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October 18th, 2007 at 9:12 am
I read the article and found it interesting that Issenberg implied the sale was below market rate. He also didn’t mention that former city manager John Cox served as Campanini’s attorney. The connections between power brokers in this city never cease to amaze me. What’s troubling about it, especially in terms of the newspaper, is that the general public usually doesn’t know about relationships that may slant coverage. (For instance, how many people know that Kendall Wallace, former publisher of the Sun, is a long-time friend of LHS Headmaster Bill Samaras? Or that the high school will honor Wallace in November as a distinguished alumnus?) In recent weeks, the paper has devoted much ink to championing the headmaster without disclosing this relationship.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:40 am
“I read the article and found it interesting that Issenberg implied the sale was below market rate.”
I would have a hard time believing Meehan would offer a discount.
The facts are:
Property Assessment: FY 2007 = $612,900, FY 2008 = $598,400
Sales Price: $585,000
A discount maybe, but not out of line with the current real estate market.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Assessments have little if anything to do with market value
October 18th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Yes… but short of an appraisal, what do you do?
October 18th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Holy Socks, Batman….you think people are starting to connect the dots here? Hows one more? Any idea who’s close relative is el Queso Grande at the Lowell 5?
October 18th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
el Queso Grande?
Can you translate for us Americans?
October 18th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
And one wonders if the Sun’s endorsement of Tsognas had to do with Meehan’s wife working for Tsognas.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Shawn: loose translation - The Big Cheese.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Is that like jefe grande? Hablo un poco de español.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
“And one wonders if the Sun’s endorsement of Tsognas had to do with Meehan’s wife working for Tsognas.”
So, Inspector Clouseau, how do you explain the Sun’s endorsement of Donahue over Tsongas in the primary, when the endorsement really held some significane?
October 18th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Maybe it was because of the fact that Wallace prodded Donoghue for years about running for higher office and he thought he owed her one.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Call me crazy but the four pages of ads Niki’s campaign bought AFTER the endorsement, could they have played a role? They knew Jim couldn’t afford that kind of ad space. Oh yeah and Marty’s wife ran her campaign to, and some of the debates were held at Marty’s new school. So for those of you scoring at home:
Jim and Marty= Chummy.
Mr. and Mrs. Meehan and Niki= More then associates.
Niki hiring Mrs. Marty to run her campaign after Niki felt the need to move back home just in time to establish residency in the district so she could run for a friends now vacated seat= priceless!
Oh wait + $4 million that always helps!
How does one spell bagjob?
October 18th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
The idea that Marty Meehan would give ANYBODY a DISCOUNT on ANYTHING is absurd. Did the Globe even send anybody to Lowell to ask questions of anybody? Do they know anything at all about Marty Meehen?
October 18th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
So Wallace trumps Campanini in the primary. Then the sales staff determines the endorsement in the general election. How am I doing with my logic gymnastics so far?
Or perhaps, some people have nothing better to do but look for a boogeyman behind every door, because blaming someone for a defeat is much easier than just accepting it, right?
Hey, GOP Footsoldier. Here’s a news flash for you; Money usually determines the outcome of an election, for either side. That’s not a bagjob. It’s just political reality.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
RIL,
The defeat is accepted, and I know money is the grease on the rail that is politics- I may be idealistic but I’m not stupid. Doesn’t mean I need to do cartwheels over it though.
I’m not saying one way or the next who did what but if you look at the little web I came up with you have to note there are more then just a couple of coincidences that was my point.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
GOP doesn’t know what “bagjob” means. MM can sell his house to whoever he wants. Private transaction. I would hardly consider the Sun “tribute” to MM to be some incentive for him to sell his house to Campinini. As usual, the Lowell Sun used MM (as they did John Cox, etc….) to “shake down” Marty’s friends, family and associates for much needed ad revenue. Throwing spare change at a charity. The next big tribute section is for the LHS anniversary. Any excuse will do. And what’s this about the Lowell 5? So, Campinini finances his home purchase through a local bank. Is that bad news? Every bank in the city has somebody connected to somebody. Is anybody implying that Campanini got a mortgage that he isn’t qualified for?….Also, this story is about 3 months old. I’d rather read something more current like how MC got his job at another local bank.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Jeez Shawn, anybody who’s even been in a Taco Bell in the last 5 years should know what queso grande means. This one of those conservative “proud not to know” things or just the conservative “nobody who immigrated after 1945 is a real american” thing?
