Archive for January 7th, 2011

January 7th, 2011

Neighbors Urged to Attend Public Safety Subcte. Meeting, 1/11

by PaulM

I picked up this message from the Lowell Highlands Neighborhood Group at Gerry Nutter’s place:

“Urging you to attend – City Council Public Safety Subcommitte – Tuesday 1/11/11 – 5:00 – 6:30PM

“Lower Highlands Friends,

“We continue to mourn the loss of Corinna Ouer, a young woman who called the Lower Highlands home, after the heinous act of violence early on New Year’s Day. Our thoughts and prayers remain with her family and friends, for the speedy recovery of the other seven victims from that night, and for the safety of all the residents of our neighborhood and the City of Lowell.

“I am unable to make sense of what happened last weekend, and I know from hearing from so many of you, that you feel the same way. In an effort to get some perspective on the violence that has affected our neighborhood and what can be done to address it, the City Council Public Safety Subcommittee will be meeting on Tuesday, January 11 from 5:00 – 6:30PM in the City Council Chamber at City Hall. The Lowell Police Superintendent and the Middlesex District Attorney have been requested to attend.

“Although the Police are on the front lines of responding to crime, we as residents of the City of Lowell are all its victims. We must send a message to our City leaders that we want our neighborhoods to be safer, that we do not want to loose another young person like this, that any efforts taken by the City must include the community – and most importantly, that those efforts not wane until another senseless act of violence claims an innocent life or leaves our community in fear.

“I am urging you to attend the City Council Public Safety Subcommittee Meeting on Tuesday, January 11 and to encourage your members to do that same. The meeting is scheduled for 5:00PM and will likely continue until 6:30PM. If you can attend all or even some portion of this meeting, please consider attending. By filling the City Council Chamber, we will demonstrate our unity as a community to urge our leaders to take extraordinary measures to help our City’s neighborhoods be safer by engaging all members of our community in that goal. You are welcome to address the Council, but you are not required to do so – your presence means just as much.

“Thank you, and as always, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please get in touch.

“Taya Dixon Mullane, President, Lower Highlands Neighborhood Group”

CategoryHistory, Lowell | CommentNo Comments »

January 7th, 2011

US Bank v Ibanez: More chaos in housing

by DickH

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a much anticipated decision today that, while properly decided, will result in further damage to our country’s already injured housing market. Here are the facts of US Bank v Ibanez: In December 2005, Antonio Ibanez borrowed $103,000 from Rose Mortgage Company to finance the purchase of a home in Springfield. The loan was secured by a mortgage on the home.

Almost immediately, Rose Mortgage injected Ibanez’s promissory note and mortgage into the national securitization stream, transferring it to Option One which transferred it to Lehman Brothers which transferred it to Structured Asset Securities Corporation which transferred it along with 1200 other mortgages to US Bank as trustee for a pool of mortgage-backed securities that were sold to investors. As was the prevailing practice in the lending industry at the time, the legal documents needed to properly effectuate all of these transfers were either incomplete, inaccurate, or non-existent.

In the meantime, Mr. Ibanez defaulted on his loan and US Bank foreclosed, purchasing the property for itself at the auction. When US Bank sought to sell the property to a third party, the various assignment documents tracing ownership of the mortgage from Rose to US Bank were nowhere to be found. US Bank filed a petition in the Land Court requesting the judge to rule that US Bank had good title to the property. The Land Court judge disagreed, ruling that because US Bank was unable to document its status as holder of the mortgage, its foreclosure was invalid. US Bank appealed to the Massachusetts Appeals Court but recognizing the far-reaching implications of this case, the Supreme Judicial Court agreed to decide the matter immediately.

In affirming the decision of the Land Court, the SJC held that an assignment of some type must have been in existence before a foreclosure may be conducted. Unfortunately, the practice in the national lending industry during this past real estate bubble was so shoddy and so contrary to nearly 350 years of real estate practice, that problems of this type might exist in a majority of all foreclosures (and this case does apply retroactively to foreclosures already conducted). read more »

CategoryCurrent Events | CommentNo Comments »

January 7th, 2011

The Sun’s “Death Panel” distortion

by DickH

Mike Luciano, a regular reader of and sometime contributor to this site, sent along the following post that takes issue with today’s Lowell Sun editorial:

I imagine that reading a Lowell Sun editorial is like walking through a house where multiple homicides have just occurred. You wander through in a state of disbelief as each turn reveals some new horror that’s beyond description. After you’ve finished touring the place you’re left shaking your head wondering, “What the hell happened here?” as you try to make sense of it all. But the truth is, you can never make sense of something that abominable.

