Lowell Deeds

Waltham based Massachusetts High Technology Council(MTHC) launched a new Website lat week called Masstrack.org. Masstrack will be used by the MHTC to rate “how responsive state elected leaders and communities are to the agenda of the technology community”. On Friday MassTrack.org created quite a stir as it began to carry out its mission. The website listed all 351 Massachusetts towns and cities ranked from the most to the least “technology friendly”. The following is a list of the criteria used to evaluate a community:

1. Available Land: Number of Mass EPA projects ; Housing starts in the community; Developable commercial space

2. Taxes: The ratio of the commercial tax rate vs residential; Is the community an Economic Target Area; Does the community have a split tax rate.

3. Education & Workforce: Percentage of College Graduates; High School MCAS scores; Size of available labor force; Percentage of labor force currently employed in Technology.

And the winner is…Hopkinton…
Hopkington, home of EMC, finished first in Masstrack.org’s ranking of technology friendly communities.
Here’s the top ten, in order: Hopkinton, Franklin, Plymouth, Northboro, Mansfield, Lakeville, Danvers, Framingham, Hingham and Bedford.
What about Lowell?…
The city of Lowell ranked 178 among all communities…putting it directly in the middle.
If you are interested in your communities ranking follow this link.