Left In Lowell

Now that the election is over and we have settled down with a new City Clerk, it’s time to pick up where we left off in the Spring of 2011.

John MacDonald has sent up a flare and the Bubble is buzzing.

Ninety percent of the 70-plus people he has heard from have been supportive of moving away from the Plan E form of government — in which the City Council selects the city manager and appoints a mayor — to a system where the mayor is elected and is the city’s top administrator, he said.

“I never anticipated the level of interest in a simple letter to the editor like that,” MacDonald said. “People with all different types of perspectives on why the city should have a strong mayor have reached out.”

MacDonald said he has heard from people frustrated with City Manager Bernie Lynch, angry that the council voted 5-4 to appoint fourth-place finisher Patrick Murphy mayor over second-place finisher Rodney Elliott, and those who believe the council lets the manager direct the course instead of the other way around.

I have my own ideas about how this Charter conversation should go. Actually, in March 2011 the City Council approved the formation of a Charter Review Committee(CRC). To find out more about that, please visit Gerry Nutter’s blog. He asked me a few questions about the future of the CRC. My responses are there.

To get back to what John MacDonald is advocating, George DeLuca has an interview with MacDonald archived on his website, cometolowell.com George does a great job offering many counterpoints for John to discuss.

And finally, this video clip from City Life. John MacDonald discusses his ideas with Dick Howe, Jr. Of course, Dick is fairly content with the present form of our city government, but sees room for improvement, especially in voter turnout. Thus, we hear plenty back and forth about the pros and cons on the matter.

OK, so like, I guess Mr. Scott Brown has not bothered to officially announce that he’s officially announcing his reelection campaign that we’ve known for months that he’s been already doing, or something. Got that?

This Thursday, January 19th, on the two-year anniversary of the special election where we made the mistake of electing him, Scott Brown will be doing some sort of anticlimactic kickoff event or other, and we’ll be raising money for Elizabeth Warren.

Now, there’s an official money bomb page, where you can put in your pledge and have it automatically process your contribution on the 19th, but where the heck’s the fun in all that? If you like me, and want me to get credit for the donations (and if you don’t, that’s OK, go click on the official money bomb page link above), then either send me an email with your pledge amount for Thursday (lynne-at-leftinlowell.com if you don’t want to make it publicly) or in comments of this blog (if you don’t care), and then on Thursday come back to the blog and make a donation through my super fabulous, thermostaty, Left in Lowell for Warren page.

You know what, I changed my mind. Let’s use the official pledge site just this once, so we can all count towards whatever announcement of money raised the Warren campaign will make right after. So, go pledge, NOW. I’ll meet you over there. Just promise me that you’ll help me raise money for my little thermometer later on this spring. ^_^

I’m in a back and forth on the Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association’s Facebook page because yet another late-night alcohol-induced incident sent a young man to the hospital with stab wounds this weekend. To quote Kelly F from that conversation:

On Middle Street in the empty bank parking lot, I’ve seen a stabbing, a person being intentionally run over after an argument, a hundred fights, people screaming at the top of their lungs for an hour either fighting or just out of their minds drunk - ALL ALCOHOL FUELED at 2am coming from the same bars we know are problematic and over-serve alcohol to these kids and then I get to see them in this condition get into their CARS and DRIVE!

This doesn’t seem to be an isolated incident, and it appears to be worsening, or at the least, not getting better.

Now, I am all for alcoholic-serving restaurants and (some) bars being downtown. They are a staple of a thriving urban district, and bring money into the area. However, there has got to be a better way to handle this, then sending ambulances to clean up the mess. And by all accounts, the police are doing their jobs as best they can, sending extra patrols and clearing people out after the bars. Costing the city thousands of taxpayer dollars more.

It is plain to see that this is a policy problem, not a policing one.

Meanwhile, we have the goddamned liquor licensing Commission Chairman Walter Bayliss telling us taxpayers and residents are not as important as bar owners despite the fact that a lot of people (particularly residents) are simply asking for after-work-hour meetings, and Commissioner Brian Akashian attacking Mayor Murphy for daring to make a November motion to move the meetings and accomodate residents who actually work for a living and can’t make the 3:30 meeting time. Akashian on Murphy:

This is his history as a city councilor. …He continuously makes motions that are for his own benefit and never takes into account anyone it affects.”

