Left In Lowell

I hope everyone has a safe and fun New Years celebration tonight, whether with friends or family or just staying home. Drive safely!

I would like to ask everyone to cross their collective fingers, as I am attempting to import Left in Lowell’s considerable archive into the new version of the website (which is not developed yet, but this is the first huge step).

The archive, which is text-only, is, get this, almost 50MB. That’s a lot of bloviating!!!

(Update: It appears I have successfully imported. Phase 1 of the development can now really get completed. Phase one is to get the new software to the current functionality - ie, act like a regular blog. Then, the cool stuff will get developed.)

It looks like Lowell’s Hamilton Canal (a state-designated Growth District) is on the 180-Day shovel-ready project list for Massachusetts; specifically, $25M for “supplement state investment in proposed street and bridge improvements” according to this list (page four, linked to from this comment on Blue Mass by Eric Bourassa of MASSPIRG). Hat tip to Mr. Lynne for finding it.

This is a good sign for Lowell (if it comes through) and hopefully puts Hamilton on the right track despite the downturn, and creating some local jobs besides.

A lot of very smart people are deriding yet another round “traditional” economic stimulus, that of the tax rebate or cut in the hopes that consumers will spend their way out of our economic woes. They’re right of course - spending beyond our means is what got us into this mess, and they are right that people used their last big spending check to pay of debt instead of spend - but I have to wonder, is this paying down debt with stimulus checks actually a bad thing?

Obama is eyeballing a $500/person tax cut for the middle class, which will come in the form of less payroll taxes (rather than a lump sum check in May). Which means a mere $19 extra in your average two-week paycheck in 2009. Rightfully so, John complains that people will not even notice this (unless you make so little that $19 is a decent portion of your wages, but that makes you very poor anyway) or else, sock that extra $20 bill into your savings or debt repayment.

But given that savings in this country recently was at a negative rate, and could be heading there again, and that a large portion of the current economic downturn is because of a credit crisis, would it be so bad if families took a $1000 bonus check and paid down some debt, especially high-interest? Wouldn’t this free up some liquidity in the system so that some confidence in lending can be restored, and give families more security in not owing as much? And in the meantime, maybe consumers will form better habits instead of retaining the borrow-and-spend attitude we had during the ever-rocketing housing market?

I know the point of a stimulus package is to have immediate effect, which increasing the savings rate won’t do, but surly we also want to have longer-term, stabilizing results which comes from a bigger savings and declining debt pool as well?

Well, I’m back of sorts, with some of my projects (and the holidays) behind me, and lo and behold, all sorts of juicy controversy happened in my absence. Nothing like getting your outrage on to bring you back to blogging.

Yes, my blood pressure boiled a bit reading about the stupidity from the editor in charge of the Lowell Sun. How can someone with so much responsibility be so childish? Honestly. It’s like we’re living in kindergarten in this town sometimes.

Besides the well-known facts that Mr. Campanini has a fairly poor grasp of general logic, as well as a writing style that is like fingers on a chalkboard (and not in a good way), we also get the curtain pulled back once again to reveal the ethics problems of said leader of the local paper-of-record, when Howe revealed that just a week prior to Campy’s Rant, Dick had turned down advertising in the Sun’s little Obama special. Little minds think small, I guess, and the vindictive nature of Mr. Campanini never fails to surprise me, even though I know it’s bound to come.

I thought it would be fun to post my responses to many of the silly things that Campanini wrote in the Lowell Sun regarding newspapers and their future. It was a hilarious romp through the mind of someone who just doesn’t like bloggers, and thinks we all should crawl back to the cave from which we emerged. I’m not above snark and satire to prove a point, and anyway, Campanini started it…so…away we go!

First, the title.

Believe in newspapers

Clap harder! Every time someone says they don’t believe in newspapers, a newspaper falls down dead.

The fact is newspapers do a great job covering themselves, and making full disclosure on declining profits and job losses often paints a skewed picture in the minds of the misinformed.

