Archive for February 16th, 2012

February 16th, 2012

Tonight’s City Council Meeting on Late Night Troubles in Downtown

by DickH

An overflow crowd of downtown residents, bar owners, community leaders and ordinary citizens descended on Lowell City Hall this evening for the special city council meeting on the alcohol-related problems plaguing downtown Lowell. The meeting opened with a presentation and recommendation from Police Superintendent Ken Lavallee. Next came a long period of public participation. Next, License Commission members Brian Akashian and Ray Weicker spoke about some of the challenges that they have faced on this issue. After that, each city councilor spoke. Throughout the night I posted updates on Twitter which I republish below in chronological order:

Overflow crowd at special city council meeting on downtown Lowell violence

Lowell Police Chief just finished presentation. Citizen participation just began at 7 pm

LPD recommends no admittance after 1am, entertainment stop at 1am, only 1 drink served at time, video cameras of entrances.

Citizens still speaking

LPD Sgt Tom Fleming, head of superior ofc union, says Sat at Fortunatos one of most dangerous situations he’s seen in 31 years

Sgt Fleming says most important step is to stop serving, admittance, music, everything well before closing time

Lowell License Commission seems to be blaming Police Dept for not bringing enough complaints to the Commission in 2011

CC Rita Mercier says thugs “tweeting” their chaos is part of the problem. Twitter has officially arrived in Lowell

Procedural questions. CC Broderick suggests sending package to public safety subcmte to return with recommendation for entire CC

CC Elliott calls for a vote tonight to ratify Supt’s recommendations and draft regulations with CM Lynch returning specific items to CC

CC Kennedy says with so many people there for so long we should take the vote tonight

CCs Martin and Mendonca caution everyone that 88 bars in Lowell & only a few problems. All will be effected by changes. CC Nuon agrees

Mayor Murphy suggests “general endorsement” of recommendations but wait to enact specific regs considering all said tonite

Now CCs moving more cautiously on adopting things. It’s complicated

Motion to move the question passes unanimously

CC Elliott moves endorse PD recommendations & that CM return with detailed regs – passes unanimously

CC adjourns at 10 pm

In the end, the council voted unanimously to endorse the recommendations put forth by Supt Lavallee and to have City Manager Lynch return with detailed amendments and additions to existing ordinances and regulations to enact those recommendations. It was clear that the council wanted to act rapidly in response to this situation, but it was equally evident that broad citywide regulations will have an adverse impact on establishments that haven’t been part of the problem. While that might be the case in the end, many councilors were concerned about rushing into specific things tonight that would have many unintended consequences.

While tonight was an interesting and important meeting, there was some evidence that not everyone in city government is on the same page in how to react to this, so I suspect that any feelings that much was accomplished tonight will be short-lived. Hopefully everyone who was there tonight will continue to pay attention until specific steps are taken and the problem begins to ease.

CategoryCity Council, Current Events, Lowell | Comment1 Comment »

February 16th, 2012

“J.L.” Smith Baker Center

by DickH

“J.L.” Smith Baker Center, photo by Tony Sampas.

CategoryHistory, Lowell | CommentNo Comments »

February 16th, 2012

‘Young Angel Midnight’ Nominated for New England Art Award

by PaulM

“Young Angel Midnight,” the very COOL anthology of emerging artists, writers, musicians, dancers, and other creative types in Lowell, has been nominated for a New England Art Award in the “Book” category. Online voting is highly encouraged. Here is the link. Please vote and share the link to get the ballot box stuffed. This book was published by Bootstrap Press in Lowell in collaboration with the Cultural Organization of Lowell.

Here’s the link to order the book online if you need a copy, which you should…need a copy…to see what’s going on out there.

CategoryCulture, History, Lowell | Comment1 Comment »

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February 16th, 2012

Save the date: March 3 Tweet-Up at LTC

by DickH

You can’t read or watch a major news story these days without reference to Twitter, the social networking tool that allows users to broadcast “Tweets” in 140 characters or less. That’s 140 characters – not words – including spaces and punctuation. If nothing else, Twitter teaches economy in writing. But Twitter is much more than that. When it first launched, it was widely disparaged with comments like “Who cares what I had for lunch?” Today, every major figure in politics, sports, the media and entertainment has a Twitter account that is used in different ways.

