Gateways

12/21/20-- 2020 is at last coming to a close, but the damage done this year by the pandemic will be felt for months and years to come. Tracy sits down with Jarred Johnson, executive director at TransitMatters, to talk about what went wrong (and right) this year for transportation in Massachusetts.   Later, Betsy Johnson of WalkBike Springfield drops by to discuss what she describes as an urgent need for investment in the MassDOT Complete Streets Funding Program. The goal of Complete Streets is, as Betsy describes, that "streets and sidewalks should be configured so that they improve the safety, wellbeing, and opportunities for all users — pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.”   Betsy points to her home of Springfield as a Gateway City that would benefit immensely from more funding for projects that make streets safer and more accessible to all. The city has "some of the highest crash intersections and streets in all of the commonwealth of Massachusetts," she says. "And a lot of that goes back to the road designs that came about primarily in the 60s and 70s that now need to be modified.” Betsy describes dangerous areas where pedestrians are forced to cross five lanes to get from point A to point B. And while the pandemic invigorated interest and initiative in opening up streets for dining, walking, and cycling, Betsy says, Gateway Cities like Springfield still need much more state funding to significantly improve the safety and accessibility of their roads.

12/4/20-- In light of recent data from Opportunity Insights which show 37% of small businesses in Massachusetts have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, we are re-sharing Dr. Tracy Corley's conversation with Segun Idowu, executive director of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts from May of this year. In early March, when coronavirus materialized as a real threat to the United States, the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA) sent out a survey asking its roughly 300 members how the rumblings of a global pandemic affected their businesses. 90% of respondents reported experiencing “a somewhat to severe financial impact.” “We can only imagine that that number is at 100% now,” Segun Idowu, executive director of BECMA, told us in May. Also in this episode: From Transactional to Transformative: The Case for Equity in Gateway City Transit-Oriented Development (massinc.org/research/equity-report/)

11/19/20-- This month, the MBTA proposed cuts to transit service in an attempt to close its budget gap induced by COVID-19. Transit advocates and community organizations have been vocal in their objections to the cuts, which would disproportionately impact minority, lower-income, and Gateway City communities. Roseann Bongiovanni is the executive director of GreenRoots Chelsea, a community-based organization with a primary focus on environmental justice. Her organization joined the Transit Is Essential coalition that is urging the MBTA to make no permanent or long-term decisions regarding service, and instead advance affordability for all transit riders. Roseann has witnessed firsthand just how insufficient transit options are already for Chelsea residents, who desperately depend on them. “They're often waiting up to 45 minutes to get on the bus to get into and out of the city. We've heard dozens and dozens and dozens of stories of folks in Chelsea who have been stranded on the 111 or who have been delayed and missed picking up their children. Daycares are calling them, threatening to report them,” she says. Cutting services even further would exacerbate the already dire needs of a community that’s been one of the most hard hit in Massachusetts by the pandemic. Roseann says the pandemic has made life in Chelsea “incredibly difficult.” Data show 80 percent of all workers in Chelsea are in essential positions. Roseann describes the effect of potential transit service cuts as “devastating.” “This is our lifeline to work,” she says, as the luxury of being able to work from home is rarely an option for Chelsea workers. The reduced transit options would be yet another strain placed on the many residents in Chelsea and other Gateway Cities who owe back rent from losing jobs and wages, and face eviction and homelessness. Roseann desperately wants for state and federal leaders to acknowledge the outsized burden cities like Chelsea are shouldering, thank them, and start investing in assistance ranging from food to health to housing and beyond. “You know,” she says, “we can't take on all of the burdens. We can't continue to sacrifice our lives every single day.”

11/5/20-- With the statewide eviction moratorium no longer in place, Gateway City residents face a new threat from the pandemic. In Lawrence, leaders are working together to mount an effective response. Jess Andors and Juan Bonilla from the local CDC, Lawrence Community Works (LCW), take a break from the all-consuming effort to share first-hand perspective. Jess, LCW’s executive director, explains that to understand the gravity of the situation, you have to appreciate how skyrocketing rents in Lawrence led to severe overcrowding before COVID-19 pandemic hit. “Lawrence has a growing population; it’s a magnet for new immigrants. Many Lawrence residents work low-wage jobs and aren’t able to afford the rising rents on their own,” Andors says, and so families begin “doubling and tripling up” with others in apartments. Overcrowding has obvious implications for public health with a disease that spreads quickly in cramped quarters, but it can also make it harder to resolve issues when families get behind on rent. Many vulnerable residents don’t have a direct relationship with their landlord. They aren’t on a lease. Juan, LCW’s deputy director, says the $171 million Governor Baker recently made available to help people remain in their homes is a great resource, but getting the money to the people who need it is challenging. “My concern is the timing of all this,” he tells us. “We are coming on to winter months, we’re in the midst of the school year, and COVID trends are already on the way up. People are going to fall through the cracks,” noting that some residents won’t be able to qualify for rental assistance. And some will move out because “they feel like they have to.” As temperatures drop, this is not the time to kick people on to the street. “We’re creating chaos here,” Juan warns. Fortunately, Lawrence is home to a constellation of nonprofits, businesses, and public officials that know how to join forces and help residents overcome adversity. “I never thought the Columbia Gas disaster would be good for anything,” Jess says, “But it created a community-wide response.”

