Preparing to celebrate its 400th birthday in 2026, Salem, Massachusetts is “America’s bewitching seaport,” says Mayor Dominick Pangallo.
Although notorious for the witch trials of 1692, when 25 people died after being accused of witchcraft, there’s far more to Salem’s rich and remarkable history, including the first confrontation between the Red Coats and American colonists in 1775’s Salem Gunpowder Raid. “We’re proud to have been the site of that first act of resistance to British rule, and also the official birthplace of the National Guard,” says Mayor Pangallo.
As a harbor city, Salem also played a significant role in the commercial growth of the young nation. “The great age of sail was a significant time in our history, and people still visit Salem to learn about that,” says the Mayor. “In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Salem’s ships traveled the world trading goods, making us the wealthiest city per capita in America at the time, and also the home of America’s first millionaire, Elias Hasket Derby.”
From the historic House of the Seven Gables to the Peabody Essex Museum, America’s oldest continuously operating museum and a landmark institution for arts and culture, to Salem Maritime National Historic Site on the waterfront and a walkable downtown, Salem is a charming and eccentric city boasting an intriguing history and a strong connection to the sea. “It defines the character of our community,” Mayor Pangallo says. “We have a population of 45,000 people, but we welcome about four million visitors from around the world each year. It’s easy to get around and a great place to live, work, study in, or visit.”
Making housing a priority
As in most areas of the country, housing affordability is a challenge in Salem, and the city is working to get ahead of it, finding solutions to better meet demand and avoid prices outpacing the ability of its residents to afford to stay in Salem and raise their families. “[High housing prices] change the character of our community, which has historically been a place of great diversity and a working community,” says Mayor Pangallo.
The nonprofit organization, MassINC, completed a study last year finding that Salem needs to produce around 2,200 new housing units in the coming decade to overcome the current shortage while maintaining a reasonable vacancy rate and keeping up with projected population growth. “We’ve done it before, and I’m confident we can do it again,” the Mayor says, adding that there are a number of exciting projects under construction. “It’s achievable.”
The Exchange is one apartment complex that will provide 115 mixed-income units, to be built on what is currently a municipal parking lot next to the train station. “What’s especially exciting is not just the construction of housing units; it’s that the developers are also doing historic preservation and reuse of two vacant 19th-century courthouses across the street.” These iconic buildings are located at the gateway between the train station and downtown. “To have those restored and put back into active use is very exciting, and it’s possible because of The Exchange,” says Mayor Pangallo.
Lore, a 250-unit project being built on land near Salem State University, will have twice as many units offered at the affordability threshold, which is 60 percent of AMI (area median income), as ordinances require. The Schools projects are made possible by the North Shore Community Development Coalition (CDC), a key partner with the city. “They’re reusing two former Catholic school buildings to create 61 units of 100 percent affordable housing—one building for seniors and the other for artists.”
A third North Shore CDC project, El Centro, is at the intersection of the downtown and El Punto, Salem’s highest-density and lowest-income neighborhood, with numerous multifamily buildings. “It’s a very diverse population,” Mayor Pangallo says, “with a lot of people from the Dominican Republic and also growing populations from Venezuela and other countries. El Centro will have about 48 units of 100 percent affordable senior housing, but what’s especially exciting about that project is that it will include a new home for North Shore Community Health, our local community health center, and our first and only downtown urgent care facility.”
Forest River Residences, meanwhile, comprises 475 units, with 100 of those dedicated to seniors with affordability levels down to 30 percent of AMI. This is also a project that’s not just repurposing part of the Salem State University campus but is adjacent to one of the area’s largest conservation areas. It will include public trail improvements and new access points into the wetlands.
Last but not least is a partnership between Lifebridge North Shore, a homeless shelter operating in Salem, and a nonprofit housing developer, Harborlight Homes, working together to upgrade the shelter from its current 50 congregate beds to 70 non-congregate beds and add an improved day center facility for the unhoused in the community. Next door to the shelter, a new supportive housing building will replace an existing 12-unit single-room occupancy structure, with 53 studio apartments for formerly unhoused individuals.
