The City of Lynn, long an only child, is looking for a sister.

The City Council recently voted to ask Mayor Jared Nicholson and City Attorney James Lamanna to research the possibility of partnering with a foreign city for the Sister Cities International program, in which American and international municipalities create partnerships with each other. Lynn might now join 45 other Massachusetts towns and cities that participate in this project, including Marblehead, which is partnered with Grasse, France.

Some of the reactions to this news on social media were skeptical, with commenters expressing an unwillingness to pay for the program and simplifying the exchange as a way for Lynn to assist a foreign city. 

The city has not yet committed to joining the program, and officials might find that it is ultimately not worth it for Lynn. For now, though, it is an exciting possibility, and one that should not be dismissed out of hand.

Sister Cities International is not a foreign aid program but a collaborative exchange between two partners. It is a relationship that should also benefit the American municipality instead of being a one-way street. 

One example is the partnership between Nashville and Edmonton. When a delegation from Nashville visited its Canadian partner in 2018, both cities were working on plans to improve their transit systems. Due to their similar sizes, Nashville officials were able to examine and learn from the steps Edmonton was taking.

Examples like this show the collaborative nature of this program and the benefits Lynn could receive from it. While there are many things American cities and towns can teach places throughout the world about, it would be arrogant to assume that there is nothing they can learn from foreign municipalities. A close relationship with a foreign city dealing with similar problems and challenges as this one could help inform Lynn’s decision-making by showing what has, and has not, worked elsewhere.

On the question of cost, Sister Cities International has annual membership fees that are based on the community’s population. American municipalities with a population of 100,000 to 300,000 people pay $1,030 each year. This is a minimal cost for a city of this size, but if the residents of Lynn aren’t willing to pay it, then their priorities should be respected.

However, Ward 3 City Councilor Coco Alinsug said that the city would not necessarily even have to spend money and formally join Sister Cities International, as other countries could potentially send representatives to Lynn as a gesture of goodwill. If this is an option, then it could be an excellent way for Lynn to gain some of the advantages of the sister cities program if Lynners aren’t willing to foot the bill of the program.

Lynn is still researching what having a sister city would entail, and it might find that participating in the program is not in the city’s interest. But for now, I think it has a lot of potential and promise. People from all around the world settle in Lynn, and the city has always gained so much economically and culturally from its immigrants. To me, it is common sense that it would also benefit from a more formal partnership with a city somewhere else in the world.

Stuart Foster is The Item’s opinion editor.