Announcements of a report (PDF) released today by MassINC and the Brookings Institution hit the newspapers in slightly different fashions. The Boston Globe, in an article by Sarah Schweitzer, interprets the report, which focuses on eleven Massachusetts cities, as viewing those cities as "at risk of slipping further," while the Springfield Republican calls it an assessment of the "drain on cities." The Berkshire Eagle‘s report sees "growth lagging in mill cities." The South Coast’s Standard-Times calls the state’s "secondary" cities "neglected by Beacon Hill." From the Globe article:
The municipalities—dubbed "gateway cities"—are at risk of falling further behind Boston, according to the MassINC report, as they struggle to attract high-tech and other innovative industries because of shortages of trained workers, limited transportation systems, and patchy broadband access.
The Wall Street Journal headlines the report as a signal for hope of some kind. From the differently-titled article (subscription), "Steering Mill Towns Closer to Tech-Boom Riches," by Thaddeus Herrick:
[N]ow those once-thriving manufacturing centers are being touted as an answer to the dark side of Boston’s success: congested highways and workers who can no longer afford to live there.
Glass half-full, half-empty sort of thing going on here? Shall we mourn and weep, or is there something to celebrate? Are the droves stampeding from Boston to the Pioneer Valley yet? Apparently not, as we gateway city Massachusetts types aren’t looking to welcome them: we’re too busy moping.
Michael McAuliffe’s Republican article mentions the undersung (and apparently underimitated) work of officials in the greater Springfield region to connect to Hartford:
[MassINC interim president and CEO John] Schneider said that Springfield, whose finances are being overseen by the Finance Control Board and has been the focus of a long probe into municipal corruption that resulted in more than 30 convictions, is beginning to rebound. "You’re seeing stabilization in that community," Schneider said.
The report, in calling for communities to work together, also noted that Springfield has engaged with Hartford in an effort to improve the economy along the Interstate 91 corridor. "No Massachusetts Gateway City… has placed more emphasis on developing its ties to a nearby larger metropolis than Springfield," the report states.
As for the report itself, there are three major strategies recommended. From MassINC:
Fix the basics. Massachusetts should assure a more consistent flow of local aid dollars to the Gateway Cities in exchange for increased accountability, transparency, and efficiency in local expenditures and service provision. In addition, the state, local, and private sectors should collaborate to turn “deal breakers” in the real-estate development regulatory process into “deal makers.”
Build the middle-class workforce of tomorrow. The Commonwealth should step up education and training in the Gateway Cities by redoubling efforts at urban school reform and boosting the education and language skills of the adult workforce. At the same time, multiple sectors need to focus on bolstering family assets to generate community wealth.
Create new economic connections for the 21st century. The state and the municipalities should harness Gateway City colleges to spark local economic development. New connections—whether the physical links of rail, the electronic links of the internet, or the intergovernmental links of cross-boundary collaboration—should be developed to foster improved economic competitiveness among regions.
In addition, the report "concludes that Massachusetts needs to catalyze a major new state-local partnership to reconnect these cities and overcome the problems that hold them back." I seem to recall a recent Pioneer Institute working paper (PDF) saying something similar. But surely the details of the recommended approaches for state-local partnership vary somewhat between these two reports? Let’s hope someone at the state level has these documents open for comparison on his or her desk. It would help if city officials could become quick experts on the advice, too, in order to have a role in the discussion.
One might start by reading quickly through the eleven city profiles—starting with Springfield‘s (PDF), of course—to see how they compare to one another, and to Boston, on several factors. For example, less than one in six adults in Springfield holds a bachelor’s degree:
At just 15.4 percent, the share of Springfield’s 25-and-older population that holds at least a bachelor’s degree trails Greater Boston’s 41.6 percent figure by more than 25 percentage points. Even Springfield’s regional mark of 24.6 percent is just more than half of Greater Boston’s attainment rate.
And Springfield’s housing prices are "relatively affordable" even while they rapidly appreciate:
From 2000 to 2005, real median home prices in the City of Springfield rose a remarkable 70 percent—almost double Greater Boston’s 37 percent increase. Yet even with the rapid appreciation, the median home price of $143,000 in Springfield remains much more affordable than the $429,000 price tag in Greater Boston.
Living in the same state with Boston is a little like having an older sibling who always gets all the attention, and there’s really nothing we can do about it.
Trying to "be like" Boston—or compete with it somehow—is potentially a fruitless exercise. Springfield, and other cities in its category, whether gateway or middle, will do well to discover their own identities.
If Springfield is the shy teenage girl, and the control board is the braces straightening our beautiful but terribly crooked teeth, and it’s giving us a new prescription for contact lenses so we can see better without those cruddy glasses we’ve had for so long, then maybe our success is partly a matter of being patient with and kind to ourselves for a little while longer before expecting the kind of positive change and improved self-image many of us hope and long for.
Update: WBUR released a podcast report today by business and technology reporter Curt Nickish, "Mill Cities Could Mend Boston," with some interesting sound clips related to the MassINC/Brookings report release.
Update: In an interesting quote from the Wall Street Journal article, economist Joseph Cortright says that none of the towns examined is "closer than a 30-minute drive from Boston. ‘Once you’re beyond 20 minutes, it doesn’t matter if you’re a mill town or India,’ he says." The article cites him as wondering "whether such towns will ever share in the spoils of the state’s technology boom, given the cluster phenomenon."
