Middle Cities Initiative

Consistently tracking objective, verifiable data, then using the information to craft solutions to difficult public policy problems is the centerpiece of the Middle Cities Initiative.

’The Middle Cities’ are what we call Massachusetts' historic industrial centers: Brockton, Chicopee, Fall River, Fitchburg, Holyoke, Lawrence, Leominster, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford, Pittsfield, Springfield, Taunton and Worcester.

Click the video above to hear the latest news on Pioneer's Middle Cities Initiative

Back in 2007, in our report on Rehabbing Urban Redevelopment, we recommended that the state create benchmarks for city performance in education, economic development, public safety and fiscal management. That data could then inform the state’s strategic plan for revitalizing the cities. Pioneer is now committed to collecting that data and creating a system for benchmarking local performance to help the state and cities.

Our goal is to help our cities improve performance in delivering key services. In this way, we believe our Middle Cities can continue to be the engines of economic growth that they have been throughout their histories.

How does it work?

The Middle Cities Initiative will be conducted through two primary vehicles:

Middle City Mayors’ Coalition
Mayors and managers of the cities will meet quarterly to talk about education, economic development, public safety, and fiscal management and share their practices and experience, review data and hear about research on urban policy.

Local Citizen Advisory Committees
Pioneer, in partnership with the Worcester Regional Research Bureau (WRRB), will organize citizen advisory committees in each participating Middle City to discuss with the community what data local citizens believe should be tracked as benchmarks.

Throughout the initiative, we will produce fact sheets, policy briefs, and papers based on the data we collect. We will feature the benchmarks and reports here on our website.

Why “Middle” Cities? Massachusetts’ older industrial cities are politically and economically in limbo between the traditional power base of greater Boston and the burgeoning political force of the suburbs, and between their former industrial role and newer market function. They are without political cohesion, and the state is also without a cohesive strategy to make the cities once again self-sustaining economic engines. The Middle Cities Initiative seeks to change that.

For further information or to join our mailing list, please contact Maria Ortiz Perez, Project Manager for Middle Cities and Transparency Initiatives via email or (617) 723-2277 ext. 209.