Sorry to get on your case, your comments are usually respectable, but that just rubbed me the wrong way. Real Americans are ignorant of 3-year-old level Spanish. And dun’t give dem nun a yer durn book readin nonsense, ya hear?
October 18th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
If my memory is correct, Meehan bought the house from Kendall Wallace’s “great friend” Bill Taupier. The more you stir the turd, the more it stinks.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Where in Bailey’s March article is the Chancellor’s 50th Birthday mentioned?
October 18th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
The only bag job is the Globe story. Using “online estimates” instead of the real assessment? The ‘08 assessments are market value as of Jan. 1, 2006. Know anyone whose house value went UP in the last 18 months.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
HEY lost in this is WHERE Is Marty meehan?
Where did he move to?
October 18th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
The outrage is not that the sale of his house was private, but that the Massachusetts taxpayers will be paying for his new home ($30,000/year housing allowance a.k.a Billy Bulger Pension) and his ride to and from work everyday. And that U Mass is the most expensive state school in the country. If I am going to take out college loans for my kids, I prefer to not do it for U Mass, I have funded enough of Marty Meehans lifestyle already. Now that Marty Meehan no longer has to pander to the voters, he can forget where the city has brought him. U Mass Lowell missed out on a great opportunity to fill the Chancellor position with a quality candidate. Mass residents will pay for that mistake the rest of out lives.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
He moved to the family home of his wife, as her mother passed away fairly recently. I believe it is in Andover.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
MVP: I had linked to the wrong Bailey article about Meehan; sorry, I fixed it.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
So why does he need a 30k/year housing allowance if he’s living at home for zip? You think he’d endow a scholarship or something with that money. He’s got 5 mil plus waiting for him to spend when the hearse pulls up to Hyannisport.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Concerned- You have funded MM’s lifestyle? How much of his lifestyle do you think you’ve funded? That is outrageous!
October 18th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
You know, even reading the comments from the people trying to spin this the worst way they possibly can, I still don’t understand what the problem is supposed to be.
Local media and political leaders are friendly. Someone Marty knew bought his house.
Is that about it? Is there some terrible secret that this all adds up to, and I’m just too dim to connect the dots?
I mean, even as a story about the Lowell Good Old Boy political network (City Motto: Hey, I went to school with your sister!), this is especially thin gruel.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
If the Globe had written an article about the housing allowance and salary and benes being too high, I could at least muster a displeases shrug. Gotta love Massachusetts, huh?
At least I could follow the plot of that. This scandal is like a European art house movie.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
I hope that the Sun does not pick their endorsements according to the amount of money candidates spend in their papers!
I think that Ogo was just a bad candidate and didn’t care much for Niki.
I can’t hink of a few local GOP’s that would be better by a mile than Ogo.
I doubt very much that Ogo was poised to lay down big cash for his ads just a day before the endorsements and then suddenly pull the ads from the Sun due to the endorsements.Likely, he didn’t have as much cash. Instead he opted to send an incessant stream of drivel in the form of mailings.
Truly, how many of you actually read the political mailings that come to your home? How long between the time you get it in your home and in to recycle it goes? Myself, it’s immediate.
Unfortunately, at the local level, the Sun (the big cheese in town), has neglected the local elections with the only referance to how much money each candidate has raised. Silly! How many folks have run in the past, with a very tight core of support, raised huge amounts of money and then lost??
It would also be nice if Kendall disclosed the fact that his daughter is working on Keegan’s campaign (daughter of Joe Tully who is godfather to John Cox) and disclose the fact that he has a Keegan sign on his front lawn..oops, my apologies, his kids home, while he and his wife live in the carraige house behind the “main house”.
