Left In Lowell

Yesterday’s Lowell Sun’s “The Column” had a few paragraphs on City Manager Bernie Lynch’s plans to ask the City Council to reinstate the position of Assistant to the City Manager. I am not going to review the whole history, we all know what happened. But just in case, here is the story.

I would link to the Column but the Sun has decided for business reasons not to have “The Column” available on line for its non-paying customers.

Back to CM Lynch, according to the Column “he is evaluating the needs of his office, putting together a job description and planning to ask the council to restore funding for the position.”

And during his weekly radio interview on WCAP CM Lynch has raised this same issue. Here is a 30-second clip from last week’s Finance Sub-Committee meeting where the topic is raised by the CM. (More on the Finance Sub-Committee meeting and the City Budget at a later date).

I am one of those who believe that the results of this year’s municipal election indicate a vote of confidence for the Lynch administration. Any manager, including this one, needs to structure his administration as he sees fit. I do believe that the majority sentiment of the new City Council will be to give him the tools that he needs to accomplish the CCs goals and objectives.

Even if the CC were to approve this in mid-January, the Assistant will not be in place probably until early February. So for the remainder of the fiscal year, the added cost will be less than $40,000; a sum that can be transferred from the Manager’s contingency fund. That money will be a good investment in our future if it gives the CM the opportunity “to identify and implement cost savings idea and improve our efficiencies.” I hope the reinstatement of the position will not be as turbulent as the elimination was but we will see.

Update: Check out this link…not sure who this org is but they purport to grade Congresspeople on their votes to help the middle class. Capuano gets very high marks every year they have a score.

A friend pointed out this ACLU questionnaire where the four Democrats give answers on their views of various related issues. (The Republicans didn’t send back answers…surprise, surprise…)

I found it really telling that not only did Capuano answer the questions but also commented on most of them. He was the candidate with the most expanded answers (Coakley had a few but not nearly as many).

Some highlights from Capuano’s comments:

Question 10: Will you support efforts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act that denies legally married gay and lesbian couples more than a thousand federal rights and protections that are afforded to all opposite-sex married couples?

Capuano
I support the repeal of DOMA and I am a co-sponsor of HR 3567, the Respect for Marriage Act. I have also consistently co-sponsored the Uniting American Families Act which would permit same-sex couples in committed relationships the same immigration sponsorship rights as married heterosexual couples.
[snip]
Question 12: Will you oppose efforts to funnel scarce federal taxpayer funds to create, expand, or continue federally-funded private and religious school voucher programs?

Capuano
I oppose state subsidies or vouchers for private secular or religious schools. I am also opposed to the funding formula for charter schools, which bases payments to charter schools on the average per pupil expenditure of the public school system. This formula ignores the fact that public schools must educate all children, students who are not fluent in English and those with special needs, cognitive, emotional, and physical, while charter schools are free to cherry pick the motivated students of attentive parents.

This is why I endorsed Mike Capuano. Not only is he principled, but he’s also able to express strong reasoning in his arguments. This is the best of all worlds - thoughtful decision making, standing up for what one believes in, and the practical ability to do something about it. All three are necessary for a good Senator.

With only one week to go, we the voters of the Democratic primary need to choose our pick to replace the irreplaceable Ted Kennedy, who will go on to the general election in January (and let’s face it, on to the Senate). My endorsement comes late but no less enthusiastic. I endorse Mike Capuano for US Senate.

In looking at all the candidates, really only two are known progressives, and of those two, one has been tried in office and has stood up against Bush era abuses, against the Iraq war, for protecting civil liberties, and has a practical progressive view on how to get things done in Washington. As much as I’d hate to see him leave the House, I think the Senate needs Capuano desperately.

There is the other progressive in the race, Alan Khazei, and I hope he runs for office in the future. A lot of my progressive friends are on board with his campaign, but I have two major problems with him: one, that on a practical level, he’s highly unlikely to win; and two, some of the missteps in his campaign, though understandable, make him look rather green. For instance, I applaud his stance on casinos, but the forums in which he brought the matter up were inappropriate, and also, irrelevant. The only power a Senator would have in the state debate about casinos is the bully pulpit, and a freshman Senator, not even much of that. A lower office would suit Khazei so that he can gain the experience needed to move further up, but I just don’t see the “ready for prime time” practicality necessary to make something happen in the mess of a Senate.

