Sixty-six years ago this morning, Allied armies landed on the coast of Normandy in the largest amphibious invasion in history. In 2004, we took a family trip to France. Here’s a video slideshow:
June 6th, 2010
Lincoln Monument Re-Dedication, 6/10
Please join Mayor James L. Milinazzo for a Ceremonial Re-Dedication of the Lincoln Monument
Thursday, June 10, 2010, at 11 a.m.
LINCOLN SQUARE
2 Lincoln Street
(corner of Chelmsford Street)
The monument was “Erected by The School Children of Lowell” in 1909 as a memorial to our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. Through the cooperative effort of the Lowell Heritage Partnership and the City of Lowell the monument has been restored and refurbished this spring.
To RSVP or for more information call or email Diane Bujnowski at (978) 970-4041or dbujnowski@lowellma.gov
Special thanks to the staffs of the City Manager’s Office, Lowell Historic Board, and City’s Parks and Recreation Dept. for their efforts in overseeing the monument restoration and site spruce-up. Funding from the Human Services Corp. Endowment at the Greater Lowell Community Foundation allowed the Lowell Heritage Partnership to contribute to the project.
City Council, Culture, Education, History, Lowell, Politics | 
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June 6th, 2010
UMass Lowell Groundbreaking, 6/8
From the UMass Lowell Public Affairs Office:
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June 6th, 2010
In Honor of the D-Day Generation
Out of respect for the D-Day generation, Pam Platt of the Courier-Journal of Kentucky and Indiana wrote a column about “earning” what those who sacrificed gave us. Read her column here, which I picked up from the political news aggregator site realclearpolitics.com.
Education, Election 2010, History, Lowell, Politics | No Comments »
June 6th, 2010
50 years ago: A Trip Down Memory Lane
June 6th, 2010 by Marie
This is my first post since our technical difficulties. It seems like I’m starting all over again as a blogger and as a creature of habit I’ll need to get my bearings with this new format and even newer rules for wrting and posting! Please be patient.
Let’s take a quick trip down “Memory Lane” to June 1, 1960 – courtesy of the Lowell SUN of that date – all editions. As I’ve noted so many times in taking these trips, some issues, activities and controversies are ever with us!
Front and Back Pages:
• Dracut State Forest was searched by DA’s office officials, Lowell and Dracut police and thirty soldiers from Ft. Devens looking for some clues in the slaying of Betty Edgerly.
• House Ways & Means Committee approved $3m for a highway link between Route 3 and Pawtucket Boulevard in Lowell – included new a bridge over the Merrimack River. (The rest as they say is history.) read more »
June 6th, 2010
“Smokestack Lightning” by Steve O’Connor due soon
June 5th, 2010 by PaulM
Watch for news about a book-launching for Stephen O’Connor’s collection of short stories, “Smokestack Lightning,” forthcoming from Loom Press this month. Most of the stories are set in and around Lowell or a place that could be Lowell. Steve and Dave Daniel of Westford and Lowell will join forces for a doubleheader book party at the Old Court in a few weeks. Stay tuned for details.
June 6th, 2010
Innovative Cities Conference
June 5th, 2010 by PaulM
There’s still time to register for the Innovative Cities Conference coming up at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center on June 17, 18 & 19. Featured speakers include White House official Adolfo Carrion and National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis. Why would folks from Lowell or the Merrimack Valley want to attend? To find out how to make places like Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, and Newburyport better places to live, work, and enjoy themselves.
Urban experts from Asheville, N.C.; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Milwaukee, Wis.; Portland, Oregon; and Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as from Lowell will be speaking about what makes their cities work well.
The Saturday morning hearing on urban policy is free; US Rep Tsongas will chair the forum, sponsored by the Northeast-Midwest Institute, a think tank supporting members of Congress from the NE-MW Coalition.
For details on registration, speakers, and program times, visit www.innovativecitiesconference.com
June 6th, 2010
“Great Blue Heron” by Tom Sexton
Posted by PaulM
This poem by Tom Sexton will be incorporated into a work of public art on the Concord River Greenway, along with selections of writing by Henry Thoreau, Jack Kerouac, and Paul Tsongas in other artworks along the river path.—PM
.