10/22/20-- With the statewide eviction and foreclosure moratorium meeting its expiration date this week, policymakers and activists alike will spend much of the coming weeks thinking about how to keep housing secure for Massachusetts residents facing financial burdens from the pandemic. While the goal at hand is making sure dwellers can stay in their homes during these rocky times, in some Gateway Cities, there weren't nearly enough low- and moderate-income accessible housing options before the pandemic. This is especially true in Lynn, where a 2016 study commissioned by the city showed just one subsidized unit for every 4.4 low and moderate income households. Jeff Weeden, manager of Lynn Housing and Neighborhood Development (LHAND) told Tracy that the reason behind the imbalance of market-rate and affordable housing began in the early 2000s when there was a push for market-rate development in Gateway City business districts that continued up until the 2008 recession. The economic downturn, Weeden recalled, "showed a problem that affordable housing needed to keep up with that market-rate housing push as well." Even as recently as the last year, however, many Lynn residents and community organizers have found the city's development strategy to be seriously flawed. Isaac Hodes is the director of the volunteer community organization Lynn United For Change. He sees too much emphasis being put on developing luxury buildings that don't cater to the residents currently living in Lynn and instead are built to attract a whiter, wealthier demographic. Hodes mentioned one project in particular, a 10-story tower in the middle of downtown. "There's a lot of fear that beyond the immediate impacts, the indirect impact of that project is going to boost rents in the area and dramatically displace people who already live there.” For decades, planning for the city of Lynn was handled by a patchwork of community organizations, which made it difficult for the city to work toward a cohesive vision. A city of Lynn's size normally employs an official planner. Just this March, the city hired a Principal Planner in Aaron Clausen, who aims to not only increase housing supply in a balanced manner, but open up a dialogue between public agencies and the community. "There’s a deep need to ratchet up the amount of transparency in policy development, public engagement,” Clausen said. The city, in partnership with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), is currently moving forward with a cohesive Housing Production Plan that will, according to its outline, establish strategies to expand and diversify Lynn's housing stock so that it meets current and future needs of Lynners.

10/8/20-- New research from MassINC shows Black and Latinx residents increasingly purchasing homes in unstable Gateway City neighborhoods. After the Great Recession, Massachusetts saw the rate of Black and Latino homebuying in Boston fall drastically, while the rate in which Black and Latino residents bought in Gateway Cities increased proportionally. Ben explains in a conversation with Tracy, “Largely the folks left Boston as renters were priced out, and they took advantage of the opportunity to buy when they moved to Gateway Cities.” While increased homebuying is a good thing, “there are concerns about the stability of our Gateway City neighborhoods because many of them never fully recovered from the foreclosures that burned through during the last economic crisis,” Ben says. The recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic could put pressure on real estate prices, making it difficult for Gateway City homeowners who are disproportionately Black and Latinx to build wealth that can be passed on to future generations. “If we’re really concerned about structural racism and addressing past inequities, neighborhood stabilization investments are something that we’ve got to be very thoughtful about.” Home ownership is one of the two main paths toward building wealth— the other is business ownership. It’s crucial that Gateway City residents have access to opportunities to own homes and become entrepreneurs if they choose. In Worcester, a couple is brand-new to the experience of business ownership, and are making use of community connections and developing their own creative approaches to running a business during the pandemic. Jason and Hannah Vuong opened up a branch of the Gong Cha boba tea store this September. They are now navigating how best to serve their customers in a traditionally community-based atmosphere. The husband-and-wife team first decided to open up a shop after many drives to Boston to get their favorite brand, Gong Cha, which wasn’t available in their hometown of Worcester. “Worcester technically has been up and coming for the last 10 years, but in the last two years it’s shown the biggest strides in development,” Jason said. They decided to take advantage of the emerging market and bring their favorite bubble tea to their city. “We know so many people like us who do the same thing, who just keep going to Boston every weekend to buy this bubble tea.” Since opening in early September, it’s been “trying” to run the shop in the midst of a pandemic. To ensure safety, Jason and Hannah are enforcing guidelines that prohibit indoor seating. “When we don’t have any customers [inside], it’s a little strange having the café vibe we originally intended,” Jason says. But, Hannah says the general public has been very understanding of their decisions made in the name of safety, and customers are incentivized to patronize the shop with promotional programs. Anh Sawyer, the executive director of the Southeast Asian Coalition of Massachusetts (SEACMA), connected Jason and Hannah to resources to help them open up their store. Every day, Anh works with immigrants and refugees from all over the world living in Central Massachusetts. “A lot of them are low-income, and I think the silver lining of being refugees and immigrants is that, in spite of the sufferings, we spring into action promptly to respond to any sudden crisis.” When the pandemic hit, SEACMA shut their doors and went virtual on March 16. That very day, Anh says, they developed a program creating and administering face masks, a food delivery program, and a communications program. In a week, they produced almost 1,000 cloth masks for nursing homes and health care workers who, at the time, were in desperate need for them. “SEACMA was considered the one who did the heavy lifting for the greater community during the pandemic,” Anh says. “And because of that, I have to marvel at the entrepreneurial spirit of Southeast Asians.”

9/23/20-- The 2020 Massachusetts primary election was unlike any we’d ever seen. Months before, legislators and the Secretary of the Commonwealth scrambled to provide a vote-by-mail system. A pre-election survey conducted by The MassINC Polling Group found that 4 in 10 voters planned to vote via mail. When all was said and done, in many cities and towns, the proportion of mail-in voters was far higher. But, according to MassINC Polling Group research director Rich Parr, utilization of mail-in voting and early voting varied wildly town by town. “If you look at the eleven original Gateway Cities, 52% of [votes] were coming in early, compared to 66% of the other cities and towns. So there’s a pretty big gap there.” This is important because low-income and minority communities tend to have lower turnout, especially in primaries. “People had hoped that by allowing people to vote early or mail in their ballots, you reduce the many barriers that low-income people may disproportionately face," said host Ben Forman. Early voting and vote-by-mail opportunities don’t appear to have changed that. Parr said Springfield, Lawrence, Brockton, New Bedford, Holyoke, and Chicopee were all on the very low end in terms of early voting. The socioeconomic divide persists. “The towns that had a higher percentage of voters that had a Bachelor’s degree or higher, that was the thing that most lined up with how much they were voting early.” -- Turnout imbalances that skew the electorate is just one of the many reasons our state legislature doesn't reflect the diversity of Massachusetts residents. Springfield City Councilor Adam Gomez spoke with Ben about how he was able to overcome this challenge to defeat an incumbent state senator in the democratic primary. Gomez said his constituents wanted to see more of their state Senator, and they wanted issues addressed like health disparities and housing. “On housing and health -- the pandemic happened and showed how economically challenged this district was.” Police accountability and the Black Lives Matter movement was also top-of-mind for many voters, Gomez said. And his focus on those issues may have played a part in his victory against incumbent James Welch. “For a very long time I’ve been a part of the BLM movement, and also police accountability. That also played a factor, knowing that [Welch] voted down the qualified immunity amendment.” The Springfield City Council in June filed a resolution in support of the Senate version of the police bill that included an amendment to limit the qualified immunity that protects police officers from civil lawsuits. Gomez shares his story about being arrested at a young age and his plans to champion criminal justice reform alongside health, housing, and police accountability when he joins the state senate next year.

