A perfect storm of long-held resentments, the well-known story of the financial crunch squeezing small towns across the state, and an act of blameless chance — weather — is raising the stakes and stoking new tensions between these sparse towns and the powers that be in state government.Â
Central Massachusetts
Posted inOpinion
Towns surrounding the Quabbin Reservoir protect the water for 2.7 million people in Eastern Mass. They’re getting financially starved in the process.
The state’s payments in lieu of taxes system treats Quabbin land as nearly worthless. In reality, it’s the most valuable land in Massachusetts: Without it, more than 2.7 million people across Eastern Massachusetts — 40 percent of the state’s population — would have no water.
Posted inGateway Cities
The Dean of Massachusetts mayors
After more than 32 years in office, Dean Mazzarella has become the longest serving mayor in Massachusetts history, managing to transform the city, limit his list of enemies, and remain an ever-present, zealous leader. Despite an electoral touch other officials would die for, he comes off far more as affable everyman than calculating politician, which could be why he has endured politically for so many years.
Posted inCourts
Should a community be able to reject a solar project to protect its trees? The SJC wades into the controversy in central Mass.
The justices appeared to be grappling with the genuine desire of a community to protect its character with the limited authority of localities to stall development. Â
Posted inEducation
Worcester pilot program provides early childhood educators with rent-free space to start their businesses
The Family Childcare Success Project, formed in partnership by the Guild of St. Agnes and the Seven Hills Foundation, launched a new family child care incubator — only the third of its kind in the nation — meant to provide more child care slots while making it easier for early educators to get their start.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Wu and Rooney on collision course, again
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce chief Jim Rooney are cruising toward another political fight that could strain their sometimes-friendly, sometimes-cool relationship. Over the course of the past week, Wu came out in support of a rent control ballot question, while Rooney’s organization joined the real estate-led campaign seeking to defeat the measure.
Posted inHousing
Ed Augustus becomes eighth member of Healey’s Cabinet to depart
Housing Secretary Ed Augustus will step down next week to take over a Central Massachusetts bank, and the governor picked former HUD official — and onetime MassINC chief operating officer — Juana Matias to succeed him.
Posted inGateway Cities
Our top five Gateway Cities stories of 2025
This year, CommonWealth Beacon ramped up its coverage of Massachusetts’ former industrial cities by adding a new Gateway Cities reporter role in its newsroom. Our reporting in 2025 shed light on major policy issues both new and old that have rattled cities like Holyoke, Leominster, and Lynn.Â
Posted inHealth Care
State audit claims 2023 maternity unit closure in Leominster was preventable
The issue appears to be a spat about accounting records, but it highlights the struggles health providers had during the height of the first COVID waves, when frontline medical personnel were stretched thin, and how the business of health care has made it increasingly difficult to deliver services like maternity care across the state.
Posted inHealth Care
Red lights on the way to health care
When hospitals close, communities reel. Even in well-covered Massachusetts, some regions of the state still struggle to access its nation-leading health care. And after decades of hospital consolidation, the system is staring down federal changes likely to make the hard job of providing care for underserved communities even more challenging.
Posted inHousing
Over 10 years in the making: Fitchburg cuts the ribbon on affordable housing project for artists
The city of Fitchburg has finally cut the ribbon on a nearly 13-year affordable housing project for artists. The post-industrial era city that suffered from the long-term decline of manufacturing has embraced arts and culture as a way to restore its standing as a vibrant hub of North-Central Massachusetts.
Posted inThe Codcast
Can Mass. turn the health care crisis around?
John McDonough and Paul Hattis welcome Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, to discuss the primary care crisis and a troubling federal landscape. Dickson lays out a grim picture of health care in Massachusetts if the state and federal trajectory does not change.
Posted inEducation
70 percent of Mass. infants live in child care deserts, according to state data
Enrollment differences between regions, student age groups, and income levels paint a picture of a system struggling to meet potential demand and that is most available to those at the highest income brackets.
Posted inHousing
Towns gear up after auditor declares MBTA Communities law an ‘unfunded mandate’
After the state auditor handed down a determination that the MBTA Communities multi-family housing law is an unfunded mandate, towns are either scrambling to figure out next steps or racing right to the courthouse.
Posted inTransportation
Political headwinds, talk of competitiveness kept new taxes out of transportation task force discussions
Task force members, generally pleased with the final report and Gov. Healey’s plan as a first step, acknowledge there is still a lot of track ahead and new revenue options will need to be dealt with in the future.
Posted inOpinion
Leave none of the Steward hospitals behind
We have been told that the state lacks the means to intervene in the closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center. If true, the state must do everything else it can invest in the health of the community and not just to put a temporary Band-Aid on the situation.
Posted inPolitics
An opportunity for the GOP in Central Massachusetts
This story has been updated to incorporate the results of the October 10 primary. THE HEADLINES AFTER the 2022 state election did not look good for the Massachusetts Republican Party. […]
Posted inOpinion
What our ‘anchor mission’ means for central Mass.
EARLIER THIS YEAR, UMass Memorial Health, the largest health care system in central Massachusetts, welcomed Harrington Hospital in Southbridge into its family. A merger of a community hospital into a […]