CommonWealth revisits Billerica and four more stories

 

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The Saturday Send

Welcome back to the Saturday Send, a weekly digest of stories from CommonWealth Beacon that you may have missed.

This week, reporter Chris Lisinski travels to the Billerica, Mass., neighborhood of Heritage Heights, which was profiled in the first ever issue of CommonWealth Beacon's predecessor, CommonWealth magazine. In this special feature commemorating our newsroom's 30th anniversary, Chris does a deep dive into what has (and hasn't) changed about middle class life in the Bay State.

Plus: some environmental advocates push back on Gov. Maura Healey's shifting tone on climate change, a handful of Boston suburbs are shutting down their DEI offices, small businesses provide both opportunity and uncertainty in Gateway Cities like Holyoke, and a poll shows Healey's approval ratings slumping ahead of November's election.

Check out those stories below, and, as always, thanks for reading.

— The CommonWealth Beacon team

 
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If there’s a single unifying theme to the Massachusetts middle-class outlook in 2026, it’s contradiction: We have more than ever, and in many cases, that’s not enough to enjoy the stability of prior generations.

 

Healey’s shift on climate is now starting to bleed into her campaign for a second term as players across the spectrum are looking to leverage their support in the November election to make gains on their issues.

 

Brookline’s school district is one of at least four in Massachusetts that have cut DEI initiatives or positions despite community support, citing shrinking student enrollments and rollbacks in federal funding that threaten school budgets.

 

For years, small business ownership has served as a “gateway” to the middle class, particularly for residents in Gateway Cities like Holyoke where economic mobility is otherwise limited and educational attainment is low. But since the pandemic, experts and advocates have warned that Massachusetts’s small businesses are struggling to survive.

 

A new MassINC Polling Group survey finds the incumbent governor with a net unfavorable rating among voters, but don’t overread the significance of one snapshot this far out from the election.

 
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Defining the middle class is harder than it might seem – it might mean owning a home, having steady work, keeping a pot of savings, or the kids and white picket fence vision of the “American Dream.” Historian Andrew Seal, whose research and writings focus on how the middle class thinks of itself, joins CommonWealth Beacon senior reporter Jennifer Smith on The Codcast to interpret recent Bay State polling and dive into how a middle-class identity intersects with race, media portrayals, and American individualism.

 
 
 
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Published by MassINC


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