Secretary of State William Galvin is sitting on millions of dollars in tax credits designed to spur the economic development of historic buildings across the state. Despite the severe economic […]
Gateway Cities
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
New Bedford heading south again?
Steve Urbon of the Standard-Times has a succinct but awfully bleak assessment of how New Bedford is doing in the current recession. Opening sentence:Unemployment has hung like a dark cloud […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
“ArchitectureBoston” covers Gateway Cities
ArchitectureBoston, the quarterly published by the Boston Society of Architects, devotes its Summer 2009 issue to one of MassINC's favorite topics, the 11 Gateway Cities of Massachusetts. As editor Elizabeth […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Data matters, and not just in math class
At Community Day Charter School in Lawrence, data rules. Founded in 1995, the K-8 school boasts that it has closed the achievement gap between Hispanic students and white students — […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Haverhill City Council prefers to live at-large
Haverhill gets into the debate over at-large versus district city councilors, but change doesn't seem to be in the air. The Eagle-Tribune's Shawn Regan reports that most of the current nine at-large […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Historic mill on the chopping block in New Bedford
New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang wants to tear down the 187,000-square-foot Fairhaven Mills building, but local preservationists aren't convinced. According to SouthCoastToday.com's Joe Cohen, a developer interested in the site […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Green opportunities for Gateway Cities
Will vacant land end up saving the economies of Lawrence and New Bedford? Catherine Tumber writes in the Boston Review that smaller cities that were once industrial centers (such as the Gateway […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Rethinking the Gateway Cities: A talk and photo exhibit at Smith College
MassINC executive vice president John Schneider will be one of four panelists at "Rethinking Decline: New Perspectives on Massachusetts Gateway Cities," which begins at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 24, […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Choosing between cops and library books in Springfield
The quote of the day, from Urban Compass: "I had to choose between keeping police on the streets, and books” — Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno Sarno announced the layoffs of […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Better know a Massachusetts district, thanks to Google Maps
The Electoral Map discovers a fun (for political geeks) way to use Google Maps: "walking" through congressional districts using the Street View feature. What would you see if you visited […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
Worcester’s trial balloon: Tax dorm rooms
Like almost every other Massachusetts municipality, Worcester is starved for revenue, and one city councilor has come up with a new source of tax dollars. From the Worcester Telegram’s Lisa […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Springfield budget cuts hit 311 phone line and CitiStat program
There's a widespread belief (or hope) that tough times can offer a "golden opportunity" for government reform, but things may not be working out that way in Springfield. Urban Compass […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Tough negotiations with firefighters’ union forecast in Haverhill
Here's another example of municipal officials trying to save money vs. public sector workers trying (like everyone else) to preserve their incomes in a tough economy. From the Eagle-Tribune's Shawn […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
New Bedford city councilors are not “complementary” potted plants
City politics in Boston are still pretty quiet, but there's plenty of bad blood in New Bedford, according to SouthCoastToday's Jack Spillane: Mayor [Scott] Lang recently described the council as existing […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Worcester wants struggling artists
Despite the bad economy, Worcester is apparently proceeding apace in its bid to become a magnet for the creative class (or, in Michigan lingo, a cool city). The Daily Worcesteria […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Download
New Bedford gets shout-out from the New Yorker
If you're not a New Yorker subscriber, you might have missed the use of New Bedford as a backdrop (complete with a cameo by Mayor Scott Lang) in Elizabeth Kolbert's profile of Green […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
US mayors ask for a jump-start from Congress
The US Conference of Mayors is asking for $24.4 billion from Congress to fund "ready-to-go" infrastructure projects — meaning projects that, theoretically, can be started and completed within calendar year […]
Posted inPolitics
A Newspaper Grows in Holyoke
HOLYOKE–Mary Signet’s afternoons felt empty after the daily Transcript-Telegram newspaper folded three years ago. She would climb the stairs to her home in Holyoke’s Highlands after teaching grammar school all […]