We were pleased to print the entire text of the State of the Town address delivered by Town Council President Jim Letterie in last week’s Sun-Transcript and we hope that all of our readers took the time to read it.
Jim well-summarized the progress that the town has made in the past year and addressed the issues facing the town in the coming months.
However, there was one line in Jim’s address that stuck in our mind:
“In most other cities and towns, the completion of a 29-unit apartment building would not be major news…â€
Jim was referring to the new apartment building in the Centre on Somerset Ave. and his observation is absolutely correct.
Compared to our neighboring communities of East Boston, Revere, Everett, and Chelsea, where large-scale housing complexes are springing up seemingly-monthly in what had been long-forgotten areas of those cities, a 29-unit apartment building would be nothing more than a footnote.
But as long-time residents know well, this has been the situation for our town for almost 100 years. In the 1890s and early 1900s, Winthrop was among the fastest-growing municipalities in the state when our population numbered a few thousand.
But by the 1930s, we were at almost 17,000 residents and since the 1940s, our population essentially has remained remarkably static. According to the 1950 U.S. Census, Winthrop had a population of 19,496 — and in 2020, it was 19,316.
This stability has been a function ’s geography — in terms of land area, we are the second-smallest town in the state, exceeded in our diminutiveness only by Nahant, another town located on a peninsula.
Off the top of our head, we can count on one hand the major projects that have occurred in Winthrop since the end of World War II: the development of the single-family homes on the land of the former Tafts Inn at the end of Pt. Shirley in the 1950s; Michael’s Mall in the late 1960s; Governors Park and the senior housing complex at the former Ft. Banks in the early 1970s; the Seal Harbor high-rises at the former Ft. Heath in the late ‘70s and ‘80s; and most-recently, the redevelopment of the former Winthrop Hospital.
This lack of growth has had its advantages. Although parking is a huge problem in many areas of town, we do not have the almost 24/7 traffic congestion and noise that plague our neighboring communities. Our isolated existence has allowed us to maintain the same small-town feel that has attracted residents to Winthrop for 100 years — and which is why so many of our families in town are multi-generational.
So we were pleased to see Jim point out the many improvements that have occurred in town over the past year, as well as his acknowledgment of the superb job performed by our municipal, school, and public safety employees, who make Winthrop a livable community for all of us.
Here at the Sun-Transcript, we like to say that in comparison to our other newspapers in nearby cities, the “big news†in Winthrop each week is, “The tide came in…and the tide went out…â€
And we think most of our fellow residents would agree, that is a good thing.