Downtown resident and blogger kad barma has a lot of background on the hapless, tone-deaf License Commission in this excellent post if you have not read it. (He also has another very recent post about the after-Saturday-night carnage. Yum.) Here is the LDNA (Downtown Neighborhood Association) take on it.

kad barma writes:

the license commission has almost always, and i mean almost ALWAYS sided with the liquor stores and bars, and when they did choose to act, only handed out token and wholly ineffective “sanctions” which hardly ever caused these businesses to pause in their profligacy.
…
so where is the license commission on all of this? they are trash talking downtown residents for being complainers without the commitment to show up at their 3:30pm afternoon meetings, and then foot-dragging to the point of obfuscational jawboning about possible legal action to stop their meeting times being directed by the city council to the evenings. (none of which is possible because they have no leg to stand on to resist, so meeting times will indeed be changed). commission chair walter bayliss has tried to blow smokescreens about costs, (the police overtime argument being the funniest–the cops who need to testify are on nights, and actually it potentially costs MORE to send them to afternoon meetings than evening ones, but lets not digress), and gotten on his soapbox to bloviate an incredible quantity of nonsense without substance or point whatsoever. he’s been cornered, FINALLY, to follow open meeting law requirements to post agendas 48 hours in advance as had never been previously done, and he’s finally being shown to be the out-of-touch anachronism and impediment to progress that he so surely is. (the other commission members are better, but not as yet taking action to use their majority to do more right things).

You should also read this comment by kmarcin, which ends:

…Both Mr. Bayliss and Mr. Weiker stated at the last meeting that they work for the businesses because they pay a higher tax rate. If city boards weight who they work for by their tax bill then there is not a single one that is working for me…I do not think the tax bill I pay for my small but opulent 856sf. compares to that being paid by any business.

I am just expecting too much?

Apparently.

So, let’s recap, shall we? We have a burgeoning (and very expensive, in police overtime) problem with lawlessness downtown in the wee sma’s when the bars all let loose their puking and belligerent diehards. We have a police force that, despite the tight city budgets, is now having to send extra people to the streets of downtown to sweep up after the problem…a problem they can mostly only react to, but too hard a problem for them to solve on their own. We have many, many people complaining that the License Commissioners belittle residents at meetings, refuse to accommodate them with a simple meeting change because hey, the bar owners pay a bigger tax rate and are more important, right? They give out meaningless and toothless sanctions to bars which violate some pretty serious ordinances and laws (like underage drinking). Mr. Bayliss considers downtown a “business district” despite the sheer number of residents that call it home.

Do any of us think that weekly news stories of stabbings and injuries and worse is going to do Lowell any goddamned good, businesses or residents??

Does this help Lowell’s delicate reputation as an up-and-coming city with a lot of great venues, art, music, theatre, and food?

Every one of these Commissioners, Bayliss, Weicker, and Akashian, have demonstrated a lack of ability to handle their positions - their statements are so out of touch with not only what the residents of downtown want, but also what this city needs, that every. Single. One of them. Has got TO GO.

Of course, they are appointed for a certain term. I am sure that at least one or two of them are not up for quite a while yet. This poses a problem.

Is there an impeachment process or something similar that we can invoke here?

Or are we waiting for the next stabbing victim to die instead, and watch the entire region rolls its eyes and say, “Well, that’s Lowell for you. Scary place. Wouldn’t want to live, work, or visit there…”?

I think I will preface every single one of my future blog posts with “anyone in a downtown brawl die yet?” until the Commissioners resign, are forced out, or the City Council takes some decisive action.

You think that one of the city’s oldest blogs doing this will help Lowell’s reputation? No? Then to those in power to do something, DO IT. Before something terrible happens.

Information was sent to me for the upcoming “East Pawtucketville Neighborhood Group Meeting to Discuss Community Issues“:

Special Guests:
City and University Police Representatives!

Monday, January 23, 2012, 7:00-8:30 pm

On November 14, 2011, about 20 local residents met for the first East Pawtucketville Neighborhood Group. Here are some of the police concerns that neighbors had:

- Noise, parties, and vandalism on or near University Avenue
- Traffic patterns in the neighborhood: How are we going to be affected by the new building on North campus? What’s going to happen with the new bridge, old bridge, and University Crossing?
- Speeding on local streets
- Parking for local residents
- Who is in charge of what? Should we call university police or city police?

Friend us on Facebook @ East Pawtucketville Neighborhood Group

East Pawtucketvillers, you know what to do. (Don’t forget, for the Tanner St neighbors and interested parties, there is a Tanner St Economic Development Meeting that same night!)