I can’t even write a straight sentence, I’m laughing so hard…newspapers do a great job covering themselves? Are you kidding? What about Campanini’s conflict of interest in owning horses and spending so much ink writing about horse racing? Never saw that mea culpa in print…or the one where he’s BFF’s with a former CM of which the editor still can’t get over the loss?

Anyway, there’s one shining little fact that is correct, though Campy doesn’t bother actually spelling it out right for the reader so they can understand, of course…prior to the heavy media consolidation of the last two decades, newspapers enjoyed high profitability - higher than most industries. When they were bought by conglomerates with shareholders, however, any drop in that profitability - even if it was bringing that profit in line with any other business - caused the stock prices to drop, which in turn caused the panic cuts we see at many papers, which causes a drop in quality, which in turn causes a drop in profitability…and so on. The smaller papers, however, especially ones not part of big chains, are doing okay. So give Campy his due here, though I wonder if he really understands what that all means.

The real news is this: Fifty-four million Americans — more than one-sixth of the population — read a daily newspaper.

Waitaminute…there’s lies, damned lies, and statistics, right? One-sixth translates to about…16%. If only 16% of people drove cars, for instance, that would be an epic fail right there. Just sayin’. And since that number appears to be declining, it’s not a good thing.

Bitter local bloggers, including an elected official whose family lives at the public trough, are rooting for The Sun’s demise.

Wait, is he talking about Dick Howe, or Bernie Lynch (not elected, but definitely “official”)? Or maybe Methuen Mayor Bill Manzi? I mean, how are we to know now that so many elected officials have blogs these days?

But obviously, he was attacking Dick Howe, and of course, 100% unfairly as is his wont. Let’s explore word for word, shall we? Starting with “bitter.” What in tarnation does Mr. Howe have to be bitter about? One wonders if Mr. Campanini is projecting, here. After all, with all the astounding circulation that the Sun has (more on that later), what does Campy care what Dick Howe says, in any respect, about his paper? Or maybe he thinks Dick Howe is jealous? Heh.

“Local bloggers.” Hmm, wonder if we here at Left in Lowell are bitter too? I honestly don’t feel bitter. Just annoyed that words and feelings are being attributed to me and my fellow bloggers. Oh, and maybe a touch of pity for the pity party Campanini seems to want to throw…

Now for “whose family lives at the public trough.” This is, of course, a standard attack pattern for deriding any public official. Not very imaginative of Campanini! Through no fault of Campy’s clumsy pen, this standard phrase also very subtly implies that, of course, Howe and his family don’t deserve to be paid with public funds…that the job he does is either extraneous, or else corrupt, or under some other derogatory cloud. Last I checked, not only does Dick enjoy his job, but does it well. Funny, Campy declines to name said public official, leaving the reader to figure it out if they can. Is that because actually using Dick Howe’s name would get Campy laughed out of the lower locks?

And he calls us “bitter”?

And finally, “rooting for The Sun’s demise.” Hilarious. Not once on any of our blogs has any of us said this, but since reading comprehension isn’t on Campy’s list of talents, he apparently missed it. What we’ve said is that we want a better Sun, a well-run Sun, a Sun that abounds in journalistic excellence, but certainly, not its demise. In fact, all blogs across the country, local and national, whether in a friendly rivalry, or a dead-on competition with their local paper or the media…all admit that without “regular” journalism, ie paid journalism, our democracy would be deader than dead.

This blog and others have praised good work at the Lowell Sun as often as it’s appeared - and it’s appeared often. The reporters at the paper deserve all the kudos and back-pats they can get for working under such horrific conditions. Is the Sun exemplary most of the time? Not on your life, particularly in the lack of context and coverage of the real stories in the 2007 City Council and School Committee races. But that’s about the leadership at the Sun, not the hard working reporters.

Now, I am going to admit something publicly that I have not before, though it can be seen in the context of many of my critical Sun posts…I am actually rooting for something. I am rooting that Campanini gets gone (fired or leaving, I could care less) and we receive better, more fact-obsessed journalistic leadership at the Lowell Sun someday. It is a (not so secret) burning dream of mine.