9/9/20--Six months have passed since Governor Baker declared a state of emergency due to the danger of the novel coronavirus. In that time, local leaders have had to react to a number of unprecedented crises—not just in public health, but in unemployment, housing and food insecurity, education, and racial inequality. Data show unequivocally that people of color and Gateway City residents have been hardest hit by the virus and its subsequent burdens on health, housing, education, and overall quality of life. Mayors of these regional cities are on the frontlines, responding to the needs of individuals and navigating a path to economic and social recovery. This week on Gateways, three Gateway City mayors— Mayor Kim Driscoll of Salem, Mayor Dan Rivera of Lawrence, and Mayor Jon Mitchell of New Bedford-- join hosts Ben Forman and Dr. Tracy Corley to share their responses and plans for the future. Mayor Rivera recalls when the magnitude of the coronavirus became clear to him. “Right off the bat, we said, ‘Oh, no. Not something else.’” Crisis response is not entirely new to Rivera and his administration in Lawrence. This week marks the two-year anniversary of the devastating Columbia Gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley. Mayor Driscoll says the first step for her administration was to get a better understanding with what exactly they were dealing with. “We learned a lot, we communicated a lot, we spent a lot of time as colleagues getting expert information that we could then convert into actions at the local level.” Mayor Mitchell says the city of New Bedford had to take the lead dealing with complex issues, such as how you keep a large industrial workforce safe in fish processing facilities. “The state did not have a plan for Southeastern Massachusetts,” he said. “We did it on our own.” Listen as the mayors weigh in on the fallout of the virus on finances, housing, transportation, education, and racial inequity in their cities, and map out their strategies for the future, both near- and long-term.

8/26/20-- Currently, a major transportation bond bill sits before a conference committee in the Massachusetts legislature, and in it are provisions for regional ballot initiatives. If passed, RBIs would give voters across the state the ability to raise funds for transportation investments that improve their communities and develop their regional economies. Our two guests today represent the “before” and “after” of RBIs. Mary Waldron is the executive director of the Old Colony Planning Council in Brockton. Waldron would like for regions like southeastern Massachusetts to be able to take advantage of the autonomy RBIs afford to improve their transportation systems. “Particularly in this pandemic, where resources are no longer available… we really have got to be able to do something local that we’re able to control.” The power of RBIs are playing out all over the country, as evidenced in a conversation Dr. Tracy Corley had back in February. Denny Zane, executive director of Move LA, a transportation advocacy organization, saw the potential of RBIs come to life back in 2008 with the passing of Measure R that created a long-term revenue stream for major transportation projects and improvements in Los Angeles County. He tells Tracy, “the logic of a county-based sales tax measure made a lot of sense” to the people living in the county and experiencing the gridlock. “Everybody saw the problem. Everybody knew the problem,” he explains.

8/12/20-- This week on Gateways, Ben checks in with state Rep. Andy Vargas on the unorthodox end of the legislative session. With the deadline for major policymaking extended from July 31 through the end of the year, Rep. Vargas provides a look back on the session thus far and what’s on the horizon. A police reform bill has not yet been passed, but with the elements currently in conference committees, Vargas is optimistic that it will be resolved soon and is pleased with how it came together. “There’s a commitment from both chambers and the governor to get something done,” he says. Vargas would also like to see an amendment expanding expungement opportunities in the final version of the bill. “If not, we’ll certainly be fighting next session.” One opportunity that Vargas urges school districts not to miss is a federal school nutrition program. The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) provides universal free breakfast and lunch to every student in school districts in low-income areas. Vargas says it’s been a “huge success” in the city of Haverhill where it was implemented. As Ben points out, 97% of Gateway City students attend schools where over 40% of the students are economically disadvantaged. “So basically, every Gateway City student could benefit from this,” Ben says. The deadline to apply for CEP is August 31. --- As school districts across the commonwealth develop and announce reopening plans, parents are grappling with a whole host of anxieties. Some of these stem from what’s been described as a lack of sufficient communication. Two leaders at Massachusetts Parents United, Keri Rodrigues and Natasha Megie-Maddrey, join us to talk about this. Rodrigues, the founder of Massachusetts Parents United and the president of National Parents Union, says that while school districts have held virtual meetings between faculty and parents, “Whether or not they’ve been listening is a horse of a different color.” Some school districts have announced an all-remote start to the school year, which requires a lot of effort on the part of parents, who are turning to fellow community members to form their own systems or “microschools,” wherein families come together, coordinate their schedules, and pool their resources. This form of schooling is getting broader attention now, but “microschools” and “homeschool pods” are nothing new, Rodrigues says. “I know that that’s the fancy way that rich white folks are now calling these things, but this has been what poor Black and brown folks have done forever.” Massachusetts Parents United is encouraging these co-ops by providing $200,000 worth of direct grants to parents and families. In building these community homeschool pods, families are taking the opportunity to customize their childrens’ learning. Grant applications have expressed a desire to adhere to the district’s curriculum but also provide a supplemental Afro-centric curriculum, Latino cultural lessons, Spanish lessons, or music lessons. Others have asked for money to pay for desks or sensory toys, or to hire a special education paraprofessional. The deadline for applications is August 15.