It has long been my belief that Twitter can be a valuable tool at the community level for a wide range of purposes: sharing news and information, organizing activities, establishing and strengthening virtual relationships that supplement real-world contacts. Like most new technology, the technology (i.e., Twitter) is available long before people figure out the best way to use it. From what I can tell, no one has yet figured out how to maximize it’s use at the local level. To paraphrase Bluto in Animal House, “we’re just the guys to do it.”

To this end, the Outreach Committee of Lowell Telecommunications Corporation (LTC – Lowell’s local cable access company) has organized a Tweet-N-Greet at LTC’s headquarters (246 Market Street, Lowell – next to the National Park Visitors Center) on Saturday, March 3 from 10 am to noon. This will be an informal gathering rather than a lecture and it will be suitable for everyone, for the non-technical person curious about the basics of Twitter to the power Tweeter who wants to chat with like-users. We will use the LTC computer lab to assist those who want to establish their own Twitter accounts and will have a unique hashtag for the event and display the collected Tweets in real time on a big screen TV (and if you don’t know what a “hashtag” is, see you on March 3).

Beyond Twitter, this gathering will also serve as another of our very successful blogger meet-ups which we’ve held in the past at Elliot’s Hot Dogs, Top Donut and Gary’s Ice Cream, so it provides an opportunity for bloggers, commenters, social media users and info consumers of all types to come together on a Saturday morning to socialize. Tours of LTC’s newly renovated studios and space will also be available to anyone who is interested. If you have any questions about this event, leave a comment or email me at DickHoweJr[at]gmail.com.

CategoryCurrent Events, Lowell | CommentNo Comments »

February 16th, 2012

Lowell Cemetery Tour dates

by DickH

James C Ayer monument, Lowell Cemetery

We have just set the dates for this Spring’s tours of Lowell Cemetery. In a major departure from recent practice, I’ve decided to split the cemetery in two for touring purposes, covering the Lawrence Street side in the spring and the Knapp Avenue/Shedd Park side in the fall. There will be some overlap between the two tours but most of the content will be different. The reason for doing this is that there’s just so much to talk about at the Lowell Cemetery. Realistically, the tours can’t go much longer than 90 minutes so rather than omit interesting stuff, I thought it better to do the tour in two parts. So if you’ve already done a tour with me during the last three years, consider coming again this spring because you’ll see a lot of new stuff.

The dates for the Spring 2012 tours, all of which will begin at the Lawrence Street Gate of the Lowell Cemetery, are as follows:

Friday – May 4 at 1 pm
Saturday – May 5 at 10 am

Friday – May 18 at 1 pm
Saturday – May 19 at 10 am

CategoryHistory, Lowell | CommentNo Comments »

February 16th, 2012

Affluent foreign-born choose public schools

by DickH

A story in yesterday’s New York Times used 2010 census data to show that a majority of foreign-born residents of New York City who make more than $150,000 send their children to the city’s public schools. The following paragraphs from the story sum things up pretty well:

In New York, the affluent typically send their children to private schools. But not the foreign-born affluent. In a divergence, a large majority of wealthy foreign-born New Yorkers are sending their children to public schools, according to an analysis of census data. . .

In interviews, affluent foreign-born New Yorkers said that like all conscientious parents, they weighed various criteria in choosing schools, including quality, cost and location. But many said they were also swayed by the greater ethnic and economic diversity of the public schools. Some said that as immigrants, they had learned to navigate different cultures — a skill they wanted to imbue in their children.

Many of those interviewed made two other points: That in a global economy, going to school at an early age with children from varying ethnic, religious and social groups is an invaluable experience; and that the diversity and less structured setting (as compared to private schools) of the public schools helps develop resiliency and self-sufficiency in their children.

