Salem — Mayor Dominic Pangalo used the Jan. 6, 2025 council session to name Salem's first poet laureate and outline a range of initiatives and challenges the city will address in 2025, with an emphasis on housing, schools and climate resilience.

Pangalo announced JD Scrimgeour as Salem's inaugural poet laureate and introduced him to recite a poem titled "16/25." "It gives me great pleasure to announce that Salem's 1st poet laureate is JD Scrimgeour," the mayor said before the recitation.

On housing, Pangalo said the city broke ground in 2024 on projects that will create 185 new affordable housing units but said the need is much larger: "One recent study found that Salem needs 2,200 new housing units over the coming decade to stabilize rents and prices," he said. The mayor described a constituent case he identified as "Sandra," who moved out of Salem after a rent increase that would have consumed more than 60% of her income; the mayor said Sandra's situation illustrated the broader housing-pressure problem.

Pangalo listed several proposed steps for 2025: revise zoning that requires excess parking and blocks certain housing types; advance an ordinance to slow condo conversions that he said removed around 60 rental units last year; propose new financing mechanisms for the city's affordable housing trust fund; and offer faster internal review processes for housing projects.

On education, Pangalo highlighted gains in Salem Public Schools: two Salem schools — Horace Mann Laboratory School and Salem High School — were among 57 Massachusetts schools named as schools of recognition. He said Salem's district leads the 26 gateway cities in the number of accountability targets met or exceeded and credited gains across Salem high schools and multilingual student performance.

Pangalo also outlined transportation and climate priorities: sustaining the Salem Skipper (local transit), advancing the South Salem train station project, continuing Vision Zero efforts (the city program to reduce traffic fatalities), and pursuing an offshore wind port project and other climate actions. He reported infrastructure work last year including nearly 300 newly planted city trees and a citywide sidewalk repair initiative.

The mayor cited several city programs and supports: Salem Power Choice (a shared electricity program the mayor said saved ratepayers nearly $22 million); Uplift Salem, a guaranteed basic income pilot; ARPA-funded heating assistance to nearly 800 families; and a housing-stability service, which the mayor said helped more than 700 Salem residents in 2024 and provided free legal assistance in partnership with the Essex County Bar Association.

Ending — The mayor framed 2025 as a year to write a new chapter for Salem, urging collaborative work across city government, schools and the community. Poet laureate JD Scrimgeour closed his recitation before the mayor continued with the address.