The Senate makes bold investment in regional transit

The Gateway Cities Journal

Inadequate public transportation has long been a shared concern for Gateway City leaders across the state. Many of their residents are simply trapped on nights and weekends, when bus service is either extremely infrequent or entirely unavailable. This has serious implications for individual health and wellbeing. It also reduces the available workforce, and regional economic

Amendment to House budget seeks to untap Gateway City housing reservoir

The Gateway Cities Journal

The House Ways & Means Committee unveiled its FY24 budget and an accompanying tax package last week. The pair of bills call for investing more than $1 billion to respond to the state’s housing crisis. This is roughly double the state’s annual housing spend pre-COVID. Unfortunately, the House departed from the Healey administration and left

K.I.S.S Early College and HDIP

The Gateway Cities Journal

Economic development strategies are most likely to succeed when their logic is clear and simple, so that communities embrace the plan, and pursue it with laser focus long enough for it to work. This is playing out with Early College and HDIP. Gateway City leaders have spent years working to operationalize these programs. In March,

Governor Healey’s budget invests in Gateway Cities

The Gateway Cities Journal

Our last journal offered thoughts on how Governor Healey can position Gateway Cities to thrive in this post-pandemic era by increasing the Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP), investing in regional transit, and lowering commuter rail fares. Now that the administration has unveiled its first budget, our readers will want to know, how did they do?

Massachusetts has a plan to increase affordable housing — now it needs the budget

Gateway City mayors and managers' opinion piece in the Boston Globe

The Housing Development Incentive Program is a powerful tool to jump-start additional housing development that contains a mix of market-rate and affordable units based on project agreements negotiated by local government. With families scrambling for homes and prices at record levels, one might wonder why Massachusetts continues to produce just a fraction of the housing

Gov. Healey can make a bold statement with HDIP, commuter rail fares, and RTA funding in FY24 budget

The Gateway Cities Journal

Governor Healey’s first budget will provide the opening look at the administration’s policy priorities. This glimpse comes at what is almost certainly a defining moment for Massachusetts. After a long string of success, the state’s economy faces serious peril, brought on by a potent combination of the COVID-19 shock, regulation inhibiting housing production, and systemic

Three Ideas to Boost Gateway Cities’ Housing Production

Ben Forman featured in Banker & Tradesman

January 29, 2023 SUBARBS ARE getting the lion’s share of the blame for Massachusetts’ colossal failure to produce housing. While their overtly exclusionary practices certainly merit a stronger response, myopically focusing on restrictive suburban zoning distracts from an equally pressing problem – the lack of residential investment in Gateway Cities.  The commonwealth’s regional urban centers

Event Recap | The Time is Now: Ending the College Affordability Crisis in Massachusetts

On Wednesday, January 25th, MassINC, uAspire, One Goal, Bottom Line, and The Education Trust hosted a forum on the future of public higher education finance in Massachusetts. The hybrid event brought together more than 200 education practitioners, policymakers, and leaders for a timely dialogue on how Massachusetts deploys Question One funding to increase college access
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