Lynn, Lynn, city of ... a national ad campaign

In the hardcopy version of this article they have a photo of the guy who's quoted saying that he's lived there for 63 years and never had a problem. He's an older white guy with a big beard and tattoos. Nothing like dispelling stereotypes by using a few examples of them.
I think this article gets rerun every 5-8 years...

Terry Bradshaw?

The downtown, as some of you may already know, as well as the "Diamond District" and some other areas, have had an influx of residents priced out of Boston. The downtown has been growing since 2005.

Most of these residents, myself included, are young (I like to think of myself as young, anyway), college graduates, work in creative/professional fields, and are more open minded.

Some folks will never accept the change that has occurred downtown. They are older, and what we're doing down here that can be considered positive, especially in the arts, won't appeal to them. So, they'll continue to put Lynn down. Fine. They're the same folks who are still afraid of Jamaica Plain, anyway.

I haven't turned a blind eye to the crime that still exists, yet it's safer than most Boston neighborhoods where college students live, now. My car is safer on the streets of downtown Lynn than it was in Jamaica Plain, where I lived in Mass. first. It's a matter of perspective, and targeting the right audience.

Having said all that, I hope the agency that creates the new spot has half a clue how to target this audience, because the city has no clue. CNN is the wrong outlet for it. Today, RKO was talking about it. If someone hadn't sent me a link, I'd have no idea. No one I know listens to RKO (except maybe that person, who is older..). Of course, they had a negative spin.

My neighbors and I have been taking ownership of the City of Sin motto and spinning it into something cool, rather than denying it. City Hall doesn't like it when we do that, I think. But, we're having success with it. We're doing the marketing.

If they deny the past, this spot will flop big time.

and lived the first half of my life there.When I was a kid, Lynn and Quincy were mirror images of each other. 100k residents, waterfront near Boston, one big industrial employer. What happened? Basically, elections have consequences. Quincy had politicians at the state level who brought the T and highway access (Burgin Parkway) to the downtown and encouraged development at No. Quincy and Marina Bay. They now are rolling the dice on a billion dollar downtown development bankrolled by out of state money that believes in them. People in Quincy who succeed usually stay in Quincy. Lynn, on the other hand, had people either too corrupt or too obtuse to accomplish anything. Lynn's idea of change is electing Tommy McGee's son Tommy, Jr. as Senator instead of state rep and fighting tooth and nail for GE to build jet engines that even the DOD admits are a boondoggle, championed by Rep. John Tierney. (Ahem...) Even the class acts from Lynn like the late Bill Connell of Ogden Corp. move to Swampscott, or Marblehead or Lynnfield, frankly anywhere but Lynn.
If the natives don't want to do what's necessary for positive change, maybe the artsy newcomers can decide to stick around long enough to make a difference.
"Ocean Park, Ocean Park, you shouldn't go there after dark."