January 30, 2019
I was heartened last night by Eric Lesser’s presentation and Q&A to the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts. To briefly summarize his thoughts, it is all about jobs, jobs, jobs. I would characterize him as a practical Progressive. Western Massachusetts is not Boston so we need to build better mousetraps to attract jobs, workers, and young people to the area. We need to lead with our strengths. The focal point of his efforts is East-West high speed train service to Boston.
The Pioneer Valley, like most of the United States, lags most of the developed world in fast and reliable train service. He cited data from China and its national railroad initiative that stunned the group. Many of the knowledge workers who live in the Boston area do not need to be there to do their jobs effectively, yet they fight horrendous traffic every day for the privilege of living in one of the most expensive areas in the country. Eric wants to bring them here where it is less expensive to live, and the quality of life is better with targeted incentives. When they need to go to Boston, they could hop on the high speed train in our new Union Station, get some work done, and find themselves in South Station quickly and easily.
10% of all housing in western Massachusetts is vacant. Four out of the five poorest counties in Massachusetts are in western Massachusetts. We are not Boston. We are Michigan. This is not a pet project. It is a project that will benefit all of Massachusetts by creating 10,000 jobs initially, and generating many more thousands of jobs over the long run. Eric Lesser is slowly eliminating all of the institutional impediments to getting this started. We need to start this infrastructure project now so that when the Federal government is ready with its national infrastructure program, we are shovel ready.
The Spin Doctor 