Massachusetts' Gateway Cities to Nowhere

Apparently, Massachusetts has 24 “Gateway Cities”, including Fitchburg, Pittsfield, and Springfield. As Gateways Cities, the State has spent hundreds of millions ($247 million on housing alone) to “revitalize these gateways. Which begs the question: gateways to what?


We need to accept the fact that some cities will never recover their former standing whether as industrial centers, mill towns, or fishing ports regardless of how much taxpayer money is spent attempting to do so. Over time, functions of all cities change relative to each other. Springfield was founded as an armory because British ships could not navigate up the Connecticut River. While its role as a major maker of munitions did lead to a thriving small machine tool industrial town, it has been on the decline for decades. No amount of money is going to bring Springfield back, and I emphasize back, to its past heydays. And there is really no functional objective that Springfield currently offers locationally that justifies continued subsidies.

Fitchburg was one of the nation’s leading centers of furniture production. I need say no more.

Perhaps some of the Massachusetts “Gateway Cities” have futures in a new economy. But spending millions of dollars on imaginary revitalization is an exercise in fantasy, an invitation to patronage, and an enormous waste of capital in a state whose trains don’t run on times and whose school systems are crumbling.

If we are going to put money into true growth cities, we should put it into those cities that are currently successful and thriving. This may sound counterintuitive but it is the success of these cities that will pull the train of success for the entire state.