Biggest Issue Facing Each State in New England? (Boston, Worcester: rent, home)

[HumpDay]

What's the biggest issue facing every state in New England?

Here's what I think they are:

Massachusetts: Infrastructure (MA is very Boston centric and traffic has become a mess facing Boston and surrounding areas. There's no way to build outwards since it's already crowded due to overdevelopment especially within Boston.)

Connecticut: Budget (Hartford is about to file bankruptcy and services are being cut to the bone. Residents are fleeing in droves and the budget only worsens. This is what happens when you avoid fixing our major cities and focusing solely on suburban development in a time where cities are bouncing back.)

Rhode Island : Economy (The unemployment rate was extremely high at one point but has improved)

Maine : Aging Population (Young people fleeing by huge numbers and Maine is having a hard time attracting young workers. I believe Maine has one of the highest percentage of retirees in the union?)

New Hampshire : Drugs (This is the first thing that pops in my head but I believe there are bigger issues. Not sure...)

Vermont : Same as Maine

What do you think?

[timberline742]

rhode island: management, resulting in economic woes
vermont: not capitalizing on its tourism boom in niche industries (beer and skiing), aging is a result, not a cause

[carpeskiem]

I feel like MA is becoming less Boston-centric with increased gentrification of the smaller cities - but the roads are a mess and the rails aren't getting their needed repairs.

Don't know much about CT or RI, but Maine has a huge drug problem in addition to the young people's fleeing from the state. The divide only seems to be getting stronger.

Vermont is very residential and doesn't have a whole lot of jobs outside of the world of tourism (same with Maine).

And growing up in NH, I always felt a divide between the southern suburbs and the woodsy rural areas. Some towns feel like they could belong in MA (especially Nashua), while other places feel more like Maine.

[SeaDoo342]

Residents are not fleeing CT in droves... that's media and conservative hype..

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by SeaDoo342

Residents are not fleeing CT in droves... that's media and conservative hype..

Nope, jobs are, not residents

[AtkinsonDan]

Here are my thoughts:

MA - Needs more infrastructure investment (roads and rails) and needs to allow more residential density to keep the economic growth from stalling.

ME - Far too tourist-centric, retaining or attracting youth and catering to the whims of wealthy out-of-state summer residents are economically incompatible. The state needs to invest in its own people and youth to stem the aging of its population. Success does not come from being someone else's playground.

VT - Seems to have a collective anti-business culture and like Maine suffers from the whims of wealthy out-of-state residents that want to keep it more like a playground than a functioning society.

NH - Too reliant on MA economically, needs to increase economic development within its boundaries beyond brick and mortar retail. Based on an uptick in demand for lower quality office space in the Merrimack Valley in MA, I think NH can attract some businesses by adding class A office space around Manchester, Nashua and Portsmouth.

RI - Seems to always be mired in too much corruption and government incompetence. I don't follow RI enough to add any more.

CT - Using businesses as ATMs has finally caught up to the state and the culture seems to be stuck in the 1990s. People stubbornly believe the millenial generation will want the same thing as the baby boomers did in the 1980s. Does not offer any exciting settings either urban or wilderness-based to attract the experience-craving millenials. No jobs and no excitement will signify a declining population eventually.

I give the strongest outlooks to Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Maine and Vermont have a lot of potential if they can escape the tourism trap. Rhode Island and Connecticut will need near miracles if no improvement is seen before 2020.

[mwbms28]

Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan

Here are my thoughts:

I give the strongest outlooks to Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Maine and Vermont have a lot of potential if they can escape the tourism trap. Rhode Island and Connecticut will need near miracles if no improvement is seen before 2020.

MA will always get the strongest outlook. Boston is an international city; none of the other states have anything like that.

The infrastructure problem is a symptom, not a cause. Could the state build a better rail system from Worcester to Boston? Sure. But David Price gets paid $210 million over seven years. Do you see what I'm saying? The money is certainly there - those who have it, don't view infrastructure as a problem.

[tysmith95]

Across the country we've seen a move back from suburban areas to Urban centers. The issue with CT is that it's cities are sub-par. RI with Providence or Maine with Portland both have better urban centers compared to CT.

The only thing that keeps CT wealthy is the south western corners proximity to NYC. Besides that it economy has bad forward outlook.

But I agree with previous posters. A big issue with MA is infrastructure. I'd also add that there is a shortage of housing in Boston and surrounding areas, rent and home prices are out of control and that puts a damper on growth. Infrastructure could remedy this by making areas further out more easily accessible by public transportation (for example better transit to Lynn could open up a good bit of affordable housing). Hyper localized governments in the area also create an issue where new housing development sees lots of push back from neighbors afraid of change. Inner suburbs with snob zoning requirements (cough cough Newton, cough cough Winchester) also contribute to an affordability crisis in the region.

[massnative71]

Massachusetts: Bad management and failing to plan for the future (especially with the infrastructure). Things like replacing the I-93/I-95 interchange in Woburn and electrified high speed commuter rail to Providence should have been done decades ago, and to this day there is zilch being done to address them. Even compared to surrounding states things are severely unkempt and antiquated. The first thing you notice coming from ME and NH is how the roads are so poorly maintained, overgrown with weeds (don't they mow anymore?), and lined with trash (get those inmates off their arse and to work!). Compared to surrounding states, they blow MA away when it should be the other way around. It's an embarrassment.


New Hampshire: IDK, become more economically independent? Drugs are really bad there but so are they in surrounding states. Too many Massh#$%s now, it was nicer before when it was more its own state.


Rhode Island: Incompetent, antiquated and bloated government. The state could be a lot more if it would get out of its own way.


Maine: Brain drain and failure to adapt to the modern economy. It's a very hard thing to fix because there are no larger cities outside of Portland and you can't change the cold weather.


Vermont: Similar to Maine I guess? I once had a potential job offer up there but when I saw how high the taxes are almost MA like housing costs, I was like see ya...There is nothing justifying the high costs there, nobody seems to be making any money.


Connecticut: Where? LOL. Oh that's the state where nobody knows how to drive. A new and improved driver ed. curriculum would be a good place to start.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by tysmith95

But I agree with previous posters. A big issue with MA is infrastructure. I'd also add that there is a shortage of housing in Boston and surrounding areas, rent and home prices are out of control and that puts a damper on growth. Infrastructure could remedy this by making areas further out more easily accessible by public transportation (for example better transit to Lynn could open up a good bit of affordable housing). Hyper localized governments in the area also create an issue where new housing development sees lots of push back from neighbors afraid of change. Inner suburbs with snob zoning requirements (cough cough Newton, cough cough Winchester) also contribute to an affordability crisis in the region.

Newton and Winchester are already pretty crowded though. I think the issue is more in places like the Weston, Wayland, Westwood, Canton (and even Dedham), where there is an unrealistic amount of undeveloped land given its proximity to such a large city. The bottom line is there is too much local control and no mechanism for effective regional planning.