Many projects poised to start as Lynn deals with fatalism

LYNN – Allison Goldberg grew up on the North Shore, moved halfway across the country and nearly a decade later came home to Lynn, where she’s been thrilled to see the changes taking place in the city.”We bought a house in Lynn ? I was a little nervous at first,” she admitted. “But there is such a wonderful buzz from people who aren’t originally from here but live here now and recognize the potential this city has.”That buzz has grown to an audible hum that reverberates from Economic and Industrial Corporation Board meetings, through Veterans Memorial Auditorium and the downtown to the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce. The big question: How does the city parlay good vibes into something powerful enough to drown out that decades-old ditty, “Lynn, Lynn City of Sin ?”?Barry Bluestone, director of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, has been conducting an economic study of Lynn for the last year. He said everyone has a “cognitive map,” or ingrained perception, of a given area, the way they know it to be, which is not always accurate. Lynn’s Herculean task is to rewrite the collective cognitive map people have of the city, and he believes it can be done.View photos of Lynn, including new projects”There is such a buzz the charge is palpable,” he said. “You can feel it even if you don’t live here.”Taso Nickolakopoulos, owner of John’s Roast Beef, agrees the city has bright future, but he’s frustrated that it always seems to be just out of reach, a city perpetually on the verge.”Why can’t we flourish?” he said. “We have a beautiful coastline ? we have a golf course, we have the things you need.”He likened Lynn to Quincy, the downtown of which stagnated for years but is finally undergoing a massive redevelopment. The combination of public and private investment includes multiple residential and commercial properties. But Nickolakopoulos wondered if Lynn would always be behind the economic bell curve?Community Development Director James Marsh said the city has had some good ideas in the past that unfortunately met with poor timing. Plans to create a Cyber District on the Lynnway fizzled in wake of the dot-com bust in the late 1990s”The downtown was rezoned for residential and the housing market crashed,” he added. “They were economic issues out of our control, but it was bad timing.”But the city also made some tough decisions in a tough economy, Marsh said, like bonding $4 million to move power lines from one side of the Lynnway to the other, rebuilding Manning Bowl and investing in “creative economy/Cultural District.””It set us up for when the economy does change,” he said. “As a nation and as a state the economy is starting to tick upwards, and we’re ready. We’re on the right side of the economic bell curve.”View an interactive map of recently completed or upcoming develpment. Click on the shaded areas or icons for more information.View Lynn: A city on the brink in a larger mapTrying to move aheadNickolakopoulos said he believes some cohesion would help move the city forward, and Lynn Museum Director Kate Luchini is trying to facilitate just that.Luchini, along with Media Producer Martha Almy, have been working with a variety of residents, business owners and city employees who are invested in the downtown’s future to brand Lynn. The group spent much of last year meeting monthly and brainstorming ideas. The goal is to develop a sustainable vision for the city that includes establishing things like a logo, maps and a website. It’s a fluid project that is still in the works but another area that is generating buzz.When it comes to the city’s future much of the focus, admits EDIC Executive Director James Cowdell, has been firmly planted in two areas, the downtown and the 300-acre waterfront.Geri McManus, who has lived in the city 48 years, remembers Lynn’s downtown during its heyday. She raised seven children on the edge of Flax Pond when public swimming was still allowed.”It w