LCTV’s broadcast of the 2026 Inauguration Ceremony for the Mayor, City Council, and School Committee of Lynn, Massachusetts. As part of the ceremony there were performances by Poet Laureate Michelle “La Poetica” Richardson, Iskwelahang Pilipino of Boston (Traditional Filipino Dance), and In the Mak’n (ITM) Dance Group.

After a short break, the newly inaugurated members of the Lynn City Council convened to hold their organizational meeting. Watch that meeting by clicking here.

Mayor Nicholson’s Inaugural Remarks

Traducción al español disponible cambiando el idioma en la esquina inferior izquierda.

School Committee Members and City Councilors, State legislators, honored guests and officials, my fellow Lynners: Thank you all for being here.

Gracias a todos por estar aquí.

Thank you to all our wonderful performers and participants for making this night so special.

Thank you to my wife Katherine, my sons Henry and Benjamin, my parents, and my entire family for being here with me tonight and for all your incredible support.

Thank you to my staff and the entire City team for your remarkable service to our community.

I want to thank Councilor Walsh for his service to Ward 7 and the entire City as President of the Council. And I want to congratulate our emcee tonight, my councilor and friend and the next City Council President, Coco Alinsug.

Congratulations to all the Councilors and School Committee Members on your inauguration. Special congratulations to our new members, Councilor Avery, Councilor Paez, Member Ortiz-McGrath, and Member Smith. I look forward to working with all of you.

Thanks also to all our veterans, to whose sacrifice this building is dedicated. Thank you for your service.

When we were inaugurated four years ago, we had lots of questions. How are we going to recover from COVID-19? From there, how can we grow in a way that’s inclusive? Today, we can say we have answered some of those important questions.

We asked, can a city produce housing that is affordable across a full range of incomes?

Over the last four years, we have shown that the answer is “yes.” We have developed more than 1,000 housing units including several dozen affordable units with hundreds more affordable units currently under construction.

We asked, can a city with limited resources address overcrowding in its schools?

We answered, “yes.” The new Pickering Middle School will open in two years and solve overcrowding in our middle schools.

At the high school level, we have added more than 1,000 seats through ingenuity and collaboration, opening Frederick Douglass Collegiate Academy and the City Arts and Science Academy as well as new vocational shops at Lynn Tech.

These building moves have also helped us in our effort to increase access to the critically formative years of pre-K education. We have added hundreds of seats and, for the first time in recent memory, every family with a 4-year-old who signed up for an LPS seat got one.

Out of necessity we asked, can a city put a stop to a wave of gang violence?

In an effort led by the Lynn Police with help from public safety partners and the community more broadly, including intensive community engagement and participation, we answered “yes.” Along with the LPD, nonprofits, City Departments, our District Attorney, and others stepped up to provide more safe spaces and activities for our young people when they need them most.

We asked, will Lynn ever emerge from state financial oversight?

We answered, “yes.” Despite barreling toward bankruptcy twice in the last forty years, we are now in sound financial condition and not only exited state oversight but earned a credit ratings upgrade.

Four years ago we asked, can we effectively and responsibly manage and disburse a one-time infusion of $75 million, a level of federal investment unlike anything we have seen in decades?

Through strong community dialog and collaboration across sectors, we answered “yes,” wisely spending all our American Rescue Plan Act dollars to both help our residents recover and make lasting positive change to our parks, roads and sewers that will benefit our community for generations.

This year we asked, can a city stand up for immigrants and diversity, equity and inclusion and still accomplish what it needs to for our residents?

Together, we have answered, “yes.” Over and over again we have affirmed our support for our immigrant neighbors. The federal government has intentionally inflicted pain and fear on our neighbors and this community, but it has not broken our commitment to remain open and welcoming and to the principles of due process and democratic accountability. I am proud to have stood with my fellow elected officials for our values and am proud to stand tonight with the diverse group of officials on this stage who reflect and represent our community.

We should be proud of the questions that we have answered so far. But some big ones remain for us to work on.

Can we build the waterfront we want? The waterfront is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the city, but it feels like we have been waiting a lifetime for it to fully happen. The city is counting on us to deliver and I know we are well on our way.

Can we reach the scale of redevelopment downtown that we need to successfully complete its revitalization?

There is real, hard-won progress downtown, and yet every day that progress is tested. Some projects are coming that will help us turn a corner, particularly the redevelopment of the MBTA garage, and we must see them through.

Can we replenish a stretched police force and achieve lasting peace in our community?

I thank the members of the Lynn Police Department for their service and encourage our young people to consider a career in public safety. We need your help to sustain peace in our community. In the coming weeks, we will announce some exciting next steps in the collaborative, proactive approach that we have taken to prevent community violence and keep every neighborhood safe.

Another important question remains, can cities still get big infrastructure projects done?

We have done some already. The City was missing a senior center. Thanks in large part to the incredible advocacy and participation of our senior community, we acquired and outfitted a great one.

Many more infrastructure projects are still in progress. For example, the rehabilitation of the Fayette Street Fire Station to bring that facility up to the condition that our amazing firefighters deserve. The reconstruction over the next several years of Western Ave, Essex Street, and the Lynnway. Our shared effort with Swampscott to finally clean King’s Beach. And our advocacy that the State live up to its infrastructure responsibilities in providing our region the access to public transit that we have long been denied but so clearly deserve.

To get these and other projects done, we need good execution.

As we execute, we cannot lose touch with our values, including genuine resident engagement. If we want to keep making progress, we also need to keep building trust by showing results.

I’d like to take a minute to thank the young artists from Raw Art Works who decorated the stage tonight, it looks amazing. The butterflies you see behind me represent the beauty of transformation and growth. The butterfly is also a symbol of the beauty and power of human migration.

We wanted to highlight the theme of transformation because all these questions that we have answered and are still working to answer are driving a transformation in Lynn in two ways.

First, each time we make the answer to one of these questions “yes,” potential turns into reality.

A housing plan that was considered radical transforms into the new status quo. An office building transforms into a trailblazing school. A dump transforms into a signature waterfront attraction. A call from activists to reimagine public safety transforms into a dedicated phone number that dispatches our Calm Team of unarmed responders.

Second, each time we answer “yes,” we transform how we see ourselves. Instead of talking about Lynn’s potential we are talking about Lynn’s record. We are building a reputation as a community that gets things done and takes care of one another. A community where growth for all of us is a defining characteristic.

These transformations help Lynn do our part to help the country live up to our creed that we are all created equal. In our country today, our most welcoming places are under attack, besieged by both rising costs and emboldened discrimination. Our democracy depends on our ability to beat back that attack while still delivering the transformation we need. That is our work together.

Congratulations to my colleagues and thank you to the people of Lynn for the trust you have placed in us. Let’s continue to transform and let’s continue to say “yes” together.

inaugural ceremony program