7/28/20-- Access to fresh, healthy, culturally appropriate foods is not a given for all communities across the Commonwealth. And recently, the COVID-19 crisis has spiked rates of hunger in the state and country. Leaders in urban agriculture are working toward ensuring fresh food is within easy reach for Massachusetts residents, no matter where they live in the state. Rose Arruda runs the Urban Agriculture Program at the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. Since 2014, the program has provided funding for urban agriculture endeavors that increase access to fresh and affordable foods for urban residents. The program began in 2014 after farming within city limits was made legal but constituents told the state they needed support in getting their growing projects up and running. The massive demand for urban farming became clear when the $200,000 the program offered was met by $2 million worth of requests. Arruda says the demand came largely from Gateway City residents. Lydia Sisson is the co-founder of a Gateway City urban agriculture program in Lowell called Mill City Grows. Sisson has since left the program but remembers arriving in Lowell, wanting a place to grow food, and finding no community garden. Several of her neighbors who were also looking for an option banded together, and in 2012 Mill City Grows was born. The organization creates community gardens, urban farms, educates farmers, and runs a mobile market. Now, Sisson provides food systems consulting for organizations across the state. Liz O’Gilvie is the director of the Springfield Food Policy Council. She works to address the food access inequities that are present between income and race groups in the Pioneer Valley, and says that the food system is what “started” racism in this country. “It wasn’t a geography question around why we don’t have grocery stores or why we don’t have farmer’s markets. The whole construct is rooted in enslavement of Black people and the removal of indigenous people from land, and in some parts of our country, that was prime agricultural land. The conversations O’Gilvie has at the Springfield Food Policy Council revolve around, “growing enough food to supply the stores so that everybody who’s not growing can still buy what they want, when they want it and when it’s in season,” she says. “And we can grow crops that are culturally relevant to all the people who live here. We don’t all want kale.”

7/14/20--The end of the legislative is near, and this week on Gateways, Tracy and Ben chat about what they would like to see get done. Ben has his eye on the economic development bill that, if passed, would open up opportunities for more affordable housing as well as neighborhood stabilization. Tracy runs through the highlights of the Senate transportation bond bill that will be voted on this week. The bill authorizes significant funding to transform Commuter Rail into a regional rail system through electrification, modernization, and more frequent and reliable service with additional stops and options for Gateway Cities. Two guests stop by to continue the transportation conversation— Jarred Johnson, director of TransitMatters and Brenna Robeson, lead coordinator at Zero Fare WRTA Coalition. Jarred is eager to see the electrification spelled out in the transportation bond bill take place because, as he describes, the communities hardest hit by COVID-19 are those near train lines and highways. He also sees Regional Rail as a boon for economic development in Gateway Cities, with the potential to cement them as go-to places to live and work. Both Brenna and Jarred are advocates for eliminating transit fares. Brenna provides insights on how the Zero Fare WRTA Coalition in Worcester seeks to eliminate fares as a means of boosting ridership, and therefore increasing the city’s livability. The MBTA in response to the pandemic allows for back-door boarding on buses, making rides effectively free. But, Jarred explains about the plan to start charging fares again in late July, “we think that’s entirely the wrong idea. We think that they should be moving towards all-door boarding.” This move, he says, could offer operational savings, reduce crowding, increase frequency and improve safety. Jarred says the $35 million needed to supplement bus fares is, in the grand scheme of things, even considering the pandemic, “not that much,” and describes making local buses free, “a very, very doable endeavor.”

7/7/20--A campaign working to place ranked choice voting (RCV) on the November ballot in Massachusetts recently moved one step closer to their goal. In our MassForward report, we explored the promise of RCV as a reform to achieve more diverse representation in Massachusetts. This week, we re-air a conversation from December between Ben and RCV advocate Howard Fain. They talk about the advantages of selecting city council and school committee members using the ranked-choice approach, and how the equity implications differ from the proposal before voters in November to use RCV for all state and federal races.

6/23/20--When schools closed in March, Gateway City teachers faced the uphill battle of providing remote instruction while students were experiencing the trauma and disruption brought on by COVID-19. With the next school year just a summer away, educators are planning for what could be an even more intense challenge. They will likely have fewer resources to serve families enduring deeper pain from a prolonged economic downturn. City Connects is a collaborative model to help public schools and community agencies provide an array of services that support student well-being. Joan Wasser-Gish, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Boston College's Center for Optimized Student Support, says this coordinated approach to nurturing social-emotional development has always been vital, but its power has become even more evident during the pandemic. “This moment is really emphasizing how critical student support is to the core functioning and purpose of schools. We know that academic learning is impacted far and away by out-of-school factors more so than in-school factors,” says Wasser-Gish. “It feels like in this moment when the disruption caused by COVID is making inequities so palpable, and is lifting the lid on how critical family circumstances really are to children’s readiness to engage in learning, and thrive and have choices in life, this kind of work is something that’s going to become more and more important.” She emphasizes that student support is a top priority when determining what to fund in schools. “As we think about making hard choices around school budgets and school staffing, you must recognize the critical role that student support folks play. It is really a prerequisite to kids being ready to learn.”

6/11/20--This week on Gateways, Tracy and Ben reflect on the lack of diversity in our state's leadership, especially in Gateway Cities which are home to large immigrant populations and communities of color. Plus, a conversation with Bryce Lloyd-Hahn, member of the winning team that took home victory in MassINC's 2020 TTOD Planning and Design Competition.

Listeners, This week has been a heavy one for communities across the country and in our state, but especially so for black communities. Protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement have spread to cities around the U.S., fueled by the rage and grief that come with generations of injustice. As researchers, we know well the systemic racial inequity in health care, education, transit, justice, housing and employment in our Commonwealth and throughout the nation. We are committed to addressing inequities at the state and local level by promoting intentional and well-researched policies, and calling out disparities and injustices as we see them. This week, we will not be releasing our regularly scheduled Gateways podcast. Given the events of the weekend, we are taking the week to regroup, gather resources and to listen to what our communities and networks need from us. Next week, we will be back with tools, solutions and thoughtful research to help begin to rebuild a more equitable and just society.