I am sincerely skeptical about Coakley, and moreso the longer this campaign goes and she listens to her consultants and “plays it safe.” That’s not to say she might not turn out to be a good progressive, but the manner in which she has run her campaign doesn’t showcase this potential whatsoever. She has failed to reach out to the grassroots, or the netroots, and I’m really kinda sick of the only way I actually hear about her campaign: ads on TV, and press releases to my email like every day or so. It would take very little for her to change the impression that we out here in the ‘roots have of her, but no effort so far. More’s the pity. I want to ask: How will she govern, if this is the way she runs?

Her reversal on the increase of troops in Afghanistan is nothing short of bewildering. First she says she’ll wait to hear the President’s evaluation (a “safe” though actually defensible position), and now, that the other candidates say they are against increasing the troops without a timeline for withdrawal, now she is. Way to stick to your guns.

Pagliuca is dismissible, if not for his gobs of money which makes him a household name now. Anyone else tired of Pags ads? Doth protest too much? His is a vanity campaign, except he has spent so much cash that he actually has a bit of a shot. My friend Ryan (who has endorsed Khazei) does a good job running down the reasons why this guy is in fourth place for the progressive vote. I have no use for a guy whose first indication of progressiveness is his ads on TV, when all his previous actions say something different.

But enough about why not to vote for the other guy. Why should you vote for Mike Capuano?

For me, it’s about the combination of practical attitude and steady principles. The man who held this seat for so long had a lot of both of these elements. Kennedy’s time in the Senate was about holding the line against conservative and neo-liberal policies, many of which resulted in the mess we are in today. A shift of the conservatives to the right corresponded with a shift of the Democrats to the right (even right of center) with devastating results. But not for Ted, and a vast majority of his constituents thanked him for it.

That’s why I want someone with similar principles, and similar practicality, to hold this office again. We need to adhere to our ideals…not because we want to be extremist, but because in reality, on issue after issue, we have the American people on our side. If we want to be rewarded with the trust of the people, we should stand for something. And then follow through.

Mike Capuano has a history of working with others to accomplish goals. He seems to know when to compromise, and when to stand firm. (Hint: eroding our civil liberties was one of latter.) Kennedy knew how to garner the respect of his peers, even as they took opposite sides on an issue. I believe that Mike Capuano is best able to replace that man who held constituent services as dear as passing a health care bill.

Finally, Capuano has shown he is of the grassroots. He has held event after event, out on the streets, unscripted. He is knowledgeable on the issues, answers questions from anyone, has deigned to interview with such rabble as bloggers and podcasters (gasp!), and generally displayed an attitude of listening as much as talking. He is down to earth and not driven by consultants (though I’m sure he employs some), and doesn’t apologize for being himself. All of these things make him the best Democrat to replace Ted Kennedy as our second Senator from Massachusetts.

I missed this piece of news, but H1N1 is mutating, with devastating results. The mutated strain was found in Norway, but has turned up in France as well, and China reports a mutation problem though details are sketchy.

This is why people made such a huge deal of this back when it jumped to humans, and are still making it a big deal. This is a pandemic, unlike the seasonal flu. With so few people immune, and the flu so easily mutated into more dangerous forms, what seemed like overblown media hype can quickly turn pretty deadly. So far, it appears contained, but this is the sort of thing that the cautionary coverage is trying to prevent.

Like the Y2K problem, which cautioned that such important devices as medical and air traffic control could be affected, we’ll never know if we prevented unmitigated disaster if nothing happens. Everyone said Y2K was over-hyped too - no planes fell out of the sky when the clock turned, after all. But people forget that for two years or more, programmers across the globe worked overtime to fix code, and businesses discarded countless devices that couldn’t be updated. If nothing had been done, would we have been so “lucky”?

So it is with the H1N1. Unfortunately, some side effects of this are such things as waiting lines full of panicked parents with their children vying for a flu shot, but all the awareness on trying to prevent infection - whether by vaccine, by staying home if you are sick, or by using common sense measures such as hand sanitizer and coughing into your inner elbow - are only serving to prevent disaster which may, or may not, come, but which would be devastating to our world if it did.

I advise patience, and above all, respect for the germ world, which has been propagating open warfare on us since before we were human, and which is very good at what it does. A turn for the worse in the effectiveness of this little new germ could play havoc with our delicate world economy right now, so listen to the experts, take the advice, and try to do your part as best you can.

Update: Dick Howe has an interesting post on the current situation and how it relates to the 1976 flu shot given to many Americans.

The City of Lights parade and Holiday Stroll, the annual tradition the weekend after Thanksgiving, will once again bring Lowell a lot of fun events and kid-centered holiday treats. It gets bigger and better every year, bringing back the old favorites but also adding the Holiday Stocking Stuffer Scavenger Hunt, where you can bring your kids to the Historic Parks Visitor Center to get a stocking, decorate it across the way at the ALL Arts gallery, and then go around to participating businesses downtown to fill it with free goodies.