Today’s Sun editorial is nothing short of deranged, rehashing as it does the “death panel” rhetoric that accompanied the health care reform debate in 2009 and 2010. For the record, I opposed Barack Obama’s health care plan in large part because of the individual mandate (which I find pernicious and unconstitutional), but I keep my critiques of it based in reality. However, any criticism of this legislation that presents “death panels” as a serious concern is wholly without merit and distorts the facts of the matter.

The “death panel” line was popularized by Sarah Palin in 2009 when she railed against a provision in the health care legislation that would reimburse doctors who offered optional end-of-life counseling to Medicare patients. That provision was removed and therefore not in the enacted version, but it was implemented in late December as a Medicare policy by the Obama administration before being withdrawn just days later—a development the Sun outrageously calls “a happy ending.”

For those unfamiliar with end-of-life planning, like the Lowell Sun, the point of such counseling is to make sure that patients get the treatment they desire if they are ever the victims of a medical event such as a coma, dementia, or some other affliction that incapacitates them. In most cases people who are incapacitated have no “living will” and thus have not made (legally binding) decisions on what kinds of treatment to pursue, or whether to pursue treatment at all. (Remember Terry Schiavo?) At that point it becomes up to the family members who are often left to wonder just what their ill relative would want.
But this isn’t how the Sun sees it because the editorial staff is looking at the issue through Palin’s Kawasaki glasses, which apparently paint the world the color crazy. Here’s the editorial’s take on end-of-life planning: read more »

CategoryCurrent Events, Politics | Comment7 Comments »

January 7th, 2011

Lowell City Manager in Timely Post: Sand/Salt Locations for Public Use

by Marie

There’s a timely post on the “Blog from the Office of the City Manager, Lowell MA” today. Noting the decentralization of the salt/sand supplies for Public Works use, the Manager also lists the neighborhood sites where the mixture is available for the public to use at home.

Bins have been placed at the following locations:

DPW Complex/Middlesex Street

Fire House/Old Ferry Road

Former SJA Church parking lot/White Street

Varnum School/Sixth Street

Robinson School/Beacon Street

Reilly School/Douglas Road

Muldoon Park/Billerica Street

 Riverside School/Woburn Street

Stoklosa School/Broadway

Kirwin Park/Lawrence Street

Oliveria Park/Chambers Street

Read the full blog post here: http://lowellma.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/city-decentralizes-sand-supplies-for-winter-storm-operations/

CategoryLowell | Comment1 Comment »

January 7th, 2011

State SJC Foreclosure Ruling Has Widespread Implications

by Marie

“BusinessUpdates” on today’s Boston.com is reporting that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has upheld a land court ruling in cases without proper paperwork in place. The implications are both local and federal.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today upheld a contentious land court ruling that puts in question the ownership of hundreds, possibly thousands, of foreclosed properties in the state.

The ruling challenges the way lenders have traditionally foreclosed on properties — without having all the paperwork in place at the time a home is seized. It affirms a 2009 lower court decision that invalidated foreclosures on two Springfield homes because the lenders did not hold clear titles to the properties at the time of the proceedings.

Read the full article here at Boston.com.

CategoryCurrent Events, Greater Lowell, Lowell | Comment1 Comment »

January 7th, 2011

Former Clark Univ. Pres. Honored for Innovations in Worcester

by PaulM

Former Clark University President Richard P. Traina was honored recently with a leadership award in recognition of the bold, creative initiatives he championed at Clark that led to significant improvements on campus and in the community. Read the Worcester Telegram & Gazette article from Dec. 31, 2010, about Mr Traina and his accomplishments.

I obtained this link via the e-newsletter of the International Town and Gown Association.

