Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | June 27, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 7 oen known in the Northeast, offers important guidance on their future. My personal connection to Worcester comes from growing up close by in Oxford. Like a lot of Central Massachusetts residents, my family had ties to the region's mill cities. My father began his career at U.S. Steel in south Worcester, before working at manu- facturing firms in Holyoke, Clinton, Waterbury, Conn., and Manchester, N.H. He grew up in Haverhill, where my grandfather, a Lawrence native, worked for many years at a shoe factory. My great-great-grandfather came to Worces- ter from Quebec in the mid-19th century to work as a bricklayer. At that time, Worcester was booming amid the first industrial revolution, as Banking LifeDesign ® Care, Clarity, & Confidence. This is LifeDesign Banking. Open an account today! FidelityBankOnline.com/BusinessBonus Move your business checking to one of our BusinessWorx checking accounts and be eligible for a $500 bonus. Plus, you can earn an addi onal $500 bonus by signing up for one of our convenient cash management services. *Open any Fidelity Bank BusinessWorx Checking account between May 23, and June 30, 2022 to be eligible. To earn first $500 bonus you must have $5,000 in total deposits and three automatic clearing house (ACH) or BillPay transactions within 60 days of account opening of $10 or more. To earn second $500 bonus for Cash Management services within 60 days of account opening you must: enroll in Merchant Services; enroll in Check Positive Pay; or enroll in Business Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) and process one deposit with check scanner within 60 days. Note that check deposits via Business Online Banking mobile app are not eligible. New account bonus(es) to be deposited into your account during the subsequent statement cycle after meeting the eligible criteria above. The value of these bonuses may constitute taxable income and will be reported on IRS Form 1099 (or other appropriate form). Offers valid only for new Fidelity Bank business checking account clients. Fidelity Bank business clients with an existing Fidelity Bank business checking account are not eligible. All account applications are subject to approval. Limit one eligible account per tax ID/EIN number. Eligible accounts include BusinessWorx Basic, BusinessWorx Plus, and BusinessWorx Complete. Minimum opening deposit for eligible accounts is $100. BusinessWorx Basic account has no monthly maintenance fee. BusinessWorx Plus has a monthly maintenance fee of $10 per month and fee can be waived with $10,000 combined average daily balances or Merchant Services. BusinessWorx Complete has a monthly maintenance fee of $10 per month and fee can be waived with $20,0000 combined average daily balances or merchant services. Account must be open, active, and in good standing to receive the bonuses. Accounts closed within 6 months of receiving bonus will incur a $500 early account termination fee. Promotional offer subject to change or cancellation at any time. $1,000 BONUS * Earn up to a Business Banking That Works Editor's note: is column was first published as part of the materials for Worcester Homecoming, a new event planned by community leaders, includ- ing WBJ Publisher Peter Stanton, where prominent people with ties to the region were invited back to be shown Worcester's progress and engage with its future. T here's so much about Worcester unique among midsized cities: its eight colleges and universities; its strength in cut- ting-edge medicine and life sciences; the dozens of diverse cultur- al communities who call the city home; and its position at the heart of a vibrant, verdant region and commonwealth, rep- resented in the Worcester seal itself. Yet, there are many chapters in Worcester's story it shares with places across New England and the northern United States. e evolution of these old- er industrial cities, or mill cities as they're Worcester well positioned for next economic revolution Alan Berube steam-powered factories in cities like Lowell and Fall River turned cotton and wool into textiles. Worcester wasn't located along a major waterway, but the city specialized in producing the machines those factories used. Worces- ter was a major distribution point for manufactured goods, first via the Blackstone Canal, and later railroads to Providence and Boston. ese advan- tages positioned Worcester for even greater economic success in the second industrial revolution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when mass produc- tion techniques helped the city develop a wide range of manufacturing specializa- tions such as wire and metal grinding. In the postwar period, rising glo- balization and technological change in the third industrial revolution le Worcester and other New England mill cities behind. Worcester's population, which nearly doubled in the first half of the 20th century, dropped by 40,000 from 1950 to 1980. e share of people employed in manufacturing fell by nearly half. is was the Worcester that I knew growing up in the 1980s, one characterized by abandoned factories, vacant housing, and a downtown bere of commerce. Even as it underwent these wrench- ing changes, the seeds of Worcester's re-emergence were planted. e global economy is entering what many are calling the fourth industrial revolution, G U E S T C O L U M N driven by the convergence of digital, biological, and physical innovations through technologies like artificial intel- ligence, genome editing, and robotics. Worcester's many assets position it favorably for this latest revolution: a strong cluster of life sciences and engineering research and innovative companies centered around institutions like UMass Chan Medical School and Worcester Polytechnic Institute; prox- imity to a major global city in Boston; and a population both highly educated and highly diverse, with connections to emerging markets all over the world. Major investments over the past two de- cades have reinvigorated the city's urban fabric. Worcester has gained back those residents it lost from 1950 to 1980. For all their promise in this new era, Worcester and other older industrial cities still face major challenges around aging infrastructure, social and economic exclusion, and the legacies of neighborhood disinvestment. As it enters its fourth century, however, Worcester has newfound energy, a chance not only to show a new face to the fans coming out for the Worcester Red Sox, but also to ensure its next industrial age delivers lasting prosperity for all its residents and communities. Alan Berube, a native of Oxford, is a senior fellow and deputy director at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. W

• Cover