One of the reasons for all this festive fun is to get all of us to contemplate spending our gift dollars locally first, before heading to the mall-that’s-all-the-same. You might not be able to cross off everyone on your list, but you can head to the made-in-China parade knowing that you supported some made-in-Lowell artisans.

Every December, the local art and business community is my first stop. I try to find just the perfect gift for as much of my list as I can right here in Lowell. Besides the art communities, there are numerous downtown (and elsewhere) businesses that specialize in personal service and unique gifts…newcomers like C’est and Tutto Bene, old favorites like the Welles Emporium, and yes, even Monkeys (the jointly owned ice cream place) which now boasts a gift shop with wares from local artists and fair trade items. (Check it out if you can! Where else can you get a fair trade gift, and ice cream at the same time?)

So rather than a City of Lights, this season, let’s stay close to home and be a city of “Buy Local.” We can all contribute to Lowell’s economic success, and give our friends and family utterly unique gifts they can’t get from Macy’s or Sears.

The City of Lights festivities are on Saturday, November 28th, from 11AM to 8PM.

Via Cliff, who comments on Kendall’s Saturday Chat, we have Kendall’s take on the delegation and their being indispensable.

With all due respect that is simply not true, and I agree with Cliff, though we’d disagree on the remedy.

There are several points I would like to make to refute this. The first one is simply, NO one is indispensable, and the anger towards these guys for their backing the canceling of the primary, the Kazanjian endorsement, among other things (and there’s a long list, folks), is justified, and we voters deserve a competitive race for every seat in every election. Elected officials should have to come and ask, hat in hand, for our vote, and prove that they earned it. I am sick to death of the crowning of successors and then perpetual incumbency til death or resignation. That is undemocratic. It is anti-American.

But beyond this, and beyond the constant interference in local affairs by the delegation (over multiple years) on behalf of their not-so-deserving friends, I can tell you that a lump of coal could do better than some of these guys.

Case in point, the entire House delegation is on the outs with the leadership. You see, when DiMasi was forced to resign (sigh, two weeks after getting reelected as Speaker), there were two guys were vying for the leadership (Rogers and DeLeo). Both of them sucked donkey bits, too. There was the ethically-challenged, conservative, pro-casino DeLeo, and there was the even more ethically-challenged Rogers who was an equally bad choice.

The entire delegation threw their support behind Rogers, even when a three year old could tell it was going the other way. DeLeo won, and the delegation was metaphorically sent to the basement offices, the opposite direction as leadership. So not only did they pick the worst guy, but they did it stupidly. Now, they are virtually without much power in the House, as I understand how these things work.

How is that good for Lowell and “bringing home the bacon”? And besides occasional walkabouts by Golden, raise your hands if you often see the delegation in evidence at local events, neighborhood meetings, or really anywhere your average citizen dwells? Only when it pats them on the back (like the Hamilton Canal kickoff) do they show up. I don’t get the impression they’ve burned the night oil in the House making an impression there, either.

Now let’s talk policy…Nangle - who, by the way, was the handpicked successor to Cox back when Cox left under an ethics cloud - is not a Democrat. Whatever way a Democrat typically votes, he consistently goes the other direction. I’m sorry, I missed the part where I’m supposed to be all right with being represented by this guy? And Murphy - I don’t see anything useful with his name on it, and I don’t see how he has really pushed on issues I or my neighbors care about. Golden is nearly as conservative as Nangle, albeit at least more visible in the community.

Yeah, these guys are the bee’s knees all right. (That was sarcasm.)

And then there’s Senator Panagiotakos. Granted, he’s the only one where Kendall’s argument even applies at all. As Chair of the most powerful committee, Ways and Means, he holds a lot of sway over the budget, and as such, can make deals that few can dream about, on behalf of his constituency. I’ll even go so far as to say that I think he does a pretty all right job up on Beacon Hill, in terms of voting record, sans his stubbornness about gay marriage.

But anyone, even St. Steven, is replaceable, and a newly elected person could, if they are the right sort of go-getter who works well with others and knows when to push and when to give, can reach decent heights in a legislative body. And it’s erroneous to say Lowell will stop getting millions if these entrenched incumbents got overthrown. To say that a new person wouldn’t get up to speed quickly enough to be useful to Lowell is to say that we should just give up electing people all together. I mean, why bother to even hold elections when there’s an incumbent if tenure is the be-all and end-all of politics? Let’s save the city lots of money, and declare that so long as Panagiotakos, Nangle, Golden, and Murphy are staying in their seats, we won’t bother to hold an election. God, what have we come to in this country??

