The One Minute Geographer: Massachusetts (9): Gateway Cities
We’ve seen that immigrants flock to Massachusetts, but they don’t just come to metro Boston. The state’s many smaller old industrial cities attract immigrants too, especially where housing is cheaper and commuting to jobs in Boston by rail, bus or vehicle is possible. Boston’s subway system (called the ‘T’ by locals) is well-integrated with an above-ground commuter rail system that extends west to Worcester and south to Providence. Boston’s public transit system is almost always ranked first, second, or third in the nation on various indexes of public transit systems.
A state commission in 2008 came up with the concept of Gateway Cities to deal with the issues of new immigrants, housing and commuting to Boston for jobs. Gateway Cities are older industrial cities with populations between 35,000 and 250,00 which have lower incomes and lower levels of educational achievement than the state averages. Compared to the state, they also generally have higher levels of unemployment, higher level of poverty and larger percentages of immigrants and minority populations, thus the “Gateway” label.