Great Blue Heron
Far from the marsh and oxbows of Concord,
I stood on a bridge as the sun was coming up
watching a Great Blue Heron in the shallows
below an abandoned tannery that turned the water
different colors from dye that seeped from cribs.
It was the color of driftwood, motionless as stone,
ephemeral as the threads of cloud overhead
before light flooded the river and it disappeared.
.
I stood for a long time waiting for it to reappear
in the shallows again as if it were a god returned
to tell me something. A passing truck that shook
the crumbling bridge made me turn, and when
I looked again, it was there in the shallows
with a struggling fish in its long yellow beak.
.
—Tom Sexton (c) 2007
from “A Clock With No Hands” (Adastra Press)
June 6th, 2010
Massachusetts Democratic State Convention
I spent Friday night and all day Saturday at the DCU Center in Worcester (formerly known as the Worcester Centrum) for the 2010 Democratic State Convention. On Friday night, Secretary of State Bill Galvin and Attorney General Martha Coakley, both running unopposed in the Democratic Primary, were nominated by acclamation. There was also a tribute to State Auditor Joe DeNucci is is not seeking reelection after 24 years in office.
Saturday began with a roll call of the delegates followed by the nomination of and speeches by Lt Governor Tim Murray and Governor Deval Patrick (I video recorded both and will post them here and on YouTube later today). Next came the two contested races: State Treasurer and State Auditor (more on them below) and the day wrapped up with a moving tribute to the late Senator Ted Kennedy.
In the race for the Democratic nomination for Treasurer, there are two candidates: Steve Grossman and Boston City Councilor Steve Murphy. Grossman won the endorsement of the convention, receiving 3080 (84.38%) votes to Murphy’s 570 (15.62%). Murphy’s percentage, while small, is significant. Had he received less than 15%, he would not advance to the ballot in the primary.
The vote in the three-way auditor’s race was much closer: Former State Representative Suzanne Bump received 1368 votes (37.73%) to Worcester Sheriff Guy Glodis’s 1350 (37.23%) while Mike Lake in his first run for elective office received 908 (25.04%). All three will be on the ballot.
Delegates are seated and the votes are cast by State Senate District. The results for the First Middlesex (which includes Lowell) were Grossman 47 and Murphy 18 in the Treasurer’s race and Glodis 32, Lake 23 and Bump 10 in the Auditor’s contest.
June 6th, 2010
‘Flowering City’ update
June 6th, 2010 by PaulM
In 1996, an illustrated article on the front page of the SUN followed by a community planning workshop involving more than 150 people at Lowell High School brought the concept of a greener Lowell to the front of the city’s brain. The gathering was called the Project Anthopolis Charrette—anthopolis is a neologism that means “flowering city.” The late Peter Stamas coined the term. The purpose of the project was to move Lowell beyond a bricks-and-mortar revitalization, which was well along the way to fulfillment, to a sustainable community development initiative rooted in the distinctive natural and cultural heritage resources of Lowell—those assets that could be cultivated in every sense by the community for all their value. A lavishly illustrated report and plan for achieving the Flowering City vision was produced in 1997 by the Human Services Corp. of Lowell. A few years later, George Duncan of Enterprise Bank raised the Flowering City logo in the Back Central neighborhood with a permanent sign over a new branch bank on Gorham Street.
Thanks to the community workshop and plan that emerged from it, but mostly due to the natural inclinations of Lowell people, organizations, and businesses, the city’s “greenways, blueways, environmental-ways, and thematic/cultural gardens” have flourished over the past 14 years. Think of all the progress that’s been made, from Canalway path expansion and Whistler Park on Worthen Street to the Concord River Greenway and Enterprise Bank gardens around the city.
Let us know what’s happening in your neighborhood, at your business, or in your yard. At my home we’ve got great color with various marigolds, white geraniums, the mountain laurel bush just going past bloom, purple salvia, red-white-and-pink dianthus, and more. The one old grape vine is doing its best to weave itself through the arbor. (If you want to see grape vines, walk through Back Central or “the garden district,” as I call it.)
The Flowering City Project website isn’t live on the web these days, so I’ll check into the status. The report and plan should be available online.
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