When a radio talk show host called Lynn a dump, Councilor Ford took it personally. Why did he get so upset? Maybe because the truth hurts.

I ponder this as I stoop to pick up the empty Courvoisier bottle in the gutter in front of my house. Then I think of the people living behind me who've piled old computer monitors and other assorted junk in the 3 foot space between their house and my backyard fence. Out of sight, out of mind. Ultimately, It's the absentee landlord's responsibility to remove these items, so any ticket that inspectional services writes up is probably ignored. Then I see the sewer drains in my neighborhood clotted with debris. Used syringes in the dark alley by the foreclosed house with boarded up windows. That's my neighborhood. People seem to treat it like it's a dump. I just don't get it. 

We held a neighborhood cleanup in May. The DPW was there. The city of Lynn and SCI Lynn chipped in. Lynn Lumber provided discounted trash barrels for distribution to residents. We cleaned up a cul-de-sac with several foreclosed houses (where the syringes were found), a parking lot on Essex and Chestnut Streets and the area around the Ingalls school. I even decided that I would adopt the cul-de-sac with the foreclosed homes and clean it up every now and again. I actually followed through for a couple of weeks, but grew discouraged. It didn't take long before the places we had cleaned up were littered again.

You'd think we would treat our homes, our neighborhoods, our environment, with more respect. What's it going to take to transform this multicultural place we call Lynn, where we must live so closely with our neighbors, into the city it could be? One person alone can't do it. Many people acting independently of each haven't been able to do it. It doesn't even appear that the many civic, municipal and social service organizations working independently of each other have been able to do it. These are all good beginning attempts, but something more is needed. When one thing is fixed, another one breaks somewhere else.

So I put it out to all of you who want to see a Lynn transformed? What are your ideas? How can we put them into action? How do we hold our leaders accountable? How do we reach critical mass? What must we as a community do to get to the tipping point? Why do I bother writing to this blog? Does anyone care to comment?