Some city councilors must like downtown Peabody just the way it is - a tired urban core with lots of underutilized properties and whose main thoroughfare is used primarily as a means to get from the regional highways to Salem's bustling city center. How else to explain the skepticism that's been expressed about a reasonable proposal to alter the city's zoning map to encourage a more realistic vision for the area that runs along Main and Walnut streets between Peabody Square and the Salem line.
This neighborhood is currently zoned for industrial uses - tanneries and the like - which were a mainstay of Peabody's economy several generations ago, but have long since departed. But rather than change the zoning to encourage new uses for these properties, some would rather they remain in their present, decayed state instead of being converted into something for which there is great demand these days - housing.
Raising the specter of hordes of families invading downtown Peabody and - horror of horrors - sending their children to the city's schools, councilors have thus far resisted the proposal put forward by Mayor Michael Bonfanti and his planning team. Better, they seem to be saying, that downtown Peabody remain the place lots of people drive through, but never stop in, on their way from one destination to another.
This is the place that never recovered from the loss of New Brothers, the popular Main Street restaurant that left for Danvers Square many years ago. The parking lot next to the New Brothers building, once packed every noontime, is now empty most days. Meanwhile, Peabody's loss has definitely been downtown Danvers' gain, as anyone who has had to search for a space behind the restaurant's present building on Maple Street can attest.
Other cities - Salem, Lynn and Haverhill, to name three - have discovered that turning old factory sites into residences is a great way to revitalize their downtowns. In contrast to the old urban renewal plans that focused on attracting new retail uses, people like prominent economist Edward Glaeser of Harvard say that if you encourage people to live downtown, the stores will surely follow.
And studies have shown that the increased property values such development generates will go a long way toward paying for whatever increased services, including additional teachers and classroom space, might be required. Not to mention the benefits that come from having new businesses to patronize and new people adding to the life of a community.
But some politicians are no doubt perfectly happy with the status quo. It's what got them elected, after all.
