Commentary: Don’t take grants for granted in Gloucester
My View | Jack Clarke
Mar 12, 2025
Early in my career, I worked under a US National Park Service grant administered by the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office. My job was to help identify, chronicle, and protect some of the state’s most treasured historic resources.
President Ronald Reagan killed the program, and I got laid off.
I was hired next by the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office to help protect the Bay State’s coast and oceans. The office was funded in part by a US Department of Commerce grant to the Commonwealth.
The same president intervened and tried to kill this program also, until Congress woke up and told him to back off.
I continued working under the federal grant and spent the next several years fighting attempts to drill for oil and gas on the rich fishing grounds of Georges Bank.
In these public service positions, I learned that grants were a strategic way to fund worthy causes, projects, and ideas that benefited the public, stimulated the economy, and addressed community needs. They did the work that government agencies couldn’t always do on their own, so partnerships were sought through grant programs.
I have never taken grants for granted. I know and have seen their value. They are critically important today as we see another president obliterating America’s grant programs in health, science, education, and more.
With the loss of federal grants, state grants to cities such as Gloucester become even more valuable. What we don’t need is to jeopardize our eligibility to receive those funds, especially in the face of a created and cruel national grant funding crisis.
However, a ballot petition forcing the city into an expensive special election to repeal the city’s recently adopted multifamily housing zoning ordinance may do just that.
In drafting the MBTA Communities Zoning Act (3A) four years ago, Beacon Hill lawmakers provided a costly penalty for communities who fail to obey 3A with their own zoning for housing — the loss of state grants. We don’t want to go there.
And so, last fall a housing ordinance was unanimously passed by the City Council to comply with the act’s provisions.
The ballot petition aims to undue all of that.
For a place such as Gloucester, the absence of state grant funding would be devastating. That’s why we must comply with the law, avoid the costly penalties, and vote yes to reaffirm the city’s housing ordinance. The special election to vote yes is April 24.
Last year, Gloucester received almost $9 million in state grants for such things as pollution cleanup, seawall repairs, flood protection, road and street improvements, and drinking water protection.
A yes vote by Gloucester voters would save these grants already in our pipeline:
$400,000 for water infrastructure work at Gloucester Avenue and Grove Street.
$500,000 to support the design of the city wastewater treatment facility upgrade on Essex Avenue.
$530,000 for the Gloucester Housing Authority.
If these necessary city projects are not grant-funded, they will have to be paid for by an increase in the city’s tax revenue stream.
There are at least 16 additional state grant programs ranging from social services to public infrastructure upgrades, downtown improvements, festivals, public art, land protection and parks, along with protection from the harmful effects of climate change that are in jeopardy of denial to Gloucester if we do not vote yes on April 24.
The grant money cited is not extra, frivolous, or add-ons, but vital budget components of the departments, offices, agencies, and organizations performing necessary and critical work in the city. This is work that preserves, protects, and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of city residents. Gloucester relies on these grants. Without them, we will find ourselves in deep trouble.
That’s why a yes vote April 24 is so crucial to the seaport, its people, and its future.
Jack Clarke is a Gloucester resident, frequent contributor to the Gloucester Daily Times, and chairperson of the Yes for Gloucester campaign. yesforgloucester.com.