The Revitalist

Sunday's Globe had a gloomy article about Lowell entitled What Renaissance? The most recent demographic data seems to suggest that Lowell's great revival is stalled. The city's poverty rate has increased over the past 20 years at much higher rate than other second-tier cities in the state. City officials say that this is due to the fact that Lowell has not forced out through gentrification many of its poorer residents. And they say that this moment is just a plateau in a overall upward trend: "Lowell almost takes two steps forward and one step back constantly," says city manager Bernard Lynch.

But a recent report from The Brookings Institution and MassINC points out the problem that is the crux of the issue. While the state is doing a pretty good job overall of transitioning to the knowledge economy, the new growth has been focused almost exclusively on Metro Boston. (Clustering of knowledge economy businesses in the main metro in the region is the normal pattern.) So while the average knowledge economy worker can't afford to buy a house in Metro Boston, the Gateway Cities with lots of potential, existing infrastructure and housing stock aren't seeing the economic growth or investment. This pushes people to live in the sprawling fringe of the metro area, not a geographic growth pattern that the state wants to encourage, and leaves the other cities out of the loop. The trick is going to be attracting more knowledge economy workers to live in these Gateway Cities, which is what groovy mill conversions like Washington Mills are all about.