a tale of three cities

We spent a few hours yesterday in Haverhill, MA (say 'HAIV-rill') and it was quite interesting. Haverhill was a major shoe production center back in the day, along with Brockton, Lynn, and to a lesser degree, Newburyport. Before that it was a market town for the upper MA and southern NH Merrimack River valley area. I dimly remember (or remember hearing about) a disastrous downtown fire, and then the misguided redevelopment efforts of the 1970s. (A bank building of that era provides ample testimony.) In my growing-up years, Haverhill was a sad place: downtown of vacant, weed-infested lots. Polluted river. Left-behind commercial area "anchored" by the Registry of Motor Vehicles. (If you are from Mass., and over the age of 35, you will understand what a cruel irony the last one is.)

Right now, in the midst of economic doom-and-gloom, Haverhill seems HOT to me. I'm intrigued, and interested in teasing out the differences between it and other, not-hot places on the North Shore of Boston.

Let's compare with two other cities: Newburyport; and Peabody.

Pop: Haverhill 56K, up from 46K in 1980. Wow! What's THAT about?
Newburyport: about 20K
Peabody: about 50K

Economic base: Haverhill: not sure
Newburyport: tourism downtown; industrial park in the swampland south of town
Peabody: Northshore Mall, Centennial Industrial Park

Place promotion "hooks": Haverhill: Merrimack River, John Greenleaf Whittier; shoes.
Newburyport: Merrimack River and sea access, historically significant architectural assemblages
Peabody: George Peabody, low taxes for biz; what else?? (commercial district is tiny; prevailing community attitude in historic areas favors parking lots, vinyl siding, and chain link fencing)

State and federal funding: Haverhill: not much evidence of it: T station might be a bonus - it's on the Amtrak route to Portland; ancient streetscape improvements on River St. Everything lately appears to be grassroots; there is no evidence of recent major dollars for upgrades.
Newburyport: Congressmen really brought home the bacon in the 1970s - the renovated downtown is spiffy and oh-so-Federalist, but a bit of a stage-set.
Peabody: $6M in downtown infrastructure in the mid-1980s, but it looks a bit tired now. The focus on "getting the traffic through" to Salem makes downtown a bit of a traffic sewer to Salem, not pedestrian- or retail-friendly.

I was impressed with the can-do, make-it-work attitude I could see expressed physically in Haverhill. No waiting for grants; just get in there and slap some paint on the walls and open up a brew-pub -- or antique store, or gallery. In the end, that spirit will make this place successful, and make it endure.

It seems to me that one could develop an index (hello, Richard Florida!) as to the predictors of success of such small cities. As I say, I am intrigued...and thinking about this.