Jared Nicholson

MORE THAN 200 years ago, the City of Lynn saw a need to be filled, and founded the Lynn Fire Department in response. The Lynn Police Department, as we know it today, started about 150 years ago. If the city’s newly launched “Calm Team” lives up to our hopes, Lynn will look back to this moment for many years to come as the launch of a similarly vital public safety initiative. We have long asked police to respond to almost every kind of trouble imaginable.

THIS PAST WEEK, we were shocked to learn the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is moving toward approval of an expansion proposal from KIPP Academy Lynn Charter School. Acting Commissioner Russell Johnston’s recommendation that the state education board approve a plan to add 450 seats at the school represents selective enforcement of the long-standing and clear regulations governing charter school expansion in the Commonwealth.

AS GATEWAY CITIES, Salem and Lynn have long been home to diverse groups of people working hard to build a better life for themselves and their families. For generations, our communities have been places where everyone from healthcare workers and tradespeople to fire fighters and teachers could thrive. But now we’re facing a housing crisis that threatens the very heart and character of our communities. We need all of the funding and policy tools in the Affordable Homes Act to address this crisis.