Lynn’s Ward 5 a work in progress

LYNN – Ward 5 City Councilor Brendan Crighton is a lifelong Lynn resident who now proudly calls the Pine Hill section of the city home.The Lynn Classical graduate has worked as state Sen. Thomas McGee?s chief of staff for six years, which at just 28 makes him one of the youngest in that position on Beacon Hill.And like many who have grown up here, Crighton harbors a fierce pride in his hometown and believes the resurgence that is beginning in the downtown will continue to flourish and grow, even as Lynn fights what he believes is an unfair perception problem about the level of crime in the city.?I was at a gathering this weekend and sure enough someone said ?I can?t believe you?re from Lynn,?” Crighton said during a tour of his ward last week. “I?ve lived here my whole life. Certainly there are times when you have to be a little more cautious, but it?s an urban center. That?s what people have to get past, you can?t compare us to Swampscott or Marblehead.”Ward 5 is shaped like a sliver that runs through the core of the city from the waterfront to Boston Street. It includes the downtown and some of Lynn?s most well-known landmarks, including Lynn City Hall, St. Mary?s School, the Pine Grove Cemetery, parts of the Lynn Woods Reservation and the retail stretch along Boston Street.But Crighton is hopeful both residents and people from outside the city will put away any preconceived notions of what the downtown used to look like and head to the city?s center to visit one of the new restaurants or see a show at the Lynn Memorial Auditorium.?People who haven?t experienced the downtown recently, who think of it when it was rundown and old shoe factories ? think of it in a really negative connotation,” he said. “They don?t see the potential for the downtown or the things that have already happened.”Close to 250 new residents moved into converted lofts around 2000 – many who use the Central Square station to take the commuter rail into Boston – and they have started to help revitalize the downtown and bring a new younger, fresher feel to the area, Crighton said.?You talk to some of the folks who haven?t been down there (the downtown) and they?re very dismissive of it,” he said. “But I always say come down for a night and you?ll come back”State Rep. Bob Fennell?s family has owned the Capitol Diner on Union Street since 1938 and he?s been working there ever since he was a kid.Fennell, D-Lynn, saw the boom times when GE employed more than 10,000 people and the shoe factories were operating full tilt and Central Square was the place to be in Lynn.But it has since “changed dramatically,” he said.There were multiple shoe shops, a movie theater across from the diner, jewelry stores, multiple diners and “constant business that everyone could draw upon,” Fennell said.?The city was humming years ago. We were the only place you could shop outside of Boston, whether it was clothes, furniture, shoes, it didn?t matter,” Fennell said. “But then the factories started closing and the malls came.”Fennell welcomes the area?s new residents who he believes have helped bring back some of the neighborhood pride the downtown had been missing, but he wants to a mix of establishments in the area so there?s more people around Central Square during the day.Many of the people who moved into the converted lofts work in Boston or Cambridge and are in the neighborhood on nights and weekends, but not much during weekdays, he said.?I?d like to see more of a commercial base, some office buildings within the downtown area, I think that would bring a lot more vitality and life to the central area,” Fennell said. “We used to have the administration building at Central Avenue, that really helped. We need some kind of nucleus in the area. Market Street has the Housing Authority, St. Mary?s, City Hall, we need something like that.”Still, Fennell believes the downtown, the ward and the city as a whole is ripe for development once the economy starts to rebound, because of the wor