Two weeks into his term, Correia is tackling the economic malaise that has depressed this waterfront city for decades. Also on his agenda is dumping the city's meek motto: "We'll try."

"It's on our seal somewhere," said Correia, a Democrat. "We've got to change that."

New York state welcomed its youngest mayor this month in 25-year-old Republican Billy Barlow in Oswego. Kurt Cobain's hometown of Aberdeen, Washington, elected 23-year-old Democrat Erik Larson. Other young mayors have matured into incumbency, such as Republican Erin Stewart, elected at 26 in New Britain, Connecticut, and now in her second term.

But no one as young as Correia (whose name is pronounced JAY'-zil koh-RAY'-uh) has been elected to run a city as big as Fall River, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Correia will be in the company of hundreds of other urban mayors, along with President Barack Obama, when the conference holds its winter gathering this week in Washington.

The population of Fall River, a longtime immigrant destination, dropped from a high of more than 120,000 to fewer than 89,000 over the past century along with the decline of the textile industry. It's better known as the site of the 1892 ax killings of which Lizzie Borden — later immortalized in a macabre nursery rhyme — was acquitted.