Oh the irony. I was there a few weeks ago (visiting from CA) as I found out one of my King Phillip's War ancestors was in the unfortunate Turner Falls Massacre (I thought I was in Gill, MA and didn't realize there was a separate town of Turner Falls).

I used to consult for CA cities and once even applied for a job in Springfield, MA. The pattern is all these cities (who didn't plan for enough tax base when they were built) hire a City Manager "rain maker" who generally 1) Initiates a festival 2) Uses "redevelopment" for extra tax money to fix up "blighted" downtown (usually making developers rich) 3) Invites a "factory outlet mall" and 4) gets fired after 3 years, cycle repeats. There is some minor success, as I'm impressed with most New England towns who have seemingly kept their charm. However, like "Sim CIty", what is really needed is transformative industry (every city's dream is to have a photovoltaic or electric car factory, or at least a bunch of artisan "live works"?) No worries though, to the rescue are things like Mello Roos fees, private streets, higher utility bills (so new developments don't drain the City coffers like the old ones). At least New England was built a long time ago and has natural charm. In CA, AZ and elsewhere, we're struggling to maintain ugly and plastic strip malls and seedy 50s housing tracts (and we often didn't have downtown to being with!)