New London Stakeholder's Trip

Hi there! My name is Davey Ives, I'm an intern for the Office of Development and Planning for the City of New London and I'll be posting as much as possible about the New London Stakeholder's trip.

To clarify: the New London Stakeholder's Trip is a two-day research trip where community leaders from the public and private sectors of New London are touring Newburyport, MA, Portland, ME, and Portsmouth, NH to see how other communities have tackled similar economic development hurdles that New London currently faces.  In each city we'll be chatting with community leaders who were instrumental in pushing their respective cities from derelict post-industrial blemishes to the thriving communities they are today.  We hope to take away some valuable ideas from the different strategies these cities have employed over the years and see how they could help New London achieve its full potential.

Today we toured Newburyport, MA and Portland, ME.  Tomorrow we'll be meeting with some more officials in Portland and heading off to Portsmouth, NH in the afternoon.  I'm going to keep these posts brief but I hope to elaborate on them later. 

Newburyport in the 1960's was an awful place.  70 percent of the buildings in what is now the downtown area were abandoned.  If there weren't trees growing inside the buildings then they were filled with trash. 

From 1968-1978 Mayor Byron Matthews was the man responsible for the town's renaissance.  Many of Newburyport's current officials agree that Byron is what changed the town.  Mayor Matthews told us how he used urban renewal money to renovate his existing 1820's buildings into mixed use buildings at a time when cities like New London were razing historic buildings. 

Matthews told stories of personally going to Washington D.C. and meeting with Senator Kennedy to get funding for his city projects. Many buildings that couldn't be saved for structural reasons were torn down but built almost exactly the same with new bricks and mortar.  Artists were among the first in Newburyport to lead this change, but over time the demand for more retail and office space came into town to form the tourist destination of Newburyport today. 

Newburyport's revival has been a product of a very healthy collaboration between public and private investors.  While the city led the way for infrastructure projects and other public space renovations like their waterfront park, local banks and private developers helped fund specific building projects.  This cooperative effort was widely effective in fanning the spark that boosted Newburyport out of its dark ages.   

Stay tuned for more to come.