Dear Friends:

Last week you received an email inviting you to join us for the Third Annual Gateway Cities Innovation Institute Awards. We love hosting this event. When the greater Gateway City community comes together to celebrate their collective achievements, we breath in the positive energy, filling our lungs for another year of hard work. The annual awards luncheon is also critical to our efforts in pure financial terms.

This is the one occasion where we ask communities to help support all of the work that we do on their behalf.

For nearly a decade, MassINC has been fighting for Gateway Cities. Each day we strive to better understand the unique needs and opportunities of these vital communities so that we can serve as a powerful champion for them. This requires resources. While we have received generous philanthropic support in the past, as you know too well, foundation interests and priorities change. We will only continue on with this work so long as we can remain true to Gateway Cities and their interests. To be steady in our service, we need your support.

I deeply appreciate that there are many needs and worthy causes in your own communities and not enough dollars to go around, so it is with great hesitancy that I ask you to contribute financially to our organization. I feel good making this request only because I am certain that it will provide true value. From the many state dollars that have been targeted to your communities to the federal grants that we have helped you win, I am confident that our Gateway City partners will only further their interest by contributing to MassINC.

In this spirit, I ask you to please encourage leaders in your city to purchase a ticket and join us on November 17th. If you can, ask a business or an organization in your community to become a sponsor and do their part to underwrite work that will surely provide great benefits to their community and businesses over time.

Thank you again for your continued partnership. We hope to see you in November!

Sincerely,

Benjamin Forman

Gateway Cities Events 

Police chiefs, mayors, and Attorney General Maura Healey gathered yesterday for a summit to discuss public safety and various criminal justice issues facing the Gateway Cities. 

Housing & Economic Development

Lowell issues an RFQ for a Hamilton Canal developer.

A Boston condominium developer is selected to convert the old Salem District Court building into condos.

Worcester residents favor an athletic complex at the abandoned Wyman-Gordon property.

Worcester officials are open to discussing a stadium deal with the Pawtucket Red Sox. 

The owner of the Wollaston Theater in Quincy says he will tear down the landmark building after this winter’s heavy snow left it structurally unsound.

Following the outline of last week’s lead, Matt Wilson calls on Governor Baker to pursue arts-based economic development in Gateway Cities in a Boston Globe op-ed.

Sen. Marc Pacheco joins a delegation visiting Denmark to explore the economic development potential of offshore wind.

Brookings blogs about how Etsy could strengthen urban manufacturing.

Education

North Shore Community College holds a groundbreaking for a 37,000-square-foot addition in Lynn. 

Business West profiles Holyoke Public Schools receiver Stephen Zrike.

Governor Baker appoints Holyoke resident Michael Moriarty to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The Lawrence School Committee, powerless with a state receiver in charge of the schools, has dwindled to just three members, alarming officials who worry that the committee won’t be ready when the receiver returns the schools to city control.

Worcester officials hope to curb a school choice exodus with a marketing campaign.

Politics/Governance

Incumbent Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter and former City Councilor Chris MacMillan will compete in the general election in November after finishing 1-2 in the preliminary elections earlier this week.

City Councilor Jasiel Correia II attracts 47 percent of the total votes cast while incumbent Mayor Sam Sutter garners 41 percent in the preliminary election for the next mayor of Fall River.

In Fitchburg, the race to fill Mayor Lisa Wong’s seat will be between State Rep. Stephen DiNatale and attorney Andrew Couture.

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse wants to see a positive campaign as he fights off a challenger standing between him and reelection.

New Boston Post ventures out to New Bedford to examine Mayor Mitchell’s track record.

Communities & People

Brockton’s own Mary Waldron, a longtime Gateway City leader, heads to Washington, D.C, after receiving an invitation to the White House welcoming reception for Pope Francis from Secretary of State John Kerry.

LZ Nunn, a Gateway City leader for whom readers of this journal have great admiration, makes a triumphant return to Lowell to run Project Learn.

David Panagore, another iconic Gateway City leader, takes the lead of another historic Bay State community and immediately gets immersed in creative placemaking.

Janis Akerstrom, Pittsfield‘s new Community Development director, hits the ground running.

Transportation

Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty urges officials to look beyond the Green Line extension to commuter rail woes.

Senate President Stanley Rosenberg tells Worcester officials he favors high-speed rail service to their city. 

Casinos

The developer of the proposed Brockton casino predicts court challenges will bog down the Mashpee Wampanoag’s planned gambling resort in Taunton despite last week’s federal ruling allowing the tribe to take land in trust.