Let’s see…what else can we tear apart…he goes into a overly-flowery speech about the newspaper industry…using such clichéd words as “storied,” “glory,” “renaissance”…I especially love the grammar of this sentence: “Likewise, the newspaper industry is evolving to new reading habits.” You evolve to new habits? I never knew. I thought you developed them.

And so on and so forth…*yawn*

Ah yes, here we are again, damned statistics.

Daily, The Sun sells 46,000 newspapers. On Sunday we sell over 52,000. Our Web site reaches another 26,000 readers daily, on average.

All right, let’s digest this, shall we? This’ll be fun! Let’s say there’s zero overlap in the 46,000 daily subscribers (that’s incredibly generous of me), that the 26,000 is a unique hits a day number (which is not indicated, and if I were a rank cheerleader like Campy, I’d include the total hits, not the unique hits, to pump up my numbers, so this could be very generous too). That’s a total of 72,000 readers. Of course, of that 26,000 hits on the website, lots of them are not people, but search engine and other ‘bots, so this is heavily inflated. Keep that in mind.

You can easily say that the Sun covers and circulates in the Greater Lowell area, Billerica, Lowell, Chelmsford, Dracut, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford. The total population of all these together (as of the 2000 census) is 238,403. So, if the Lowell Sun readers were only from these towns, that’d be 30% of readers. That would be impressive, except the coverage and selling range of the Sun is much further than that. Let’s be real generous and exclude Lawrence, Andover and Methuen. So we’ll include Groton, Pepperell, Carlisle, Ayer, Dunstable, Townsend, Fitchburg, Lunenburg, Harvard, Bolton, Leominster, and Clinton. The total population of all of the above is 396,696. We’re now down to 18% of these towns, on average, reading the Sun in some form, online or print.

Now, let’s go back to the numbers of readers…72,000 is way too generous, because the 26,000 number does not include just individual eyeballs. At least a quarter (usually much higher) of these hits are from search engines, aggregators, and other forms of information collection that are not actual people. Down to 66,000 readers. (I also wonder about the 46,000 print readers; for instance, does the Sun include the papers it often gives away or discounts at such places as train stations as “sold” papers? That is not specified.) Another, perhaps, one-sixth could be print readers checking the website online as well. Let’s be generous and say 1/8th instead. Rounding up, that’s around 58,000 “unique” readers. This knocks us down to 14% of the local area of circulation actually reading the Lowell Sun (print and online).

What all this number crunching bologna amounts to is that numbers sound impressive when you put them one way, not so much when you spell it out another way. I think it’s funny that the Sun brags about a 46,000 print circulation. That doesn’t sound inspiring to me.

So then in the editorial, Campanini goes on to kiss the ass…er, praise his boss, Dean Singleton, at the Big Conglomerate in the Sky (aka Colorado) and tout Singleton’s optimism about the future of their 56 dailies. Except for this tidbit from “bitter and gleeful” Dick Howe writing about MediaNews Group:

Earlier this month, Moody’s Investors Services downgraded almost $1 billion of the debt of the parent company of the Lowell Sun from B3 to Caa3. According to Moody’s, MediaNews Group (the owner of the Sun) has a “heightened probability of default” on these loans.

“Heightened probability of default.” Oops… But there’s more! The company went back to its unions at the Denver papers and asked, then demanded, that they reopen negotiations and slash $20M from wages and benefits. Then, Dick links and quotes a memo sent to all MediaNews employees that all company 401K contributions are suspended in 2009.

By the way, since papers are soooo good at covering themselves, is the Sun going to print this information about their parent company?

Now, none of us bloggers is actually gleeful about this. There are some great reporters and employees at this paper and others facing cutbacks or layoffs, and I for one do not want see one more reporter leave the Sun. The paper’s thin and pathetic enough as is.

