Crime and punishment 

It seems like kids growing up in neighborhoods like this have a really tough choice: “Fit in” with those causing trouble or follow the law but potentially risk their own safety. This sounds like another example of where mandatory minimums do more harm than good. This kid wanted to stay out of trouble and do something productive with his life, and even demonstrated that for a year by doing everything he was required as well as learning a trade. But then we sent him to jail anyway. If someone is already close to choosing a bad path in life, sending them to jail seems like one of the worst things we can do for them.

Charlie at CommonWealthmagazine.org

Illegal gun possession is a serious crime. CommonWealth continues its campaign to excuse, defend, and protect gun owners. Of course it is in the interest of the community to get guns off the street. If streets are safe, then people won’t need to carry guns.

Andrei Radulescu-Banu at CommonWealthmagazine.org

Turning around New Bedford

Thank you for your interview with Mayor Jon Mitchell on his vision for and the progress in New Bedford, one of the Commonwealth’s storied Gateway Cities. Thanks to a partnership proposed by Mayor Mitchell and the city, the New Bedford Economic Development Council, and developer HallKeen in 2014, MassDevelopment selected New Bedford’s downtown as one of 10 Transformative Development Initiative (TDI) Districts. I joined the partnership earlier this year as a TDI Fellow, a three-year MassDevelopment position that supports the district’s economic-development strategy.

TDI is a redevelopment program for Gateway Cities to enhance local public-private engagement and spur increased economic activity. In addition to the developments Mayor Mitchell describes, we have seen renewed private sector interest in New Bedford’s Union and Purchase district since the launch of this program. Most recently, the Waterfront Area Historic League has raised more than $50,000 in crowdfunding for its new co-creative center, an artists’ makerspace and community gallery in the TDI district. Those dollars make it eligible for another $50,000 in MassDevelopment matching funds.

Our active-use strategy focuses on retail recruitment, activating vacant storefronts, and improving spaces like Wing’s Court to foster community engagement and urban vitality, furthering investment in the district. The Baker-Polito administration’s latest MassWorks award for New Bedford will further complement these efforts.

Jim McKeag

MassDevelopment New Bedford TDI fellow

The missing piece of education reform

There’s a lot of revisionist history when it comes to how the 1993 Education Reform Act came about. Edward Moscovitch states that 25 years ago “a broad coalition of legislators, business people, education experts, and state officials put together and passed a wide-reaching education reform law.” That’s not what happened at all. In 1978 a court case was brought on behalf of students in certain property-poor communities who alleged that the school finance system violated the education clause of the Massachusetts Constitution. After 15 years of the case going through the court system—with one entire generation of Massachusetts school children attending underfunded public schools—the court agreed. It then took seven years for the state to double its financial commitment to local public school districts. So 22 years after the court case was first filed, Massachusetts met its obligation to public education first identified in 1978 and addressed in law in 1993.

Mhmjjj2012 at CommonWealthmagazine.org

The toughest mile 

The story says the FCC defines high-speed internet as “25 megabytes per second download speed and 3 megabytes per second upload speed.” That’s incorrect. The FCC defines broadband as 25 megabits down/3 megabits up. At a 25 megabyte (equivalent to 200 megabits) standard, almost no one in Massachusetts would have broadband. The cheapest FiOS plan that delivers that, without TV or phone bundling, is $150/month.

Leviramse at CommonWealthmagazine.org