As a city Newburyport benefits from the density and amenity that our village downtown offers. For residents the center brings all of the possibilities to live life well on a daily basis. Restaurants, retail, medical and dental care, financial and legal services are available and, in my opinion, almost completely adequate to make Newburyport a supremely livable city.

Now, don’t get me wrong, as a suburban entity, Newburyport is top level. Plenty of open spaces, plenty of cars to drive around in and plenty of strip malls. My issue is that I prefer the city aspects of Newburyport better than the suburban aspects.

As a city, Newburyport has a slightly smaller population than optimal. I’d like to see more density in the downtown area, more young adults in apartments and condos by the train station, and more diversity in both our population and in our economy.

There are lots of reasons not to grow. People are concerned with school costs. Some people don’t want anything to change from their high school glory days, and there is a certain amount of disruption in the process of growing.

Personally, I like living in the City of Newburyport and I’m of the mind that entities have to grow and evolve or they stagnate and die.

Ron Martino, Newburyport