Holding the line on Gateway Cities designation

Holding the line on Gateway Cities designation

EVERY FEW YEARS, a lively discussion breaks out at the State House about what, exactly, makes a Gateway City. As the founder of the Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus in 2008, I take the question very seriously. The term, coined by MassINC in a 2007 report, originally identified 11 “traditional mill cities” across the Commonwealth that had been regional economic hubs but faced a wave of deindustrialization and social challenges. When the definiti…