However, I have advice for Singleton - I can tell you how to increase the revenue of Lowell Sun instantly! I guarantee most of the people I know would immediately take out a full paper subscription (myself included!) if you fired Mr. “Ethically-Challenged” Campanini and hired yourself a real editor in his stead. Preferably one that can actually write and edit. Given the climate of today’s economy and the newspaper industry, I’m certain you can find many more qualified people willing to take the helm.

I had decided to spend Christmas Day not reading any newspaper, opening my computer or playing with my IPhone and rather devote my time to family and friends. So today, I had some catching up to do.

He’s back!!! I am referring to the editor of our local newspaper whose sporadic columns are used for self-promotion and vicious attacks on those who do not bow at the Dutton St. museum’s altar. From where I sit, there are two public officials, in particular, who are recipients of the vitriol dribbling that comes from this man’s keyboard: one if CM Bernie Lynch and the other, Registry of Deeds and fellow-blogger, Richard Howe.

On 12/12 the Sun ran a column, “When will government cut back?” The editor states that while property value are declining, property taxes are increasing and wonder why the cost of government is not declining? Then comes the cheap shot: “No one in public service in Lowell is going to get less than they did a year ago. In fact, they’re going to get more, courtesy of a ‘professional’ management that met the forecasts of a fiscal downturn by creating its own perfect storm — it handed pay increases to every public employees’ union in the city.”

Well, since he asked, CM Lynch decided to answer him. So the Sun published Lynch’s explanation. But the paper had to have the last word, so they took the opportunity to add an editor’s note at the end of Bernie’s column. If they wanted to debate the issue with the man, they should have resent the column back to City Hall and told CM Lynch, what about these points; address them. But was the point to bring clarity to the issue or attack the CM?

How lucky we are to have a newspaper in town whose editor looks out for our interest before the paper’s financial gains and political influence. (snark!). If you thought that the treatment the CM receives from the Sun’s editor is blatantly biased, you must have spit out your eggnog yesterday when you read his not-so-veiled “cheap-shot” at Dick Howe.

But as Dick lays out in his commentary on his blog today, this paper asked him to take out an ad for an Obama supplement (yes, Obama). He politely declined and then yesterday he receives this Christmas present from them. I guess last week that “bitter blogger” was good enough to buy an ad that will go towards the editor’s salary, but this week he is characterized as “rooting for the paper’s demise.”

As for the point that Dick made on his blog, that is the Sun blurring the line between editorial content, political influence and finances, that issue has been discussed a few times outside of Lowell: Dan Kennedy when he worked at the Phoenix; Steve Bailey when he was their business columnist at the Globe and Emily Rooney on her Greater Boston Show).

As for the demise of the Sun, no one who is a blogger wants that paper to fail. On the contrary, we are enthusiastic supporters of the (underpaid, overworked and unappreciated) reporters; those women and men whose professional approach to their job shines the light on local government and business. What we would like to see an end to is the late 19th century model of the editor as king.

Back to work! Before I share my views on some of the political events that have occurred in the past couple of weeks, it appears that one of the small benefits of this economic downturn might be the beginning of the de-commercialization of Christmas; I hope!

In case you did not have a chance to view the December 17th meeting of the Lowell School Committee or did not read Jenn Myers article in the Sun, “Lowell school board reluctantly OKs Canada trip,” there was a spirited discussion regarding a school trip the Lowell High School International Language Club was planning to take to Quebec, Canada. By the way, a trip which has been taking place for 20 years.

Two weeks later, there are still some rumblings at the reaction of two of the SC members. I watched the replay of that meeting on LTC’s streaming video site and I am still not sure what is at the root of the anger and frustration displayed during the meeting. At the end of the day, the kids were going on a trip paid by their parents and they would only miss one day of school. There are plenty of sanctioned trip organized for the band, athletic teams, Jr. ROTC, where kids miss school, why this trip was the target of this harsh reaction is still not clear to me? I guess the School Committee felt it was ignored and disprescted. Obviously, the policy was not clear enough.