While the Lowell public schools face many challenges, they also are capable of providing students with an excellent education. Perhaps the entire school system and the community as a whole should embrace and highlight the diversity of the public schools as an asset in the global economy. Paul Tsongas once said “if you can make it on the Lowell City Council you can make it anywhere in politics.” Maybe there’s a public school corollary – if you can excel in the Lowell public schools, you can excel anywhere. Certainly the many Lowell High distinguished alumni are evidence of that. We shouldn’t neglect the benefits of our diverse school system as a training ground for leaders in today’s global economy.

CategoryEducation | CommentNo Comments »

February 16th, 2012

MRTs “Daddy Long Legs” a Hit!

by Marie

The sentiments expressed by correspondent Terry Byrne in today’s Boston Globe join that of the audiences that have enjoyed  the current production at the Merrimack Repertory Theater. The production of “Daddy Long Legs” – a two person musical based on a 1912 story set somewhere in New England -  has brought MRT audiences to their feet with each curtain call. It certainly sounds like a highlight of the season. Kudos to the MRT for the many years of bringing great quality theater our local and regional audience.

Read the review here.

DADDY LONG LEGS

978-654-4678.http://www.merrimackrep.org

Writers:
Book by John Caird., Based on the novel  by Jean Webster
Director:
Directed by John Caird
Other Credits:
Musical, with music and lyrics by Paul Gordon., Musical direction by Laura Bergquist.
Date closing:
through March 4
Ticket price:
Tickets: $24-$54

CategoryCulture, Lowell | Comment1 Comment »

February 16th, 2012

Joseph Kennedy III Annouces Candidacy for Congress

by Tony

CategoryUncategorized | CommentNo Comments »

February 16th, 2012

Obama Budget D.O.A by Marjorie Arons-Barron

by Tony
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Check it out.
How many trees died so the Government Printing Office could distribute all those never-to-be-implemented budget proposals put out earlier this week by the Obama Administration. Let’s face it. The Obama budget is basically dead on arrival. The Republicans are loath to agree on proposals – like infrastructure rebuilding, essential to undergird the economy – that they might have supported in the past, because it is an election year. Still less are they going to embrace items, expanded education funding, for example, that they would normally have shied away from in the first place. The President knows all this. What he has put forward is a campaign document, not dissimilar to the purpose of those government-funded newsletters that members of Congress put out on a quarterly or semi-annual basis.He seems intent on tackling the unfairness of the tax system (e.g different rates for dividends and ordinary income) and letting at least some of the Bush tax cuts go away. That plays to his base, but he knows there’s no support in Congress for raising taxes on families earning $250,000 a year. He might have gotten more traction if the cut-off were $1 million a year, but that wouldn’t have generated as much revenue. Surely, if the Bush tax cuts were eliminated in their entirety, it would have a significant impact on the deficit, but few are advocating the long-term benefits of shared sacrifice . Given that his tax increase proposals won’t go through, the President also ensures the deficit will again be well over $1 trillion the next fiscal year, breaking his earlier naive pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term.

The plan claims to cut $4milion from the deficit over the next decade, but it’s festooned with accounting gimmicks, rosy forecasts and unwarranted economic assumptions.  As I indicated after the State-of-the-Union speech, a major part of Obama’s plan to pay for new initiatives is to “take the money we will no longer be spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, use half to reduce the deficit and the other half to do nation building here at home.” The fallacy here is that we have been deficit-financing the two wars. Not making the huge expenditures there doesn’t translate into money in the bank. The money was never there in the first place, and, much as I wish him success in this and other endeavors, I am insulted that he thinks we will fall for this.

It seems that after a feckless couple of years of waffling, and trying inartfully to court a myopic and hypocritrical Congress, the President finally has decided that the time for austerity is not now and that job creation trumps deficit reduction. Reading with concern the news from Europe, I wish him and our country well.

It’s all a mess and not likely to be less so until at least after the election. Then Congress will find itself on the brink of the sequestration agreed to in last year’s debt ceiling impasse, with debt ceiling, the sequel also just over the horizon. It’s no wonder that people are turned off by politics and have such contempt for the shell games that everyone in Washington insists on playing.

I’d greatly appreciate your thoughts in the comments section below.

CategoryUncategorized | CommentNo Comments »