lawrence, with an anemic tax base and the state’s highest poverty rate, is no stranger to the usual litany of urban woes facing struggling cities. But Lawrence’s problems suddenly became the state’s problems last year when city found itself teetering on the fiscal brink. With Lawrence sinking under the weight of a $24.5 million budget […]
Gateway Cities
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Hampden County justice
The Globe’s Yvonne Abraham gives Hampden County Sheriff Mike Ashe some much-deserved attention today in this great column. Ashe’s reform-minded approach to corrections landed him — and his brother and partner in (anti-)crime Jay — on the cover of CommonWealth 10 years ago this summer. Click here to read Neil Miller’s lengthy look at the unlikely […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
The Download: Presidential campaign idol
The just-concluded Conservative Political Action Conference marks the unofficial start of the presidential campaign season, and the months ahead will be full of fundraising, speechifying and quiet outreach. That’s the old model for running for president, anyway: Raise a ton of money, create an aura of inevitability (or at least possibility), and use both to […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
The Download: Pondering patronage
Former Senate president Billy Bulger practiced the trade with such abandon that MBTA was said to stand for “Mr. Bulger’s Transportation Authority,” an only partially tongue-in-cheek reference that seemed to make him beam, not cringe. One of his Senate president successors, Robert Travaglini, spoke of it as something more akin a solemn duty when he […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Turnaround artist
Lisa Wong became a rising superstar in Massachusetts politics the moment she trounced a veteran Fitchburg city councilor and catapulted into the mayor’s office at age 28. The wonky daughter of Chinese immigrants, a woman with a short résumé and no previous political experience, was suddenly on everyone’s must-meet list. She was invited to join […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Economy, The Download
Will creativity gild the road to growth in Gateway City economies?
At a recent roundtable with leaders from across the state, we learned how Massachusetts discovered the value in “creative economy” economic development well before Richard Florida popularized the concept with his 2002 book Rise of the Creative Class. Gateway Cities working to stage a comeback have benefited greatly from the state’s trailblazing work, and many […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
What Gateway Cities need to do to attract biotech firms
Gateway Cities officials today got a roadmap for attracting biotech companies from an executive of a company that moved to Massachusetts from Connecticut two years ago. Robert Cunningham, vice president of RainDance Technologies, told officials from the 12 Gateway Cities that they need to have one point person for companies to work with and they need to work […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Calling for reform and progress in the Commonwealth’s Gateway Cities
Last week’s hearing on charter school legislation drew large crowds to Beacon Hill and demonstrated the energy surrounding the topic of education reform in Massachusetts. Another hearing of great importance will take place next week at the State House. On Wednesday morning the Joint Committee on Revenue assembles to review the Gateway Cities economic development […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Do small businesses in Gateway Cities have adequate access to credit?
By Benjamin Forman and Lynn Sanders Small business development is a central strategy for growth and renewal in the Commonwealth’s former mill cities, but there are real reasons to be concerned that young companies have trouble obtaining the financing they need to grow. Even before the current financial crisis led to unprecedented credit-tightening, a decade […]