Whatever the kids would have learned on that one day, I am sure can be made up during the school year but no one can bring the experience of visiting Quebec into the classroom. I guess my definition of an “educational forum” differs from that of the School Committee. For the record, in my three years at LHS, I missed on day of school and that was to be sworn-in as a U.S. Citizen. So I do agree that it is important to be in the classroom but it isn’t as if this trip was to Cancun? One more thing, the teacher got some harsh criticism but shouldn’t the Headmaster have been the one to receive “the clear message?” If the SC did not receive enough information, whose fault is it? Isn’t it the Headmaster’s and the Superintendent’s?

Also SC Jackie Doherty presented an excellent motion to have the Superintendent present two budgets, one level funded and the other with a 10% reduction; the SC should reserve its energy for this issue. The reduction ($5 – 10 M) is “inevitable” and we will all need to focus on where to make the cuts and how to implement them.

One more thing about the School Committee, a lot of their discussion takes place in their sub-committee meetings which are not broadcast. Furthermore, when the Superintendent is requested to provide information to them, those reports are not usually made public. The School Committee should request that the Superintendent and her staff provide the same level of information on the School’s web site that the City Manager and the Administration do on the City’s web site.

So Lynne is outrageous busy with getting ready for the holiday. So we’ve fallen behind on the care and feeding of the blog. Among other things, we’ve been dealing with relatives coming from over the ocean, baking evil cookies akimbo, editing video (and writing music for same) in hopes of having it ready in time for the holiday, lots of snow shoveling (that’s everyone I think), shopping for most of our presents last minute, wrapping same… and oh yeah… some where in there we had to go to work and in her case travel to very important client meetings in inclement weather.

On the bright side, we’ll have great fun seeing all our family and friends shortly.

So that’s us… how about you? Open thread for all… spread the joy!

Very informative and it raised my blood pressure! That was my impression of tonight’s sub-committee meeting on the Tsongas Arena. The full City Council met with the Arena Commission. If you missed the live broadcast on LTC, you can watch it on streaming video at a later date. You need to watch it if you are at all interested in politics and municipal finances.

First of all Commissioner Eileen Donoghue (former CC member and Mayor) has brought the City’s concerns to the arena and we can already see the difference: open and transparent discussions; accountability and before we know the deficit could be wiped out. Maybe she will come back to the City Council has it was mentioned in last week Sunday’s Sun Column.

During the discussion, it was mentioned that a few years ago the Arena broke even. So where did we go wrong? It was when the Lockmonsters threaten to leave and the newspaper began a campaign that questioned ones civil commitment if one did not support minor league hockey in this City. So what did we get, a lousy contract with the Devils. I have to admit at the time I drank the kool-aid also. Bottom line, the operating deficit is not as bad as it used to be but we still have a long way to go; there is of course the debt service and the capital budget issues.

Some City Councilors asked probing and educated questions; that is they did their homework. And as for others…well, it is easier to beat up on the Arena and the CM than to come up with intelligent questions that shed light and come up with solutions.

As far as CC Alan Kazanjian’s asking to see the contract before it was signed. CM Bernie Lynch is right. Make a motion, get a second and get full approval and get the meeting scheduled. Memo to the Chancellor and Senator Steve Panagiatakos do not speak directly to CC Kazanjian. It is politically dangerous. It is not a good idea to have your discussion used by CC AK to give Bernie hits. It is poor politics; very poor and amateurish politics. CC AK was the one ranting and raving that he wanted to talk to the Arena Commission and when he had the opportunity, what did he do? It was beat up Bernie time. CCs please respect the residents’ and taxpayers’ intelligence and knowledge and keep the cheap politics to afterhours. Ex-CC Eileen Donoghue of course told everyone that the Chancellor told her something different. If you want a message sent to the City don’t use CC AK, call Campy. He has a better style.

The implication by CC AK that the contract should have come in front of the CC is erroneous; it did not matter what the length of the contract was. It was a management contract that was the responsibility and the right of the Arena Commission not the CC’s.