CategoryEducation, History, Lowell | Comment1 Comment »

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January 7th, 2011

Civil War-era Cannon

by DickH

Tony Sampas takes a close-up look at the Civil War-era cannon that sits between Lowell City Hall and the Pollard Memorial Library

CategoryHistory, Lowell | Comment8 Comments »

January 7th, 2011

Governor’s Inaugural Address Sobering, If Stirring by Marjorie Arons-Barron

by Tony

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Governor Deval Patrick is nothing if not a good speaker, and his inaugural address today was no exception. It was sobering, as appropriate to the times, yet inspiring, as appropriate to the occasion. He touched on, but didn’t wallow in the accomplishments of the last four years but moved quickly to the challenges that lie immediately ahead. Underlying all aspects of his agenda is his sense of an intergenerational compact, what our generation gained from our forebears and what we must leave to our children and grandchildren.

His priorities are on jobs (he plans to be an ambassador to market Massachusetts), education (“Being first in the nation is a good start. Being first in the world is where we’re headed”), health costs (“We can’t stop till health care is as affordable as it is accessible”) and youth violence (“The cycle of violence in any community is a threat to all communities.”)

Fresh off a solid if unexpected campaign win, the Governor must now face the reality of making more than $1.5 billion in cuts in the state budget. It won’t be pretty. In a series of meetings with leading media, he made it clear that almost no program will be spared. He promises to “take some bolder steps” in enabling municipalities to deal with burgeoning employee health care costs. He also hopes to wring more out of the bloated public pension system. He spoke making the tax code simpler and fairer.
In the very near future, Patrick will be evaluating reports on the parole board and probation system and, as he told WBUR, for example, moving to create a modern system.  Both the Parole Board’s implementation of the rules and the logic of the rules themselves are being reviewed. His measured approach makes sense, and his commitment to reform is clear.

On all these issues, the Governor said, “I will stand up to anybody if that’s what it takes to bear our generational responsibility.” Let’s hope he does.

Let’s also hope that the passion and commitment he gave voice to today endures through the four years of his term, that he is freed by not running for re-election or for U.S. Senate or for President, to act in the most principled way, irrespective of what constituency he might offend.

He was somewhat clumsy in some media interviews in which he indicated that not only would he be travelling more during this term to market the Commonwealth, but also to support President Obama’s reelection campaign and to promote his book, an autobiography, for which he received a hefty advance. This became a troubling headline and prompted columns such as that of Brian McGrory, who wrote, “This is degenerating into something far less than we hoped, this reelection, a slippage not born of the inexperience that Patrick had four years ago, but of a seeming arrogance that is profoundly misplaced.”

Brian is astute, but let’s hope he is wrong about the Governor. He’s right, however, that, with all the problems the state is facing, this isn’t the time to be announcing multi-purpose travel plans. Patrick has an opportunity to build on the good will he engendered during the campaign, expand on the reforms passed last term to make them even more substantive, and continue to improve the working relationship between the state and the business community to expand jobs.

It’s been a while since we heard a politician talk about the importance of the intergenerational compact. The Governor is right that we must pay our debt to the future by building a better Commonwealth today. He’s also right that “the time for talk is over; the time for action has arrived.” Good luck to us all.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

CategoryUncategorized | CommentNo Comments »

January 7th, 2011

‘Calling All Artists’ — Photos by Corey Sciuto

by PaulM

If they could come back to visit, what would Jack Kerouac, Bette Davis, James Whistler, and other distinguished creative artists linked to our city think of the giant sign on the side of the Appleton Mills building that is “Calling All Artists” to Lowell. What an amazing statement, invitation, and declaration of what the city has become, especially given the continuing challenges a place of this size and complexity faces every day. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, “It’s not light, but it’s gettin there.”

See Corey Sciuto’s pictorial chronicle of the Appleton Mills area here.

Web photo courtesy of Corey Sciuto

CategoryCulture, History, Lowell | Comment12 Comments »

January 7th, 2011

Greg on Prejudice & Perseverance

by PaulM

In the context of recent troubles in the city, Greg at The New Englander shares his  insights about the destructive power of racism as well as its limits in our immediate society. Read his thoughts here.

CategoryCulture, Current Events, History, Lowell | CommentNo Comments »