Economic-assessment tool draws praise

This past summer, the city of Lynn made use of Northeastern University’s Economic Development Self Assessment Tool, a lengthy questionnaire designed to identify strengths and weaknesses and facilitate discussion among community stakeholders.

The questionnaire, known as the EDSAT, was developed by Northeastern’s Kitty & Michael Dukakis Center for Urban & Regional Policy. It consists of more than 200 questions spread among 10 categories, including the permitting process, tax incentives, tax rates, quality-of-life issues and the cost of land.

While the EDSAT has been available to communities since 2006, this was the first time that the center’s staff, including its director, Barry Bluestone, worked directly with a city or town to facilitate the process, according to Nancy Lee, a Dukakis Center research associate.

“We’ve been asking municipalities to assemble a group of not just municipal officials but also Chamber of Commerce and business leaders, job trainers, community college leaders,” Lee said. “The goal was to get all the components at the table.”

Leslie Gould, executive director of the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce, requested that Bluestone attend. She described the one-day session in late June, consisting of more than 20 people, as a “much-welcome catharsis.”

“It’s a rare opportunity when you can get city officials and business leaders in the room together in this type of forum,” Gould said.

General Electric is by far the largest employer in Lynn. But Gould said the EDSAT session helped to underscore the importance of the area’s small, family-run businesses. The majority of Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce members, she said, run businesses with fewer than 20 employees.

James Cowdell, Lynn’s economic development director, agreed that the results that emerged from the questionnaire are useful.

“We look forward now to taking that information and implementing it,” he said.