Neighborhood meetings get scheduled with regularity, but the one taking place tonight at the Lynn Museum and another scheduled for Wednesday represent opportunities to really improve places where people live.
Organized by Lynn Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development (LHAND) working with Impact Lynn and RKG Associates, tonight’s meeting at 6 for Sagamore Hill residents and Wednesday’s Oakville Street-Minot Street 6 p.m. meeting at LHAND’s 10 Church St. office is the product of a year’s worth of research and study.
Researchers walked the hilltop neighborhood off Washington Street and the two West Lynn streets seeking residents’ perspectives on big problems such as physical and economic challenges to improving housing and neighborhood quality of life.
The answers they received from residents during the 2016 survey were informative and insightful. Residents said well-repaired streets and a neighborhood’s general appearance makes it more liveable. But good friendly neighbors also make the difference in a city where neighborhood character has been redefined with some areas more attractive to live in and others less so.
With Ward 4 City Councilor Richard Colucci and Ward 5’s Dianna Chakoutis on hand for tonight’s meeting and Ward 6 Councilor Peter Capano attending the Oakville/Minot meeting, residents will get a chance to discuss the neighborhood research conducted in 2016 and evaluate the findings.
All three councilors pride themselves on knowing constituent priorities and it will be interesting to see how the elected officials’ sense of residential concerns square with comments made at the meetings by the Sagamore Hill and West Lynn residents.
Lynn’s residential neighborhoods are where people form positive outlooks on the city on a daily basis. Those outlooks help dictate someone’s decision to move from being a renter to an owner in a neighborhood or to pull up stakes and move somewhere else.
Neighborhoods can be measured by different types of standards. But a neighborhood’s appeal, at its core, revolves around public safety, street and housing maintenance and involvement. Good neighborhoods are places where people generally like their neighbors and want to be involved in improving the quality of life in the neighborhood.
LHAND has taken a lead in improving neighborhoods and a drive around the city underscores its success. The Brickyard Village project revived Shepard and Warren streets. Herbert Street in the Highlands saw a revival thanks to neighbors and LHAND’s similar housing initiatives revived Franklin Street and Suffolk Street.
But neighborhoods ultimately improve or decline on the strength of the people who live in them. Tonight’s meeting and Wednesday’s Oakville/Minot discussion are opportunities for people who have a financial stake in neighborhoods to chart their future.
Great changes are possible in Lynn when public agencies, elected officials and residents invested in neighborhoods commit to working together to map out positive changes.