LYNN – The city’s waterfront is ripe for development and its public schools are getting better, but the youth gang problems continue to exasperate police, clergy and others trying to tame it.That was the assessment Lynn Mayor Edward Clancy Jr. gave Tuesday in his keynote remarks at the 95th annual meeting of the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Lynnfield Street.The mayor used the occasion to highlight the city’s latest accomplishments and update the audience on projects in various phases of development.According to Clancy, the popular pedestrian walkway along Lynn Shore Drive is being marked with indicator signs so that health-conscious visitors can determine how far they’ve walked or run, and how far they must still go to reach their goal.The city’s Third Thursdays program that brings cultural events to Central Square, the weekly downtown farmers’ market, the recent dog parade, the three-day visit by the tall ship Friendship of Salem, and the upcoming road race were all on Clancy’s list of what’s good about Lynn. He also mentioned the slow-but-steady progress city officials are making on a plan to relocate electrical transmission lines at the southern end of the Lynnway to create a more usable waterfront development site.”It’s moving forward, but it’s not going to be easy,” said Clancy, noting the “Byzantine plan” presented to city officials by National Grid, which owns the electrical towers.The mayor unveiled some welcome news regarding the so-called Beacon Chevrolet development site at the northern end of the Lynnway. City officials last month said negotiations had ceased between waterfront property owner Jack Granese of Lynn and Forest City, a multi-billion-dollar Ohio-based real estate development company looking to purchase the land. Clancy, however, announced Tuesday that the period of due diligence had been extended, and that the deal was still a possibility.Turning his attention to the business district, Clancy said gentrification of the downtown is still in full swing and will continue. He cited the rebuilding of Munroe Street and the planned installation of decorative street lamps, new sidewalks and road surface. The project cost $500,000 and another similar effort will soon begin along Mount Vernon Street, where the Mayo Group is completing the transformation of a former industrial building into 31 luxury condominiums, he said.A Tello’s clothing store has opened on the Lynnway, and a new bank is under construction in Wyoma Square, said Clancy, adding, “Wherever there is a parcel, people are seizing it.”But economic development and a waterfront with potential do not ensure success, he said, explaining that the city’s public schools comprise the other vital piece. “People who come here to live must be confident of the school system,” he said.Although Gov. Deval Patrick has designated most of the state’s poorer urban areas as priority-one school districts, Lynn isn’t among them. Rather, it is designated a priority-two city and that, according to Clancy, is good news because it indicates the education system is in better shape than in cities with similar demographics and poverty levels.”There is substantive data that shows academic achievement for our students,” he said. “When you tie economic development to public education, we can say there has been progress.”Meanwhile, extensive repairs at Lynn Classical High School continue, aimed at fixing the relatively new structure that has begun to sink into the landfill on which it was built. During the project, expected to last two years or more, ninth-grade students will attend the Fecteau-Leary School on North Common Street to alleviate overcrowding, the mayor said.City residents showed their support for local education by authorizing a $10-milllion bond to pay for the needed repairs, he said, publicly thanking GE for installing a security system at the Thurgood Marshall Middle School, where a spate of violence had caused concern.Veering mom