Quincy Next Strategic Plan (2018)

Civic leadership in Quincy saw in the fall of 2016 that the city was at a crossroads. Unemployment was low, but employers struggled to find qualified skilled workers. The local economy was shifting. Manufacturing remained an important but shrinking sector, while the number of healthcare, retail and professional services jobs had ballooned.

Demographics also were shifting. The number of residents age 65 and older had grown significantly, while the number of residents age 25 to 49 had shrunk.

The revitalization of Quincy’s historic Downtown, guided by the 1996 Teska Plan, was happening slowly. Retail storefronts were filling in with new restaurants and locally-owned shops, and investment in rehabbing upper-floor apartment units was growing.

However, development along the city’s riverfront had stagnated. City services were being stretched thin as new development pushed further around the city’s edges. Retail centers that had been the city’s primary revenue generators were feeling the pinch of changing shopping preferences and reduced in-store purchasing.

These trends meant change was necessary for Quincy — change in the workforce needed for continued economic success, change in the assets and amenities offered to attract and retain professionals and their families, change to its approach to development to be efficient and productive. Change presents not just an opportunity, but an imperative, for the community to re-examine its policies and resources, and to work toward aligning those forces.

A recognition of this opportunity and imperative led to the Quincy Next Strategic Plan(PDF, 18MB).

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