As efforts continue to revitalize Brockton and other former manufacturing cities throughout the Commonwealth, I recently joined my colleagues for the kick-off meeting of the newly-formed Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus.

Too often we think that the challenges facing Brockton are unique and only apply to us when, in reality, everyone faces the same problems. This new Caucus will provide my colleagues and I with the opportunity to collaborate with the Patrick Administration, city officials and business leaders to revitalize cities like Brockton and to look at the myriad of issues currently facing them.

Recently, eleven cities – Brockton, Fall River, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, Pittsfield, Springfield and Worcester – were identified as Gateway Cities based on their common industrial past, and their struggle to reinvent themselves and their location outside Greater Boston. Collectively these cities have lost 134,000 manufacturing jobs since 1960, a figure that accounts for more than one-third of the state’s total decline in such industries.

In the upcoming months the Caucus will be focusing its efforts on ways the state can partner with Gateway Cities to make targeted investments in downtown areas – an ongoing priority for the Brockton legislative delegation, city officials and business groups – and collaborating on transportation, education, housing and economic development issues, to name a few.