Living in western mass vs. connecticut (Boston, Springfield: daycare, public school, college)

[GeoffD]

Right, so you turn the ag school 30 miles out of town into the flagship state university. Brilliant!

Boston didn’t need the college boost from the state. Boston already had Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, and Northeastern. Most state residents until recently used ZooMass as their emergency backup school if nobody else accepted them. With in-state resident college finance math, it’s a bit better now but it would still be #6 if you put it inside the 128 belt. Amherst was throwing a bone to the economic doldrums of western Massachusetts.

[mdovell]

Hey I'm just saying the history. Umass Boston is fine but the Mt Ida issue is significant.

The Knowledge corridor is significantly in ma and CT.

[jxzz]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Right, so you turn the ag school 30 miles out of town into the flagship state university. Brilliant!

Boston didn’t need the college boost from the state. Boston already had Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, and Northeastern. Most state residents until recently used ZooMass as their emergency backup school if nobody else accepted them. With in-state resident college finance math, it’s a bit better now but it would still be #6 if you put it inside the 128 belt. Amherst was throwing a bone to the economic doldrums of western Massachusetts.

UMASS Amherst is so far away from Boston and it is closer to CT. The problem with CT or Western MASS is that job opportunities are less and young graduates of UCONN or UMASS are highly likely to leave for NYC or Boston rather than staying in west MA or CT. In that sense, no matter how we look at both region, the economic problems are similar and neither of the two regions are doing well.

[missionhill]

UMass at least was an agricultural college before becoming the state university. UConn too I guess. The investment spawned the whole happy valley thing around Amherst and Northampton which might not have happened with only highly selective private schools (Amherst, Smith, Mt Holyoke) in the area. Still it’s more of a DIY economy there and most grads go elsewhere. Connecticut Vs. Western Mass is no contest for job opportunities;
Conn has far more. It only lacks its own vibrant big city as a lure.

[Boston_Burbs]

Originally Posted by missionhill

UMass at least was an agricultural college before becoming the state university. UConn too I guess. The investment spawned the whole happy valley thing around Amherst and Northampton which might not have happened with only highly selective private schools (Amherst, Smith, Mt Holyoke) in the area. Still it’s more of a DIY economy there and most grads go elsewhere. Connecticut Vs. Western Mass is no contest for job opportunities;
Conn has far more. It only lacks its own vibrant big city as a lure.

When I lived in Hampden county ma there was about 1 medium-large employer in each industry. If you didnt get that promotion you wanted or didnt get along with your boss it was off to Hartford or Worcester.

[mdovell]

The other thing the kind of remember a little bit with western Mass is that to be frank there isn't that much in southern Vermont other than Brattleboro. Between the national and state parks is a huge gap between there in Montpelier. It edition if you go further west you really don't see that much until you hit Albany. Although I do like Hudson quite a bit there just isn't that much of a populated area until you hit Albany.

One reason why MGM Springfield is promoted isn't so much that say casino but because as a casino it just doesn't close. Springfield like many other Gateway cities and small cities outside with a New England and it ran across the United States is largely nonprofit and governmental based. That means that the stores and companies in any form of good or service is generally opened Monday through Friday say 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is closed or shortened hours on weekends. When you have a significant business that just doesn't close it has the power to attract people that might also go to other areas so that would encourage other shops to start open up and then starts building on itself. I've seen this in the suburbs on a smaller scale when say a supermarket chain opens up and then the drug store chain starts increasing hours. They might not directly compete on every single item but if it's about hours they can try to compete on that.

Capital flows to where you can get the greatest amount of return on investment and return on equity. It doesn't mean it's invested in the exact same areas time and time again. I've been to Asia years ago and some of the businesses in China that were telling me that initially you head towards the capital but after awhile you really don't get anything extra by being near the Capitol you go further out to where it's cheaper.

Greentown labs was spun off from Greentown Labs in Somerville and came to Springfield for this very reason.
Greentown Initiative Links Startups with Manufacturers

When you make things in Massachusetts you're still operating under the US Constitution and state constitution, there's no time zone difference, there's no currency rate change, the language is still English (and Spanish). These same reasons were reasons why billionaire Dan Gilbert decided not to move Quicken Loans to Brazil and instead simply put the headquarters in Detroit. When he factored in the cost of moving, translation, time difference, currency exchange rates, legal differences and estimated legal costs Etc it did not contribute to savings.

[timberline742]

Greentown Labs came because they were paid to come. They were funded by the MassCEC quasi.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Greentown Labs came because they were paid to come. They were funded by the MassCEC quasi.

I think you might be referring to mass development but I'm well aware of many of the quasi-governmental organizations that Massachusetts has. Massdevelopment has been very active with its TDI fellows. From what I understand they're trying to make a bit of a Beer Garden in Brockton, I wish them the best.

At the same point there are many organizations that had some form of tax incentive to move. General Electric comes to mind for Boston. And if you want to include nonprofits into this mix Boston as many of them. Sure some pay pilots and that's always controversial but they do not truly pay their full share of property taxes.
This is the type of subject where you can write complete books if not endless volumes of work across the country if not the world.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by mdovell

I think you might be referring to mass development but I'm well aware of many of the quasi-governmental organizations that Massachusetts has. Massdevelopment has been very active with its TDI fellows. From what I understand they're trying to make a bit of a Beer Garden in Brockton, I wish them the best.

At the same point there are many organizations that had some form of tax incentive to move. General Electric comes to mind for Boston. And if you want to include nonprofits into this mix Boston as many of them. Sure some pay pilots and that's always controversial but they do not truly pay their full share of property taxes.
This is the type of subject where you can write complete books if not endless volumes of work across the country if not the world.

No, I am talking about MassCEC, and it wasn't a tax incentive, it is funding. MassCEC has been funding Greentown Labs since it was in the Innovation District before it moved to Somerville. The Seaport space was pretty small.

[tysmith95]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Boston didn’t need the college boost from the state. Boston already had Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, and Northeastern. Most state residents until recently used ZooMass as their emergency backup school if nobody else accepted them. With in-state resident college finance math, it’s a bit better now but it would still be #6 if you put it inside the 128 belt. Amherst was throwing a bone to the economic doldrums of western Massachusetts.

Maybe that's what it used to be but not anymore. UMass Amherst is a good school, the best public university in Massachusetts by most measures and the flagship UMass campus.

But when UMass was founded Western mass wasn't an economic doldrum. I forget the years but I think for a period of time the Hartford/Springfield area was one of the wealthiest in the country. It used to be a big center for weponary manufacturing, plus Hartford has historically been an insurance center. This has changed though.