Gateways

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.