. Charlie Baker signed the legislatively amended marijuana bill into law on Friday), Beacon Hill is gearing up for the next round of ballot initiatives to be placed in front of voters in November 2018. It looks like the top issues being championed are all […]
Posted inPolitics
Lawrence’s Rivera facing tough reelection fight
Photographs by Meghan Moore THE MARCHERS PLOD ALONG, wearing matching maroon shirts and holding campaign signs, fronted by the candidate himself, Mayor Daniel Rivera, who waves to onlookers, his gut hanging over pressed khakis. It’s not a very enthusiastic display in a parade that features, by turns, synchronized Latin dancing, beauty queens in chiffon, and […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Why Lowell is torn over new high school
MEETINGS OF THE LOWELL CITY COUNCIL are typically sparsely attended affairs, characterized by amicable discussions among councilors and unanimous votes. This has all changed in recent weeks, as the city grapples with whether to rebuild its sole public high school at the downtown site it’s occupied nearly since the city’s founding or to build a […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, Transportation
Where the food deserts are
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE CHELSEA, SPRINGFIELD, AND TAUNTON top a new list of cities with the highest percentage of low-income residents lacking access to grocery stores, a problem with nutrition ramifications that is most acute in rural areas and so-called Gateway Cities, according to new data. In low-income areas where there is limited grocery store […]
Posted inEconomy
Holyoke’s mayor isn’t afraid of pot
Photographs by Mark Morelli OUTSIDE HOLYOKE CITY HALL is a stone fountain that once gurgled with water, offering a more wholesome substitute for alcohol to “a thirsty humanity,” as the inscription reads. Erected in 1901, the monument was one of several put up by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union around the country as part of […]