Lowell is particularly blessed when it comes to the state’s formulas. Because of our population, size, and density, Lowell receives strong levels of local aid and Chapter 70 money for our city services and schools. Perhaps with less influence in the Ways and Means, we might see some drop. However, Lowell is now designated a Growth District, it is on the radar as a “gateway city” and regional economic engine, and I doubt that the Governor and the rest of the legislature would start ignoring the good work in Lowell just because some of the seats were suddenly held by junior elected officials.

Give me a break. Elevating the self-importance of the four members of the Lowell delegation only serves one purpose in my mind: to boost their own egos. They are replaceable, and if we are lucky, they might well be. I am keenly interested in competitive primaries. (No, I won’t support a Republican over a Dem, though I might not fight too hard if the Republican and Democrat were about the same level of progressive.) More and better Democrats!

I think Nangle is very beatable, for instance, if certain people were interested in a primary challenge…

Addendum: this part of kad barma’s comment at R-S-o-L is good:

Our problem is that the four yahoos “representing” us on Beacon Hill aren’t actually representing us at all, and so their “influence”, whatever it might be, is never going to be used for our benefit. (THAT’S the logical flaw in Kendall’s bogus argument). These are the chislers who happily caucused to scuttle our primary election, and to do just about whatever the gang of six told them to do. The right move for an informed and self-interested electorate would be to fire their patronage politics IMMEDIATELY, no matter how junior their replacements will turn out to be.

Ya.

Via a comment at BMG, I read a blog post showcasing the true numbers in the Senate race. While all the news outlets talk about the double digit lead Coakley enjoys, they fail to mention that a scant 21% of people have made up their minds about who to vote for! Left Bank lists the numbers thusly:

79% Undecided (plus Don’t Know)
11% Martha Coakley
5% Mike Capuano
4% Steve Pagliuca
1% Alan Khazei

Hardly a shoo-in for any one person if you ask me. What worries me is that the primary is in literally two weeks, so this does not bode well for turnout.

Prior to tonight’s light-agenda City Council meeting, there isn’t a single Council motion, the Finance Sub-Committee will meet at 5:30 p.m . to discuss how to adjust the FY 2010 budget.

According to a Jen Myers’ article in yesterday’s Sun, the gap is about $264,000. But the key to balancing this budget are in the comments attributed to the City Manager, “…[CM Bernie] Lynch said the council will be asked to make a lot of housekeeping transfers to balance this year’s budget, with some revenues coming in at higher levels than anticipated and others tracking lower than projected. ”

On the CM’s portion of the agenda, the CC will be asked to increase the local hotel tax from 4% to 6%, which I believe they will approve. As for the local meal tax, that will be pushed back this year but I still the FY 2011 budget will force the new CC to seriously look at this revenue stream. Again what is an additional $0.75 when you spend $100 for a meal?

Presuming that many readers of LiL and any other local blog, Professor Bob Forrant needs no introduction.
I’ve just received this email relative to “Downtown Talk”. Looks like a great take!

Prof. Bob Forrant of UMass Lowell Regional Development Department will
unpack the economic realities of the “Great Recession” of 2008-09 in this
fall’s final lunchtime lecture at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center
on Monday, Nov. 30, at 12 noon. Bob will examine both global and local
situations and offer ideas for how our region can climb out of the economic
ditch.

Register now for the talk and discussion and the free lunch that comes with
the program. Seating is limited to 50, so reserve a spot or two this week
by sending an email message to william_mass@uml.edu (Prof. Bill Mass of the

Regional Development Dept. organizes this semester-long series with talks
on campus and downtown.

The lunchtime program is presented by UMass Lowell in collaboration with
Middlesex Community College and the Paul E. Tsongas Center. To see the full
schedule of the series, visit here

Just in case you did not see it, today’s edition of the Boston Sunday Globe features a story on Lowell. The article, “ Flurry of projects broadening Lowell’s cultural vista” written by Globe Correspondent Karen Sackowtiz focuses on recent activities that contribute to the city’s overall economic, social and cultural advancement.

In addition to discussing the opening of “a music rehearsal and recording space … in Western Avenue Studios,” the article discussed the groundbreaking ceremonies of the Hamilton Canal Plan, the transfer of the Tsongas Arena and the recently held “Buy Art; Buy Lowell” event.