Haverhill’s Mayor James J. Fiorentini delivers remarks during the city’s Monday, Jan. 1 Inauguration Ceremony at City Hall. (WHAV News photograph)
For his upcoming eighth term in office, Mayor James J. Fiorentini is ready to usher in the “Haverhill of the future.”
During Monday’s inauguration ceremony, the city’s longest-running top official outlined his plan to extend the revitalization of downtown to Haverhill’s outskirts and beyond.
“This Haverhill Renaissance didn’t happen by accident. It happened because we used zoning and State incentives to build a better future,” Fiorentini told the audience gathered in the same City Hall auditorium where he took his first oath of office 14 years ago.
Fiorentini told constituents he will not let Haverhill lag behind other cities in the Commonwealth when it comes to housing, economic growth, public safety and education.
With the introduction of Harbor Place’s UMass Lowell campus and the upcoming Lupoli Companies’ Haverhill Heights complex, Haverhill is posed to enter its “second Renaissance,” the mayor said. To make that a reality, Fiorentini wants to move beyond downtown.
“There is plenty of work to do downtown, but it can no longer be the only place we grow or we stagnate,” he admitted.
Fiorentini is hopeful the Baker-Polito administration’s new Housing Choice Initiative will aid the city in its slow and steady growth plan to increase housing options in Haverhill. In the meantime, he assured residents that education and safety remain a top priority.
“Our efforts to improve our city cannot wait for a master plan, nor can our efforts to keep you safe. Haverhill is a safe city, where overall crime continues to go down and went down again in 2017, and we intend to keep it that way,” Fiorentini said, acknowledging that 10 police officers have been added to the department during his tenure.
“The thing that can never wait, is to lend a helping hand to our neighbors and to continue to make Haverhill a city where all, regardless of the language that they speak, or the country that they came from, all are welcome here.”