5/19/20--Small business owners across the state reacted in a variety of ways to Governor Charlie Baker’s reopening plan announced Monday. Many decried the incremental plan, saying it would put them out of business. All small business owners are no doubt hurting, but owners of color have been hit particularly hard—both by the immediate economic impacts of the pandemic and by receiving disproportionately less aid—according to reports. In early March, when coronavirus materialized as a real threat to the United States, the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA) sent out a survey asking its roughly 300 members how the rumblings of a global pandemic affected their businesses. 90% of respondents reported experiencing “a somewhat to severe financial impact.” “We can only imagine that that number is at 100% now,” Segun Idowu, executive director of BECMA, told us last week in an interview. Also in this episode: From Transactional to Transformative: The Case for Equity in Gateway City Transit-Oriented Development (https://massinc.org/research/equity-report/) The Cities We Need (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-us-cities-inequality.html)

5/5/20--This week on Gateways, we examine two obstacles preventing many members of our Commonwealth from accessing what they need during the coronavirus crisis. First, Dan Noyes, co-CEO of Tech Goes Home, describes lessons from his experience working to close the digital divide. His Boston-based nonprofit provides training, devices, and internet access to low-income families, students, and the elderly, who need these tools now more than ever. Next, Helena DaSilva, executive director of the Immigrants Assistance Center, and Eva Millona, CEO of the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, join Ben to share what they hear from members of the immigrant community, who are struggling to access vital information and services. SUBSCRIBE: https://podcasts.apple.com/cg/podcast/gateways/id1439623209 To read the transcript, visit our website: massinc.org.

4/22/20-This week on Gateways we continue to examine innovative Gateway City responses to the COVID-19 challenge.    Tracy talks with Molly Teece, a UMass Lowell student and president and co-founder of the university's 3D printing club. Molly and her club mates haven’t let the school’s closure keep them from 3D printing. With help from a wildly successful donation drive, they are printing face masks, face shields, and ear savers for local hospitals.   For the second segment, Ben is joined by Beth Huang of the Massachusetts Voter Table and Michael Moriarty of OneHolyoke Community Development Corporation. Beth and Michael remind us why it's so important to get an accurate Census count, and describe how they are fashioning new strategies to reach hard-to-count population as the pandemic has made traditional outreach all but impossible.

4/7/2020--Massachusetts' Gateway Cities are home to large numbers of vulnerable populations, including immigrants and people experiencing homelessness. This week on Gateways, Ben talks to experts about why certain populations are even more at risk when it comes to COVID-19, and how Gateway Cities can respond. His first guest, Kristina Kimani, the coalition and advocacy manager for the Massachusetts Public Health Association, shares how public health authorities can keep these communities and the general public connected to the right resources.   His next guest is Jessica Collins, executive director of the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts. Collins' organization serves an especially threatened population, as Springfield suffers some of the highest asthma rates in the country. COVID-19, a disease with upper respiratory symptoms, poses a great danger to this community particularly. Collins also stresses the importance of statewide policies such as decarceration, emergency homeless services, and paid sick leave, during this uncertain time.

This week on Gateways, Ben and Tracy look at how Gateway Cities are responding to the spread of coronavirus. As Ben says, “One of the special things about Gateway Cities is they have, in their DNA, resiliency.” They discuss examples of how cities like Worcester and Fall River are shifting their attention to actions to help the homeless and frontline healthcare and service workers in these unprecedented time. We then hear how Lawrence has risen to the occasion as Ben speaks with Derek Mitchell, founding executive director of the Lawrence Partnership. They discuss how the "Immigrant City" banded together to tackle the 2018 Columbia Gas explosions in Merrimack Valley, when homes and businesses were destroyed. The economic effects of that disaster linger today as coronavirus shutdowns descend on the city. Mitchell emphasizes the power that comes from trusting working relationships between businesses, public officials, and individuals, which helped his community in 2018 and will certainly be of aide as the spread of COVID-19 takes its toll.

3/10/20-- This week on Gateways, Tracy and Ben talk about how to convert Gateway City TOD from transactional to transformative through equity, the subject of an upcoming MassINC report. Tracy and Ben kick off the conversation with an assessment of Governor Charlie Baker's unveiling of An Act Enabling Partnerships for Growth - an economic development bill that promises opportunities for equitable and sustainable growth, especially in Gateway Cities. We then hear from Glynn Lloyd, the director of the Foundation for Business Equity, an organization dedicated to helping Black and Latinx entrepreneurs reach their full growth potential. He joins Tracy to talk about two important elements of his work – connecting entrepreneurs with creative capital and providing smart advice. Gateway Cities represent vast opportunity for small businesses to thrive and for the cities themselves to prosper -- but that requires equity. Glynn and Tracy dig into all of that and more.

This week on Gateways, Tracy is joined by Denny Zane, Executive Director of Move LA. Having lived in Massachusetts, Denny is familiar with the unreliable public transit that Commonwealth riders deal with on a daily basis. He discusses with Tracy how Regional Ballot Initiatives (RBIs) can provide more predictable and reliable revenue streams for long-term projects. Denny knows this from experience: his organization helped raise tens of billions of dollars by passing LA county's Measure R via ballot initiative in 2008. As Bay Staters, especially Gateway City residents, grapple with underfunded public transit and maddening traffic congestion, RBIs offer relief and hope.

2/11/20-- In this episode of Gateways, we visit Holyoke to talk pre-k expansion in the Student Opportunity Act era. Ben speaks with leaders behind Holyoke’s successful pre-k expansion program: Amy O’Leary of Strategies for Children, Steve Huntley of Valley Opportunity Council, and Steve Zrike, Holyoke Public Schools Receiver and Superintendent.

