Gateways

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.