“The idea is that folks moving out of the shelter site may be able to get stability in the supportive housing facility, and from there move on through additional opportunities for stability in housing,” says Mayor Pangallo. “It’s exciting work, but it’s taken a lot to get here. We’re also doing a lot in the world of policy to meet our community’s need for housing.”
This includes adopting an inclusionary housing ordinance and working to adopt Smart Growth zoning districts. “We have an ordinance pending right now to remove our arbitrary, nearly 60-year-old parking minimum mandate for multifamily housing to allow for projects to not have unused parking taking up space that could otherwise be available for housing. We’re not geographically large—only eight square miles—and multifamily housing is only allowed on less than one square mile of our city. To have land being used for unnecessary parking lots is extremely frustrating and problematic.”
A host of other policy changes include changing surplus property disposition ordinances so that when the city gets rid of property, it’s able to prioritize affordable housing to make space, land, and buildings available.
“It’s ongoing and important work,” says Mayor Pangallo. “It’s probably some of the most important work we do. We have a Housing Stability Coordinator in the Mayor’s Office who’s exclusively dedicated to helping vulnerable residents in crisis, while at the same time bridging the subsidy tools and the zoning tools we have to try to fix housing supply and make sure it meets our demand,” he explains.
He says the city strives to ensure it not only adds housing but does so in a way that prioritizes transit and trail-centered development, reducing the need to have a car. This means access to the ferry to Boston and commuter train station, with plans to build a second train station that will unlock additional areas for transit-oriented growth.
Always something to celebrate
Viewed as the “Halloween capital of America,” Salem is particularly busy in October, welcoming just over a million people in the month alone. “When you’re a city of 45,000 people, to welcome a million folks over a month in a very historic and walkable—but also compact—downtown takes a lot of planning,” says the Mayor.
Another big event is the city’s 400th birthday in 2026, which will feature a number of special events, parades, and festivals, as well as an opportunity to make substantial investments in the amenities on which the community relies. These include the Signature Parks Project, with more than $16 million invested in improvements to the city’s six busiest parks and public spaces in order to ensure they will remain vibrant and accessible for future generations.
The year 2026 will also see a community vote concerning the advancement of one of the largest public building projects in the city’s history: a much-needed, brand new high school.
Other exciting projects on the way include three new hotels, courthouse restorations, and, at the waterfront, the Friendship of Salem, a tall ship that has recently returned from long-term repairs and is being welcomed back for the 400th.
Looking to the sea—and to the future
Along the water, the city has welcomed a new public fishing pier at Salem Willows Park, opened earlier this year; a new ferry terminal building for service to Boston; and a transformational project for the waterfront on 42 acres of empty land following the demolition of one of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in America. Underway for the last five years, the latter project is “transforming the area into a heavy-lift deepwater port that will help create jobs, grow our tax base, and reactivate it as part of our working waterfront,” Mayor Pangallo says. “It will also support the clean energy economy, whose intention was initially to be used for offshore wind marshaling for turbines. It will be able to serve a variety of purposes for maritime use.”
Such projects are all about embracing the past while looking to the future. “Throughout our history, we’ve looked to the sea and to what’s possible on its horizon. That’s very much true today,” says the Mayor. “Salem has more diverse offerings for restaurants and shops than typically seen in a city of this size, and our connections to our history, including our Indigenous history, to the great age of sail, to our revolutionary history, and to historic architecture and literature, are all profoundly unique and very much characterize the spirit and the built environment of our city today,” he says.
“Salem is truly a unique city. We have the spirit and offerings of a large city, but the affordability and neighborliness of a smaller town. It’s a great mix, and it’s always been that way. I grew up in this city, and I’ve seen that my entire life. Generations of Americans and those hoping to become Americans have found a place in Salem and transformed this famous gateway city into a place where, instead of turning on our neighbors, as happened here in 1692, we turn toward them and lift each other up,” says Mayor Pangallo. “And we’re proud of that.”