2/4/20-- With the current crisis, many people are seeking alternatives for providing efficient, equitable, and sustainable transport to Massachusetts residents. In no other place is this struggle more apparent than in our Gateway Cities. As part of our Transformative TOD initiative at MassINC, we’re learning lessons from other regions about what’s possible. This week on Gateways, Tracy returns from a visit to Washington, D.C., where she attended the National Conference of Mayors and heard about transportation models far and wide that could potentially serve as something for our Commonwealth to aspire to. The first person Tracy spoke to happened to be a familiar face – Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, who took note of bold action Los Angeles residents have taken, using a regional ballot initiative to reduce crippling road congestion. Then, French politician and former French Minister of Public Works Anne-Marie Idrac, shares a look into France’s public transportation funding system which partly relies on the versemont transport, a regional payroll tax championed by employers. U.S. Conference of Mayors panel on evolving mobility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHWrz1gVMDQ&feature=youtu.be

1/29/20--This week on Gateways, Ben learns about the role of street workers in public health focused youth violence prevention efforts. UTEC’s Geoff Foster, Nichelle Sadler, and Leslie Rivera share their experiences as street workers. With more funding becoming available to provide coordinated services to underserved youth, they explain how the role is evolving, and how UTEC is partnering with community-based organizations across the state to exchange knowledge and improve practices.

1/21/2020-- This week on Gateways, Ben sits down with real estate developer Dave Traggorth of Traggorth Companies, whose developments can be found in multiple Gateway Cities. The two talk about the pros and cons of building near transit, and Dave explains how he uses tools like the Housing Development Incentive Program to get his projects done. Plus, Tracy Corley drops by the studio to talk about even more resources developers can utilize.

1/14/2020-- This week on Gateways, we look at the state of local journalism in Massachusetts. Bruce Mohl, editor of CommonWealth, joins to talk about the struggle many local news outlets face, calling this era of reporting a "low point," and urging private citizens and lawmakers alike to recognize the severity of the situation. Then we talk with two New Bedford residents, Colleen Dawicki and Jacob Miller, who give firsthand accounts of the diminishing news presence in their community. Together they describe how other like-minded folks are coming together to find solutions for New Bedford.

1/7/20: This week on Gateways, we bring you our very first bilingual episode, featuring two Lawrence High School graduates and former Early College ESL students, Elvianna De Jesus and Emeli Diaz. They discuss the ways in which Early College set them up for success, allowing them to earn college credit before even entering college, connecting financial aid resources, and empowering them to seek their full potential.

During the Gateway Cities Innovation Summit & Awards, our host Tracy got to speak with some of the awardees who are working toward realizing all the potential our Gateway Cities offer. Nick Giaquinto served as chief of staff for late Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter. Nick accepted the award on behalf of his boss, who he describes as having been a tireless servant to the city. Rob May reveals the ingredients to his infamous "7-layer dip," a combination of city planning tools and services that function to catalyze growth. Mickey Northcutt of the North Shore Community Development Coalition discusses the evolution happening in Salem's El Punto neighborhood, pointing to the 2017 installment of the Punto Urban Art Museum. Christopher Coes, the keynote speaker at the Awards, remarked on the potential that Massachusetts has to boost up its Gateway cities, urging, "Don't mess this up."

This week on Gateways, we look ahead to the implementation of the Student Opportunity Act. Passed by the legislature in November, the new law will provide Gateway City schools with millions of dollars in additional state aid beginning in 2020. Our guests, John Schneider and Sue Lusi of Mass Insight Education and Research, share thoughts on how schools get the most from these long-awaited resources.

In this episode of Gateways, we take a high-speed journey through the land of ranked-choice voting (RCV). Worcester-native Howie Fain helps us understand how RCV leads to more diverse city councils and school committees. The second installment in our series on electoral reform and innovation, this is a must-listen episode for those interested in the link between leadership, governance, and Gateway City growth and renewal. For a breakdown on how the ranked-choice voting and proportional representation threshold for elections works, our guest Howie Fain provided this explainer: As this example described in the podcast, proportional representation (PR) facilitates minority representation because winning one-ninth of the votes is enough to win one seat on the nine-seat City Council in Cambridge. The threshold is actually calculated as even fewer votes than that, to maximize the number of votes used to actually elect someone. As described on the Cambridge Election Commission’s website, “Any group of voters that number more than one-tenth of the votes cast can be sure of electing at least one member of a nine-member Council, but a majority group of voters can be sure of electing a majority of the Council.” More than one-tenth... to win one of nine seats? The rationale is simple: if nine candidates each have more than one-tenth of the votes, it’s mathematically impossible for a tenth candidate to have as many - why waste any more votes than necessary to elect someone, when those votes might be used to help advance the chances of a similar candidate? It’s the same for the very familiar threshold we know as “majority,” when there’s just one seat to fill: if one candidate has more than one-half (½) of the votes, that candidate is declared the winner, because it’s impossible for another candidate to have as many. As a formula, the threshold equals “one divided by (one more than the number of seats to be filled), plus one vote.” Examples of election threshold applied to various Gateway cities, if they were to adopt RCV for their current at-large seats: • 9 seat at-large City Councils (Haverhill, Fall River, Taunton): 1/10th, plus 1 vote. • 6 seat School Committees (Worcester, Lynn, New Bedford): 1/7th, plus 1 vote. • 3 at-large City Council seats (Methuen, Chelsea, Quincy): 1/4th, plus 1 vote. • 4 at-large City Council seats (Salem, Leominster, Lynn, Pittsfield): 1/5th, plus 1 vote. • 5 at-large City Council seats (Fitchburg, Revere, Peabody): 1/6th, plus 1 vote.

