The Gateway Cities Vision for Dynamic Community-Wide Learning Systems

Ben Forman, Julianne Viola and Caroline Koch

Developed collaboratively with Gateway City mayors, managers, and education leaders, this vision highlights effective new models to prepare students for the changing economy and ensure an adequate supply of skilled workers for growing regional economies across the Commonwealth. The Vision also calls for strategies that leverage the educational assets of our urban centers so that read more

Topic(s): Education, Gateway Cities

Crime, Cost, and Consequences

Is it Time to Get Smart on Crime?

Ben Forman and John Larivee

As the title suggests, the report calls into question Massachusetts’s current approach to corrections, which favors long prison stays at the expense of treatment, reentry programming, and post-release supervision. Without a change in course, the report concludes that Massachusetts will spend more than $2 billion over the next decade on corrections policies and practices that read more

Topic(s): Criminal Justice

Reinventing Transit

A Blueprint for Investing in Regional Transportation Authorities for Strong Gateway City Economies

Ben Forman and Catherine Tumber

Transportation networks provide the backbone for economic development in regions across the state. Public transit is an important component of these networks, increasing access to jobs, housing, and services. Leaders on Beacon Hill are considering transportation investments with the potential to shape the Commonwealth’s physical and economic landscape for generations to come. State funding for read more

Topic(s): Economic Development, Transportation, Gateway Cities

Transformative Redevelopment

Strategic State Policy for Gateway City Growth and Renewal

Alan Mallach, Ben Forman and Margaret Keaveny

Transformative redevelopment describes public and private financial support for projects that catalyze significant follow-on private investment, leading over time to the transformation of an entire downtown or urban neighborhood. This approach seeks to repair weak real estate markets where development costs outweigh returns, creating a gap that impedes the flow of private investment; it contrasts read more

Topic(s): Jobs and Economic Security, Strong Communities, Economic Development, Gateway Cities

Building Vibrancy

Creative Placemaking Strategies for Gateway City Growth and Renewal

Ben Forman and Tyler Creighton

The struggle Gateway Cities have endured in recent years obscures their untapped potential in an economy that increasingly puts a premium on attractive, authentic, and livable communities. This has not been lost on a new generation of artists and cultural entrepreneurs, who are finding inspired ways to reinvent our Gateway Cities through creative placemaking. At read more

Topic(s): Economic Development, Gateway Cities, Creative Placemaking

Rising to the Challenge

Assessing the Massachusetts Response to Climate Change

Ben Forman, Val Stori, soniahamel and warrenleon

MassINC is proud to present Rising to the Challenge, the first independent assessment of state action on climate change since the precedent-setting Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008. Climate change is the challenge of our age. For the obvious reason – failing to respond could alter the environment with profound and dire consequences – but read more

Topic(s): Government Accountability, Environment

Recapturing the American Dream

Meeting the Challenges of the Bay State's Lost Decade

Andy Sum, Mykhaylo Trub'skyy, Ishwar Khatiwada, Sheila Palma and Joseph McLaughlin

This joint project with the Center for Labor Market Studies was made possible by the generous support of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Partners Health Care. More so than any previous report, this research sheds light on the economic well-being of workers at a moment when public attention is hyper-focused on policymaking to read more

Topic(s): Education, Jobs and Economic Security, Economic Development

Creative Places

Public Perceptions of Arts, Culture, and Economic Development in Gateway Cities

John Schneider and Steve Koczela

This poll was commissioned by MassINC as part of a newly-funded initiative to create a leadership network around the role of the arts in the economic revitalization of Gateway Cities, a strategy the National Endowment for the Arts calls “creative placemaking.” The survey, given to 600 registered voters among the eleven Gateway Cities, informs that read more

Topic(s): Economic Development, Gateway Cities, Creative Placemaking, Public Opinion

MassINC’s Middle Class Index

Ben Forman, Steve Koczela, Caroline Koch and Robert David Sullivan

The first-of-its-kind Middle Class Index is designed to serve as a barometer of the status of middle class residents. Composed of 26 different indicators, the overall score for Massachusetts in 2010 was 97.4, down 2.6 points from the benchmark figure of 100 for the year 2000. Nationally, the index number was 94.2. The index number read more

Topic(s): Education, Jobs and Economic Security, Economic Development, Government Accountability

Moving Forward with Funding

New strategies to support transportation and balanced regional economic growth

Ben Forman, Daniel Darcy and James Emilio

Difficult economic times have created a host of challenges for Massachusetts. Among them, the financial shortfalls of the state’s transportation agencies place high on the list. The MBTA is considering fare hikes and service cuts; even with these actions, real questions remain about how the agency will close gaps and keep the aging system operating read more

Topic(s): Economic Development, Transportation

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