The state had to step in with special legislation authorizing the city to float $35 million in bonds, and appointing a fiscal overseer to put the budget back in order.īy October 2019, after a decade of state control, Lawrence was consistently producing on-time budgets and annual surpluses earned three credit rating increases and had built its cash reserves to nearly $19 million-a cushion that has enabled the city to invest more in much-needed services for its residents. Here are just a few of the ways the city of Lawrence is remarkably different today than it was a decade ago:Ĭity finances: In 2010, Lawrence was facing a $27 million operating deficit. Today, in 2021, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, and other national publications are holding Lawrence up as a model of civic engagement, educational reform, transportation innovation, and more. Rather than cowering in a corner and licking its wounds, though, the city, led by dozens of elected officials, business, and community leaders, stepped up to take on the formidable task of turning Lawrence into one of those “resurgent cities” the Fed was discovering.Īnd what tremendous progress our city has made in 10 years. Just after the Fed released its report, back in February 2011, a tabloid-style sensationalist headline in Boston magazine famously labeled Lawrence the “ City of the Damned” for the financial, social, and political challenges it faced.

It’s a lesson that leaders in the city of Lawrence, once one of the Commonwealth’s most troubled Gateway Cities, and now one of its most improved, have taken to heart.

The Damned by L.A. Banks