Also, while we’re on the subject of local candidates…McMahon, “the property manager” who is really a Bartender.Need I say more?
Lenzi and Kazanjian..what on Earth are they thinking??
Do either of them honestly think that business will continue as usual??
K will have to give up his lucrative towing contract, sell off trucks, lay of employees (way to retain jobs, kid), the City of Lowell will not be able to use his recycling facility as a vendor (city and LHA trucks are at his junkyard all of the time)..what about his nasty properties on Moody and Market St.(s)? He claims he is an entreprenuer? If he was such an entreprenuer, these properties would never look the way they do now. If these blighted properties (which K owns) were anywhere else in the City, there would be a public outcry. Furthermore, in listening to the forum a few weeks back and his on air interview..any response to a question that he couldn’t answer was “I don’t know, I’ll find out when I get in..” (Phh). Buddy, you need to be ready to hit the ground running the day you are sworn in. Do your homework.
As for Lenzi, still haven’t gotten that…his talk about “brekfess-is” and all of his talk about the schools…really? Perhaps he should just run for one office instead of two..And, does he really think he is going to retain the prosperity that he has become accustomed? Doubtful! Ethics Commission will be “On it Like a Hohrnet!”. The City of Lowell and all of its’ offshoots will never be able to use Lenzi’s for catering! That’s alright, personally, I prefer Two Chefs and Bianco’s Catering. Any one care to shed some additional light?
Let’s start talking about the local election again!
October 19th, 2007 at 3:18 am
“If the Globe had written an article about the housing allowance and salary and benes being too high, I could at least muster a displeases shrug.”
Yeah, but that would apply to all the Chancellors, thus making it difficult to stir up any extra outrage about MM.
October 19th, 2007 at 8:42 am
The Voke hasn’t stopped using Lenzi’s business.
October 19th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
what about his nasty properties on Moody and Market St
I’m glad somebody else noticed.
LuvinLowell is talking about the long-vacant, half-brick/half white-painted-wood heap across Market Street from the North Common Apartments.
It’s a disgrace. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from someone who tears down mills.
October 19th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Luvin is so right. Kazanjian is going to have so many ethics issues, he’ll have to give up half his business projects or abstain from votes on a weekly basis. What was he thinking getting into this race? Personally, I think he was duped by the Cox crowd, not fully realizing what a mess he’d create for himself.
As for Jay Booth’s comments: “Sorry to get on your case, your comments are usually respectable, but that just rubbed me the wrong way. Real Americans are ignorant of 3-year-old level Spanish. And dun’t give dem nun a yer durn book readin nonsense, ya hear? ”
In my eyes, Shawn is showing incredible judgment by not going into a Taco Bell. And in case you forgot, people don’t have to learn ANY spanish if they don’t want to. The fact that so many of us choose to is a compliment, I think, since it seems that we try harder to learn Spanish than they try to learn English.
N’est pas?
October 19th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I don’t think K-man will have a problem abstaining from 80 percent of the votes as long as he can vote on the one thing he is running to accomplish. Get rid of Lynch and stick the GOB’s back in power.
October 19th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Prince Charming hit the nail right on the head.
K will never forgive the fact that he was not reappointed to the ZBA (as if it were an entitlement), his man on the Historic Borad was not reappointed (K’s Creative Finance Guy), his man on the Planning Brd. (Mr. Z) was not reappointed and his guy(s) on the Conservation Commission either moved onto open a YET another bar or resigned because health insurance bennies were pulled (and they couldn’t have been bothered to show up for commission hearings).
Of all the slum lords in the city, this guy is #1.
Nor will he forgive the fact that he was not picked for the most lucrative towing zone (remember his statement a while back..”It was MY turn (to get that contract)”, not like he bid enough $$ to be initially considered anyway! It is by sheer force of luck that he actually has a contract now, now that Guilbricki’s couldn’t fulfill the contract.
