U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry got a first-hand view of downtown development Monday that included a tour of the Cyber District and lunch at the Capitol Diner.

The Massachusetts Democrat spent the morning listening to local government officials and business leaders explain their plans for the city's economic future.

"You are not alone in struggling with these kinds of issues," Kerry told the audience gathered at the Lynn Small Business Assistance Center in Central Square, adding that many Massachusetts cities are undergoing a transition from decaying industrial sites to re-emergent centers of e-commerce. "Everywhere I go, I see these situations. I'm glad everybody gets along here in Lynn. That's not always the case."

Kerry waxed briefly on the country's economic rises and falls, noting that Massachusetts was once heavily dependent on leather tanneries. That economic boom left behind widespread environmental pollution and contaminated industrial land.

"We go through waves, successive waves. We now see a new economic age, and we have to avoid making the same mistakes," he said. "We have to build clean. It's not jobs versus the environment - it's jobs and the environment. You can grow all you want, you just have to grow smart."

The senator listed Lynn's economic strengths - a burgeoning Cyber District, oceanfront, proximity to Logan International Airport, and a ready-made workforce.

"If I had my way, we would focus on bringing life back to our cities. We have to rebuild our urban areas. The cities that have life are the ones where people both work and live. They are livable cities," he said, making a pitch for increased mass transportation. "The automobile has its drawbacks - clogged streets, green house gasses and dependence on fossil fuels. That's why I've worked so hard to bring the Blue Line to Lynn."

According to Kerry, as the national economy continues to expand, Boston will experience an "outflow" that fosters increased demand for nearby commercial and residential property. In other words, places like Lynn will benefit, he said.

City Development Director Stephen Harausz updated the senator on key projects, such as the transatlantic fiber-optic cable that will stretch from Europe to the United States, making landfall in Lynn; the Goldblock Project on Munroe Street that will add Internet-ready office space; the newly refurbished Clock Tower building on the Lynnway; and plans to plant trees and lay new sidewalks in Central Square "to bring a little bit of Back Bay" to downtown Lynn.

"Clearly there's a lot going on," Harausz said. "There's a tremendous amount of new investment and new vision in the city."

Mayor Patrick J. McManus credited Kerry with helping Lynn capture the federal dollars necessary to fight crime, particularly through its community- policing program. The mayor said Lynn's crime rate has dropped 40 percent since the early 1990s.

Deputy Police Chief John Suslak acknowledged the success of community policing as a crime-fighting strategy. "We're trying to make a difference with our community policing," he said. "The true heroes are the men and women you see out there in uniform."

Suslak said the program is more than bicycle patrols, which are perhaps he most visible aspect. "We work with City Hall and the residents, and that makes a difference," he said, explaining that community policing officers quickly become acquainted with their patrol areas, identify neighborhood problems, consider solutions and devise action plans.

The mayor agreed.

"A safe city leads to a productive city," he said, maintaining that community policing eliminated much of the "illicit activities" that routinely occurred downtown. The elimination of the activities, in turn, made the area more attractive to potential investors, he said.

To illustrate his point, the mayor referred to the transatlantic cable and the building under construction on Commercial Street where World Wide Fiber will operate a telecommunications center.

"Millions of dollars are coming into the downtown," he said, noting that an additional "several hundred million dollars" could be en route from companies seeking to establish a presence near the cable connection or from competitive cable-laying firms in search of a landfall.

The mayor earned a burst of laughter when he joked that his trip to Ireland last year actually had a two-fold purpose - to get married as publicly announced, but more so to clandestinely negotiate the transatlantic cable deal.

Lowell Gray, founder of the Lynn-based Internet service company Shore.Net, said the cable's arrival in Lynn should strengthen the Cyber District. "That fact that Shore.Net will be so close to the cable means we can go there directly instead of going there through a middleman. It puts Shore.Net in a good position," he said.

Gray informed Kerry about the Internet company's growth and thanked him for helping obtain a series of government loans. "We've already outgrown our building on Oxford Street," he said.

Kerry used the lunchtime gathering at the Capitol Diner to lend political support to state Rep. Robert Fennell, a Lynn Democrat hoping to win membership in Tuesday's primary election to the Democratic State Committee for the 1st Essex Senate District.