MassINC recently held the Seventh Annual Gateway Cities Innovation Awards & Summit at the DCU Center in Worcester. Today’s episode brings you a highlight from the gathering—the morning keynote delivered by Christopher Coes, Vice President of Land Use and Development at Smart Growth America. Chris masterfully take on the theme of this year’s event with what he calls his “4 Crazy Ideas to Catalyze TOD in Massachusetts.”

A new MassINC-Tisch College of Civic Life report examines the state of leadership and governance in Massachusetts. The groundbreaking study reveals a number of structural challenges, many of which are especially problematic for Gateway Cities. In the coming weeks, Gateways will break these issues down one by one. We begin with Pavel Payano, an at-large city councilor in Lawrence. Pavel talks about the demands on local political leaders in Lawrence and the challenges candidates from the lower-income quarters of a district face competing for the seat. “There’s a lot of barriers. Just looking back at my Senate race, one of the things that I didn’t take into account was the fundraising component and the access to the different power brokers,” he says. Future episodes in this series will explore the role political parties play developing future voters and candidates, the relationship between local news coverage and civic participation, and reforms and innovations to improve representative governance in Gateway Cities. If you have thoughts on how we approach these important topics, please reach out to us with your ideas.

This week on Gateways, Tracy sits down with some of the members of Iluminacion Lawrence, a public - private partnership responsible for lighting up Lawrence. The project’s soft launch in June unveiled the LED light displays artistically illuminating the Casey Bridge and the face of the Ayer Mill Clock Tower. The purpose of these placemaking projects, says Lawrence Community Development Director Vilma Martinez-Dominguez, is to draw both Lawrence residents and visitors alike to the revitalized downtown and entice them to check out the new businesses and help them continue to flourish. Along with Martinez-Dominguez, Tracy is joined by Brad Buschur, Project Director for Groundwork Lawrence, and Karen Ristuben, Program Director of the Creative County Initiative at the Essex County Community Foundation.

In this second installment of MassINC Insights, we hear from the journalists and thought leaders of MassINC about the education funding debate. As lawmakers on Beacon Hill approach agreement on a school finance package, MassINC members dig in to the history of Massachusetts school funding that’s led up to this landmark bill. Plus, a piece of the legislation calls for schools’ accountability for the funding they receive. After the many years MassINC researchers have spent looking into accountability, they discuss the impacts of local, state, and federal accountability through the lens of the debate between the House and Senate.

Last month's hearing on the Gateway Cities legislative caucus' neighborhood stabilization bill sparked a lot of interest. But news coverage mostly dealt with the legislation’s housing tools. The bill also includes provisions to encourage school-centered approaches to neighborhood revitalization. This week on Gateways we explore the role of schools in neighborhood stabilization with Michael Moriarty, executive director of the One Holyoke development corporation and a member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Ben also introduces Ashley Guerra-Agramonte, the newest member of our team. A lifelong Lawrence resident, Ashley begins the episode by sharing her perspective on the topic.

This week on Gateways, we bring you an episode of MassINC Insights, the first installment in a series of conversations with the journalists, researchers, and pollsters of MassINC, The MassINC Polling Group and CommonWealth Magazine. The nonprofit consistently leads the way in producing nonpartisan research and independent reporting that make serious waves in the Bay State. And today, we're pulling back the curtain on the organization, asking our researchers about top-of-mind policy issues like transportation and education, and our journalists about their coverage of them. Get a glimpse into how MassINC operates, and learn what to watch out for and why

On today’s episode of Gateways, we wrap up a three-part series exploring the power of Early College High Schools. This final installment looks at how Early Colleges contribute to regional economic development efforts by helping high school students pursue pathways that lead to good jobs in growing industries. At the North Central Massachusetts Early College Summit in Leominster, Ben speaks with Roy Nascimento, President and CEO of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, and Glenn Eaton, Executive Director of the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission. Then, he sits down with Springfield Technical Community College President John Cook to hear about a new Early College partnership with Springfield High School of Commerce. While this is the last episode in our series, we’ve got more Early College research coming soon and plan to bring you more stories from leaders in the field over the coming year. Stay tuned!

Today on Gateways, Ben sits down with Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes. They talk about how policing has changed over time and unpack the department’s adoption of what's known as the Hub model. Developed in Canada, the approach emphasizes early intervention through collaborative effort with community agencies. Chelsea adopted the Hub model five years ago. Chief Kyes describes how it’s been a force multiplier for Chelsea.

This week on Gateways, we give you Tracy Corley’s live conversation with entrepreneur Luis Gonsalves during the October 2nd Entrepreneurship For All Leadership Summit in Lowell. Luis is an alum of New Bedford High, the US military, and EforAll, which gave him the tools to thrive in the competitive restaurant industry. A health food aficionado with a passion for barbering, Luis, alongside his wife Stacy, run multiple operations. Three Shear Genius barbershops and a Ms. Shear Genius salon dot the Fall River landscape, and his restaurant featuring nutritious options, Juice’d Café, has expanded to three locations: its flagship in Fall River, plus a storefront in both New Bedford and Newport, Rhode Island. The two discuss Luis’ entrepreneurial journey, running businesses in the community he’s a member of, as well as what the future holds for his businesses, especially considering the imminent arrival of South Coast Rail. Give us your feedback! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BFZDY26

On this bonus episode of Gateways, we continue the conversation on federal Opportunity Zones legislation. Last episode, our guests broke down what Opportunity Funds can do and pointed out areas where they are failing the highest-need communities in our Commonwealth. In today's show, Tracy speaks with Rob Corley, Joe Kriesberg, and Steve Teasdale, all Gateway City leaders, who sound off on regional cities' efforts to spur economic growth equitably.