Of course, there was the walk down memory lane [I love revisionist history], thanks to Commissioner/U. Mass Lowell Athletic Director Dana Skinner. I think he was wearing his second hat when he was making those comments. But ex-CC Donoghue’s reminded everyone “we built the best facility that was available with the money we had at the time.” Bless you Eileen.

CC Armand Mercier misspoke. He stated that some Commissioners did not know of the details of the discussion between Bernie and “The Chancellor.” Guess what, they all knew everything. Why don’t CC members get the information before they make these declarations?

In my opinion, Commissioner George Eliades (the newest member) spoke on behalf of “The Chancellor”. So here is my take: Marty wants the Arena but not right now.

By the way, CC Mike Lenzi is rationale in his approach to issues. He does not speak much but when he does it is focused and makes sense.

When CC Rodney Eliott asked the Commissioner why weren’ t there other bidders trying to win the management contract: I wanted to yell out because they do not want to put up with a City Council that does not believe in the viability of that building.

On another issue, it was mentioned that the City’s parking account has a profit of $11,000. I have to say that I am a contributor to this surplus. I think the City has a meter-maid walking around waiting for me to come downtown and park.

One last comment, Eileen please come back to the CC, please.

I am one of the lucky ones; my house has not lost power unlike 11752 Lowell households. National Grid’s web site does not offer much information but the City has activated its Emergency Operations Center and has opened up the LHS gym as a shelter.

The ice storm has caused a lot of disruption and damage but the trees weighed down with all that ice sure looked pretty.

Tonight’s meeting stared with an emotional agenda item. A large contingent of homeless city residents, their advocates and supporters came to address the City Council to ask them to do more for the less fortunate.

As reported by Jenn Myers in the December 6th edition of the Sun, a newly-organized group, the Tent City Homeless Coalition was formed after the November 20th incident which saw a group of homeless people evicted from their tent-homes along the Concord River.

As of today, we still do not know who dropped the dime and for what purpose. But I still wonder how did the removal of those ten people from their “homes” added to advancement of a better, safer and prosperous Lowell?

But back to the CC meeting, so after a number of representatives of the abovementioned group, including an articulate history professor at UML, Chad Montrie, the City Council moved to have the City Manager continue to develop a strategy to end homelessness and furthermore have the Housing Sub-Committee discuss how to utilize vacant housing to help find a home for these people

But then CC Rita Mercier asked to be recognized. And then in an emotionally filled speech, she reminded everyone that those homeless residents were people just like the rest of us and they needed to be treated with dignity and that the City had an obligation. I was moved by her comments and I think they were sincere. They were not prepared or written down; she spoke from her heart. But I did wish that she did not make that comment about the CC motion and indirectly implied that the maker-of-the-motion, CC Jim Millinazzo wanted to get this off the CC discussion arena and move it on. Her comments should have been directed to her colleagues who sat in silence.

Unlike the majority of the CC members, Jim has devoted his professional career to helping people find homes and keep them. His concern for those less fortunate is well known throughout the community. Last year when the non-profit, Coaltion for a Better Acre (CBA) had a contentious board election, it was he who was asked to overview the election, it was CC Milinazzo.

Back to CC Mercier speech, I am glad she made it because it changed the nature of the homeless advocate impact on the City Council and the Administration.

And another point, it is no secret that City Manager Bernie Lynch has worked very hard to resolve the issue of homelessness in this City both short term and more importantly, long term. It was not fair that he did not know that the “Winter Protocol” had been suspended by the Transition House because the temperature had gone over 35 degrees.

By the way, it appeared that there were out of town press in attendance. So let’s see if this tent-city eviction has legs. Mayor Bud Caulfield was right when he said that the suburbs are not doing their fair share but we should focus on what we can do and not concern ourselves with what others do not do. Our suburban neighbors can feel good about their educational, social and economic accomplishments but they cannot feel good about their moral and ethical obligations to humanity if they think that homelessness is only Lowell’s problem.