Left In Lowell

This month, Left in Lowell celebrated its fourth birthday (born: May 13, 2005). In blog years, that is middle age.

Here is the link to Lynn’s inaugural blog where she states LiL’s mission “I think Lowell is a great city with lots of potential, but also a lot of problems. I’d like to be able to help out in some small way.” And she wanted this to be a “group blog.” So that is where I, all of you who comment and those of you who read, came in.

A lot has happened in 4 years including the growth and development of a healthy Lowell blog roll, commenting on the social, political and cultural life of Lowell. I will not list them because last time I made a reference to the Lowell blog family, I was correctly chastised for leaving out a segment. LiL still has ties to the Mass Lefty Blogroll but the Lowell connection is stronger.

To all of you who tell me you read the blog but do not comment, I would encourage all of you to join in the discussion; on this blog or somewhere else, if you wish. Give yourself a blog name and if the site requires an e-mail address, you can use gmail or hotmail, if you do not want to use your Comcast or Verizon account. D.J.D., this paragraph was for you.

As we begin our 5th year, I hope we have helped out in some way make Lowell a better city. That was the intent and continues to be the goal.

Now that I know how to find The Column on the Sun’s web site, I was surprised to see the title of this Sunday’s edition: “The Latest Buzz: City Manager Murphy.” The Murphy is Lowell State Representative Kevin Murphy; the City Manager refers to the position currently held by Bernie Lynch; and has for the latest buzz, well I do not know the extend of the buzz. If you read the paragraphs that follow, this latest round of rumors were sparked by Murphy’s appearance at City Councilor Rodney Elliott’s fund raiser a few weeks back.

Everything The Column reports about Murphy’s “past” interests in that position, I have also heard from primary sources. But what struck me is the quote attributed to Mayor Bud Caulfield.

I have heard that Kevin Murphy is out there snooping around…But, that’s Lowell. When you are the manager in Lowell, there is always someone waiting in the wings to take the job off of you. It has been a pattern for decades.

Wow! The Mayor may be right but usually the name is not floated publicly. And what did Murphy have to say:

First of all, there is no opening, we have a city manager…[I] very much enjoying being a state rep. I have a safe seat and even though we went though a tough budget challenge, it has been very interesting…I have to work with the city manager. I don’t want him to think I am undermining him.

If there is any truth that Murphy or anyone else is interested in the CM position and if they have allies on the City Council who are trying to undermine the current City Manager , given the economic disaster we are facing, it will not be politics as usual. This may be the tipping point. Instead of spending my time typing on my keyboard, I might start start knocking on doors to elect responsible leaders. Why would a Lowell politician want to rock the boat these days? Given the situation, they may find themselves floating in a deep and vast ocean without a life jacket.

School Committeewoman and fellow blogger, Jackie Doherty will be on Warren Shaw’s radio show (980 AM, tomorrow morning (9:00 a.m.) to continue their debate on the role of the school committees. I am sure that they will also discuss the upcoming budget cuts. In addition to lay-off, the Superintendent is looking at all kinds of options; including closing the Rogers School, moving the Administrative offices from rental space downtown to city-owned property, and of course partial privatization of services.

It should be an interesting discussion. Both Shaw and Doherty are knowledgeable and their views are based on facts and experience.

There was a couple of good things that came out of the City Council meeting on Tuesday. One was the question posed by CC Bill Martin on the street work that has been going on in Gorham and Plain streets area of the City; around the cemeteries.

Those of us who live there have been suffering for over a year with the CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) project and we are wondering now that the pipes have been replaced when will the street be repaved.

Well the answer is simple: “The trenches need to settle before they do the full paving. It takes about a year for everything to settle; it needs to go through a freeze and thaw cycle. So permanent paving should begin next year. If you live in that area, as I do, we had to deal with the CSO construction; the infrastructure changes for Lowe’s and the street and sidewalk reconstruction for Target, our cars have taken a beating.

Here is a 2 minute clip of the question and answer on this issue:

How can you tell the campaign season has begun? You had to watch the City Councilor (some of them anyway) sucking up to the union; they vote. The problem was that 5 seasonal employees were hired to cut grass at a total cost of $15,000. CM Bernie Lynch had failed to tell the CC or communicate with the union, AFSCME 1705.

The union rightfully so was there to defend its members. That is their job. The union leadership did announce that inasmuch as they were very displeased with the CM’s decision, they are looking towards working together in the future. They will recommend to their members to take a wage freeze for FY 2010.

But it is amazing that what is best in the interest of the tax payer is secondary for some CC members. CM Bernie Lynch did mention that his job is to provide service and this was the least expensive way to do it.

I hope when it comes time to figure out how we can get the best bang for our buck, the CC members think of what is best for the tax payer. I wish the CC were as “indebted” to taxpayers like me who do not want their service cut back, who continually are having their taxes increased and who see a City budget that is dominated by salaries and benefits.