When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was unveiled in 2017, much of the national attention was trained on the debate between Republicans and Democrats over whether the cuts disproportionately helped the rich. Woven in the tax code, however, a federal initiative known as Opportunity Zones promised to incentivized development and job creation in distressed communities. Further inspection by the New York Times revealed that the tax break hasn’t yet yielded much benefit for the most distressed census tracts. Instead, Opportunity Funds have been funneled to the more prosperous neighborhoods that were poised to receive investment anyway. Does this mean that Opportunity Zones are producing state and local investments in places where they’re needed the least? Join Karen Kelleher, Executive Director of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC Boston) and Elijah Plymesser, director of LOCUS Massachusetts as they break down the good, the bad, and the ugly of Opportunity Zones for our host, Dr. Tracy Corley, in this week’s episode.

This week on Gateways, Ben Forman talks with Rep. Antonio Cabral, chair of the Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus, about the state legislature's rollout of a long awaited education funding bill. The bill, known as the Student Opportunity Act, would provide school districts that have high percentages of low-income students and English language learners with significantly more resources. Rep. Cabral says this bill presents an opportunity to finally level the playing field between Gateway Cities students and their peers in higher-income cities and towns. While he sees room for improvement and tweaks, specifically on the issue of charter school funding, the New Bedford representative is optimistic. "It's a game changer, really," he says.

MassINC recently published a report on fare equity that confirmed what most of us already know: the lowest-wealth Commonwealth residents pay more of their incomes to get around the state than wealthier folks. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the MBTA’s commuter rail network, a public investment many moderate- and low-income Gateway City taxpayers cannot afford. Joining Tracy and Ben on this week’s episode to talk about how commuter rail fares exacerbate inequities is Lee Matsueda, co-executive director of Community Labor United. He has noticed legislators are starting to acknowledge that much more needs to be done to make public transportation environmentally sound and accessible to all. Lee also emphasizes that regional transit authorities should have the same assurances as the MBTA, given Gateway Cities’ reliance on them for local mobility. Lee, Ben, and Tracy also ask, what do we actually mean when we say 'fare equity'? And what does all this mean for transit-oriented development? Massachusetts division of Community Labor United: http://massclu.org/ MassINC Fare Equity policy brief: https://2gaiae1lifzt2tsfgr2vil6c-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Fare-Equity-Policy-Brief.pdf

This week on Gateways, Ben and Juana sit down with Mayor Dan Rivera. Mayor Rivera gives us a behind-the-scenes look at efforts to help the police department become more representative of Lawrence’s diverse population. We hear about the challenges, how they overcame them, and the public safety victories an increasingly diverse department is achieving.

Traffic congestion in Massachusetts has reached crisis proportions. And while some leaders and officials assure it’s a “symptom of success,” that explanation offers little solace to Bay Staters stuck in mind-numbing traffic everyday. To top it off, gas and diesel-burning cars, trucks, and trains dominate greenhouse gas emissions in our state. This week on Gateways, Jordan Stutt, the Acadia Center’s Carbon Programs Director, and Sen. Eric Lesser of the First Hampden and Hampshire district join Tracy to talk about how they’re addressing this problem. They discuss a bill co-filed by the Senator and House Rep. Lori Ehrlich to promote clean, reliable, and equitable transportation through the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). This regional collaboration of 12 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states plus the District of Columbia promises to reduce pollution and carbon emissions through a cap-and-invest trust fund. By targeting all TCI revenues to statewide transportation-related projects, TCI could generate billions of dollars for innovations and improvements that will ease traffic, reduce emissions, and improve mobility for people without adding smog- and congestion-producing vehicles to the roads and rails that crisscross our Gateway Cities. TCI: https://www.transportationandclimate.org/ About House Bill 3008: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59a826e0579fb39e3ef33c2f/t/5c9a4d5c4e17b614a5797328/1553616220168/FS-+TCI+Black+and+White.pdf State congestion report: https://www.mass.gov/service-details/congestion-in-the-commonwealth-2019

This week on Gateways, Juana and Ben chat with guest Hannah Parker about the importance of high standards in education. Hannah recently graduated from KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate, where she said she was shaped by the rigorous courses and high standards. But as she progressed through school and spoke with fellow students of color, she and her peers came to believe staff and administrators should put equally high standards on themselves. Namely, students felt administrators could do more to recruit and retain teachers of color and increase cultural competency throughout the school community. Hannah talks about her experience as a student of color being taught by mostly white teachers, and the steps she and her peers took to speak up and facilitate positive change at KIPP.

When the state budget passed last month, it included provisions that better equip community corrections centers to provide re-entry services. This week on Gateways, Ben sits down with Vin Lorenti, Director of Community Corrections at the Massachusetts Probation Service. We hear about the new role community corrections centers can play in innovative efforts to increase public safety in Gateway City neighborhoods.

In this episode of Gateways, Tracy is once again in the Merrimack Valley, this time exploring how small business development programs are shaping transit-oriented development. She starts in Lowell, where the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub has served as an incubator for budding tech companies. Andrew Shapiro of the City of Lowell discusses how Caide Systems and Peroxygen, two startups, have found permanent homes near the Gallagher Transportation Center. Also, Tracy speaks with Lianna Kushi of EforAll, a business accelerator program. They discuss how technical assistance and mentorship can bring vibrant businesses to vacant storefronts in downtowns and transit-oriented districts. We then hear from four of the 14 entrepreneurs in the 2019 Lowell-Lawrence Summer Accelerator: Sing Thanousith of Hop Sing in Town, Virgilio Velazco of Foodega (formerly known as Spoon and Pork), Jennifer Flores of Jennifer the Traveling Stylist, Karen Vasso of Neighbor's Acre Farm, and Tim Crowley of OurCards.

In this episode of Gateways, Tracy takes us to Haverhill where we hear how a farmers market has transformed personal and public health through food, fun, and community connections. Market founder Jeff Grassie and Nate Robertson of the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission walk us through the market and describe how they turned one produce vendor into a weekly downtown marketplace in an under-used parking deck just a 10-minute walk from the Haverhill train station. We also hear from market-goers and meet Christine Fusco of Anna Jacques Hospital, who shares how the hospital's sponsorship of the farmers market is helping fight substance use disorders and the opioid epidemic.