MassINC and the Brookings Institution made a splash this week with a report that paints a bleak picture of what it terms “gateway cities” – former mill cities – that the authors conclude are lagging far behind Boston in making the transition from the manufacturing economy of the 20th century to the “knowledge economy” of the 21st.
“Reconnecting Massachusetts Gateway Cities” focuses on Worcester, Brockton, Fall River, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, Pittsfield and Springfield – all former mill cities, but hardly the homogeneous group the report’s authors seem to imagine.