Yes, CC Mike Lenzi, you do need to “take care of your own”: the 105,000 or so residents and taxpayers of Lowell.

By the way if the parks and fields were messy, the first people to complain would have been the CC members. Also, the rules that apply to a Plan E form of government did not exist tonight.

Have you noticed that the Sun’s Sunday Column does not appear on their web site until a day or two after the publication of the paper? I am writing this post at 11:10 p.m. Monday, May 25, 2009 and yesterday’s Column has not yet been posted. In its place you get “Sorry, not items are currently available.”

This is the third week in a row that the popular, political speculation/rumor/gossip column was not posted on the web site at the same time as all of the other items that appeared in the Sunday paper. My guess is that they want those of us who want to read The Column and do not subscribe to buy the hard copy of the paper. I do not know if their Sunday subscriptions will increase or not but I think most people can wait a day or two.

Again, I think someone is sabotaging the Sun’s future. What kind of business plan is this? Instead of driving people to their web site (the future), they are trying to force people to the hard copy (the past). Good luck!

Fellow-bloggers shallot and mrmillcity have already weighed in on the new web site, lowell.org and they both are critical.

This new web site is the official marketing site for the City of Lowell. There are other commercial web sites, such as lowell.com, a privately owned and operated site, with a focus on the business, tourism, services, etc… and of course there is the City’s government web site, lowellma.gov. And dozens, if not hundreds, of local groups have their own web sites focusing on various aspects of the City’s rich cultural, social, organizational life.

Both shallot and mrmillcity remarked how “white” the lowell.org site were and they both did not think it reflected Lowell’s rich tapestry. Back in January, City Manager Bernie Lynch on his blog explained in great details the efforts to brand the City and gave a preview of the website.

I understand and agree that we need to continue our campaign to attract visitors to the City; as the CM stated “we must continue to attract people to come to our great City…whether it be to live, to do business, to work or to enjoy all of the dining, recreational and cultural activities the City has to offer. This generates revenue.”

I also agree to a certain extent with my fellow bloggers, the site should reflect all of Lowell including its immigrant community and working class neighborhoods. That in itself may not be a major draw for visitors but the site’s name is Lowell, not downtown Lowell. By the way, this campaign’s radio ad is pretty good; the web site needs some tweaking.

I know, I know, it’s been wicked slow around here lately. Things are incredibly busy still, not that I am complaining.

A couple of community notes of note (ha ha) that I’ve been meaning to promote…first, if you’re a gardener like I am, and you didn’t buy some of your plants at the Community Gardens Greenhouse, not only are you missing out on great prices for your plants, but also on supporting this really unique community effort.

I got heirloom tomato plants and lots of annuals, without breaking the bank. I also got 6 free plants with the Plant a Row for the Hungry program - where I will take some portion of my home grown produce to a local food bank. Since seven tomato, three cuke, three yellow squash, and six pepper plants will (if I garden well) net me way more than we can possibly eat this summer, I’m all for it.

The Community Gardens 3rd Annual Spring Fling Plant Sale will continue on Saturday, May 23, 10 AM - 2 PM and Saturday, May 30, 9 AM - 1 PM.

Another bit of useful community news is a second round of “City Building Workshops” put on for the neighborhoods that border and will be affected by the new Hamilton Canal development.

Following is the schedule and location for each session.

• Back Central Neighborhood: Tuesday, May 26. 6:00PM – 8:00PM Massachusetts Alliance for Portuguese Speakers, 11 Mill Street

• Lower Highlands Neighborhood: Wednesday, May 27. 6:00PM – 8:00PM Lowell Boy’s & Girl’s Club; 657 Middlesex Street

• Downtown/ JAM Neighborhood: Thursday, May 28. 6:30PM – 8:30PM Pollard Library; Community Meeting Room, 401 Merrimack Street

• The Acre Neighborhood: Tuesday, June 2. 6:00PM – 8:00PM Lowell Senior Center; 276 Broadway

More details at the City Manager’s blog.

Reported first on BMG, then the Globe.

Though such a local option tax really benefits more developed nonrural cities and towns, in Lowell, adding such an increase would have very little actual impact and do a lot of good.

I’d pay $.10-.20 more on my $10 lunch to go to our local schools and other services. Maybe we could avoid closing the Rogers.

So, House, whatayagonnado?

Love him or hate him (I happen to think he’s pretty durn progressive and awesome) you can’t deny that Ted Kennedy is a force to be reckoned with, even in the midst of a terrible brain cancer diagnosis.

But he’s back with his cancer in remission, so they say. He will in all likelihood be there for the fight for universal affordable quality health care. I can tell you I feel a lot better with him there directing traffic.

Get us some public option health care, Senator Kennedy!!!

Update: Retracted. Shoddy work by Senator Reid and his office. How does one get that wrong?? As Charley says, “Thanks for the false hope, Harry.”