Funny, this guys idea of sound economic development is to get elected, have to give up his contracts, sell of equipment (no dough to pay the bills) and he’ll be laying his employees off? Wow, grreeeat “economic development” plan, K! Way to go.
This guy says he wants to “give back” to the community..what, to make up for all that he has taken? Whommhas he promised jobs?
Through the proverbial grapevine, I hear that most of his signs are located on the properties of unregistered voters and that he is paying his “volunteers” to stand out with signs and place signs…Not dissimilar from the “big guy” the GOB was pushing last time out.
October 19th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
“insurance bennies were pulled”… or more properly, were brought into legal compliance.
October 19th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
You are absolutely correct, Mr. Lynne.
Nonetheless, in the aftermath of that longawaited demonstration of deference to the rule of law, there was…stuff.
October 19th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
So, this scandal was on Beat the Press on Channel 2 today.
Their angle is as follows: Marty Meehan sold his house to the editor of the Lowell Sun…and the Sun didn’t run a story about it. Complicating factors are that they knew each other, and had for years.
Maybe this is a really terrible scandal, and we should be outraged, but we’ve been so outraged for so long for the past six and 3/4 years that our outrage receptors are burned out.
October 19th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Joe, we’ve been anesthisized for so long. I personally don’t see the hosue sale as an issue. More outrageous, the object of this “news” is the Editor. When that happens (as it has when it relates to you know who- another K), it isn’t news, at least locally. It becomes more an issue in the Boston media, when the get sick of beating on their own establishment. Hey, at least they’re not talking about gangs and drugs and Lowell in one article!
October 20th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
C’est vrai, Right in Lowell, it might show good judgement to not enter a Taco Bell
And sure, nobody has to learn Spanish, just like you don’t have to learn the difference between a mean and a median. But thinking that proud ignorance makes you more American is the kind of thinking that’s run this country into the ground over the last 7 years. We’ve got an international superpower of a country where it’s not only ok to be ignorant of other cultures, but people are proud of it, and we wonder why we screw things up around the world? Also, I seriously doubt that just about anyone who bothered to move here knows less English than I know Spanish 
I wasn’t trying to pick on Shawn for not knowing 2 words in Spanish, I barely know any myself, I just think nobody should ever be proud to not know something, regardless of their problems with the immigrants who’s work probably contributed to your lunch today.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
It’s not a source of pride at all. Despite taking four years of Spanish in high school and another two in college, I’ve sadly forgotten most of it due to a lack of use. (We won’t even get into how little French I know despite another four years of classes)
You’re also completely correct about my lunch being provided by immigrants. In fact, I owe everything in my life, including my life, to immigrants. My parents moved here in the 60’s, not knowing a word of English, and somehow managed to put my sister and I through college and life without once demanding a penny, or anything else from government. They simply appreciated the opportunity to make something of themselves and gave back more than they took. They also didn’t consider Americans ignorant for not learning THEIR language. Instead, they learned AMERICA’S language as best they could and made sure my sister and I learned it. That doesn’t make me any more American than anyone else. But it makes me just as American as anyone else.
So when I hear progressives/liberals lecture me about immigration, forgive me if I let out a sarcastic chuckle every now and then. And I’m quite proud to say I still speak my parents language fluently. It’s a language they taught me at home, and a language my forebearers built hundreds of schools and institutions here in the states to teach us. And not once, did they demand other Americans or taxpayers take on the responsibility of teaching us.
October 21st, 2007 at 5:59 pm
The real scandal here is that Jim Campanini, whose paper just published a story celebrating itself for getting a “Right to Know” award, still refuses to publish a word about this issue and won’t comment to other media. What are you waiting for, Lowell Sun?
March 24th, 2008 at 11:25 am
I’m just wondering if the Sun or the Globe will be publishing articles about the 5 people that were laid off from UMass Lowell last week. If there are ANY fair and objective journalists out there, take some time to talk to those people at the University who are NOT friends or suck-ups of Marty and Jacquie!