It isn’t just the end of 2009, it is the end of the decade and the beginning of a new one.
Here in Lynn, this was the Clancy decade, so to speak – a political decade that began with the end of Mayor Patrick McManus’s term and began anew at the other end of the time spectrum with Judith Flanagan Kennedy’s victory.
It was also the Senator Tom McGee decade and the Representative Stephen Walsh decade, and Representative Robert Fennell, too.
It was the decade when Lynn got a new Manning Bowl, a new Classical High School, albeit a structure that nearly sank into the ground, and power lines finally out of the mix of impediments that were making development of the valuable waterfront land behind the Lynnway near to impossible.
Lynn changed dramatically during the past 10 years. It was a decade of upheaval for the city’s vast population.
Many old-timers moved out or died while many new-comers came into the city altering dramatically the people demographic.
Lynn is a more varied place than it has ever been.
There was no such thing as a Wal-Mart or a Super Stop n Shop here when the decade began.
The beach area survived and overcame the horrible stench that marked the place for a century.
Now the new decade is here.
Who knows what it holds for all of us who call this place our home?