They were called Lynn City Summits and, when they were held in the 1990s, five forums focused on suggestions for reimagining downtown proved wildly successful in attracting local residents and new ideas.
City leaders and MassDevelopment are giving residents another chance next Tuesday to apply energy and imagination to downtown, and discuss the potential it offers people who live, work and play there.
Billed as a community meeting, the invitation to the discussion — scheduled from 6-8 p.m. in the Lynn Museum, at the corner of Washington and Union streets — reminds residents “your thoughts and ideas are important to us.”
The summits — a collaboration between the Lynn Department of Community Development and the Lynn Business Partnership — won a federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Award for Citizen Participation. MassDevelopment has set the bar high for next Tuesday’s discussion by billing the hearing as the work of a Transformative Development Initiative Partnership.
Renewal of the Central Business District has been on the radar screens of local business and city leaders, as well as artists, residents and entrepreneurs. New restaurants occupy once-vacant storefronts. Downtown residents now call Munroe and Willow streets home, and City Hall’s Veterans Memorial Auditorium is no longer exclusively reserved for dance recitals and graduation ceremonies.
All of these success stories represent accomplishments encompassing parts of downtown but not the entire area spanning the city’s core. The Lynn City Summits were successful because they gave a broad spectrum of people who think about downtown in different ways an opportunity to offer visions for its future.
Flash forward 20 years and the same opportunity exists next Tuesday night when everyone who takes a seat in the museum will have an equal chance to weigh in on the health and future wellbeing of the city’s heart and soul. We hope the downtown action strategy community meeting is well attended.