Left In Lowell

I just returned from a roundtable event with Elizabeth Warren here in Lowell at Mambo Grill, focused on women-owned small businesses, where I got to both be at the table, and also tweet my little heart out. (Dick Howe Jr, sitting nearby, was likely feeling a bit smug over that.) If you happened to catch my Twitter stream this afternoon, you would have been treated to quotes and photos from the event.

The local visit is part of the rolling out of the latest Warren endorsement - not only was Elizabeth joined by first-Congressperson-to-endorse Rep. Niki Tsongas, but also by Sheila Bair, former chair of the FDIC, a Republican who has never endorsed or campaigned for a Democrat but has decided to wade into this race. A G.W. Bush appointee, Bair worked with Warren on issues of stopping foreclosures and helping consumers during the financial meltdown, then also when Warren had oversight of the TARP program and the formation of the CFPB.

In the toss-around that is the rather tired old “bipartisan endorsement” game in the Commonwealth these days, why should you care about Sheila Bair’s? Because unlike other endorsements, this one has gravitas. It might not be a recognizable name to you, but in terms of really knowing Warren and her work, in places where it matters to average people, you can’t beat this former Chair of the FDIC.

It was great to hear Bair in person, and her reasons for endorsing Warren that go beyond party lines. For her, it’s about Warren’s real, tangible work on behalf of consumers, the middle class, homeowners, and squaring the financial system so that it’s fair for all. She said, specifically, that Warren is not anti-bank or anti-business, but rather is for an equal playing field for citizens and businesses alike.

Oh hell, I was on fire on my smartphone, I’m just going to include my own tweets here:

Sheila Bair, who has endorsed @elizabethforma. #mapoli twitter.com/leftinlowell/s…

— LeftinLowell.com (@leftinlowell) October 17, 2012

Bair: endorsed @elizabethforma because “she is a very special person.” Worked closely on regs, TARP, trying to prevent foreclosures. #masen

— LeftinLowell.com (@leftinlowell) October 17, 2012

[Apologies, previous Tweet has a smartphone-induced typo in Bair’s name.]

Bair: “Until we end ‘too big to fail,’ we won’t have a stable financial system…that’s why I have endorsed @elizabethforma.”

— LeftinLowell.com (@leftinlowell) October 17, 2012

Warren: “Sheila was a part of every effort to help get this economy back on track… Tough and determined.” #masen #mapoli @elizabethforma

— LeftinLowell.com (@leftinlowell) October 17, 2012

Warren: “A lot of the decisions we make in this race will be important to small businesses.” #masen #mapoli @elizabethforma

— LeftinLowell.com (@leftinlowell) October 17, 2012

When a reporter asked the obligatory question about bipartisaniness, Bair responded with concrete examples of why Elizabeth Warren was the one who would do the real work:

Bair: @elizabethforma will govern, work with both parties. #masen #mapoli twitter.com/leftinlowell/s…

— LeftinLowell.com (@leftinlowell) October 17, 2012

Two things of gleeful personal note: the silly press people had to ask Warren about the asbestos lawsuit thing, again, which I imagine has to be tiresome beyond belief, but in her response, Warren cited the asbestos union, the many victims, and the victims’ lawyers who’ve expressed dismay over Brown’s lies about the case. Glad to have helped with that.

Second, I got to ask a roundtable question, and I was debating talking about DBE issues (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, a designation for federal DOT work as a women- or minority-owned business, for which my business was certified for several years) but…I decided to air out a long-standing frustration I have with a simple and obvious way that Dems can combat the “deregulate and untax businesses and they’ll grow!” idiocy from Republicans. I mentioned my own personal experience - that it’s the DEMAND from customers, not taxes, which are the arbiters of whether or not I expand as a business. If I have more work than I can handle, I hire. If it dries up, I shrink. Taxes and regulation have very little to do with it. If I can make money by expanding, of course I will!

This has been annoying the hell out of me - it’s such a simple, easily understood concept Dems could use to whack their Ayn Randian Republican opponents over the head with in debates and on the stump. Warren was all over it - citing the jobs bills that Brown voted against and helped to kill, which would have increased spending money in the hands of the employed, indirectly helping even my B-to-B business, nevermind the construction and infrastructure jobs bill which, as a WBE/DBE at the time, might have helped me land some really big contracts. Which would have forced me to hire, in all likelihood.

[Note to LiL readers: if this sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve said it before, and certainly the Mr. has said it before, to whom I give original credit.]

Anyway, I was grateful to finally get that little gem out in a meaningful way. I hope it is useful to her and she uses it! Now I just need to find a roundtable with Obama that I can crash…

I am bummed that I am already booked at the exact same time as this great event which I found on Facebook thanks to LDNA’s posting. Please have another tour sometime?

Ethnic Market Tour II
Saturday , Oct 13 2012, 2:00pm
Touring Central Market, East West Foods, African Central Market. Meet at the Parks Visitor Center, 246 Market St…space is limited on the bus, reservations are required. Call 978-970-5000 or 978-275-1719. Parking available at the Visitor Center lot, 304 Dutton St.

“Come join us on a tour of some of Greater Lowell’s ethnic markets…three local markets specializing in Portuguese, Indian, and African foods. You will have a chance to meet with proprietors, hear family stories, taste a sample, and buy specialty foods. FREE EVENT!”

Tonight? #magic8ball

I hope Dick Howe goes back to history and art, ’cause he’ll put all of us out of business.

I don’t usually comment on anything contained in the Sunday Lowell Sun “Column“, but one item this week caught my attention. It wasn’t that developer David Daly employed former city manager John Cox as a “consultant” on his proposal for a housing development on Westview Road, although that did explain a lot, especially the newspaper’s one-sided support for that project. (Note: I live on Westview and oppose the project). And it wasn’t that Daly, who I assume intends to continue doing business in Lowell into the future, took some very public and strong shots at state representative Kevin Murphy and Lowell Mayor Patrick Murphy, two guys with long memories and well-established political skills. No, the thing that really caught my attention was the section about former state senator Steve Panagiotakos predicting the defeat of not only Elizabeth Warren, but also of his former House colleague Colleen Garry, …

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Kendall Wallace has cashed the New Media!

When The Sun decided to chronicle the amazing transformation the University of Massachusetts Lowell has undergone in the past five years, we wanted to call it, “The Miracle at UMass Lowell.” UML Chancellor Marty Meehan cringed at the working title because Meehan, who was named to lead the university in March 2007, said every improvement from an ambitious expansion plan that includes new dorms, academic buildings, parking facilities and an $80 million Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center, to burgeoning enrollment has been strategically planned by university leaders. Five years ago, UML received fewer than 3,500 applications per year. That number today is close to 10,000. Enrollment is up 37 percent in those five years, with more than 15,000 enrolled. And that increasing number of students are bringing with them rising SAT scores. Miraculous? Maybe not. But impressive nonetheless.

The word on the street is, Wallace gets the lions share of the fruit borne by the inserts. So, when you thumb through this new media insert, gander at the sponsors and imagine the tone & tenor of the “ask.” To this day, Wallace is afforded heavy tribute. Of course, Wallace Wannabe Campi, squirms behind his placard, as the vig sails right over his head.

It’s good to be the ….. King. (h/t to Sensei Tom)
It’s way better then being the Court Jester.

So, after a fairly lengthy back and forth, 58 comments at this point, on a mutual friend’s Facebook page, former Commissioner Ray Weicker made a wee hours post that shows us a thing or two:

I took this screen grab at about 7:45 am, just in case you want a point of reference. (more…)

If you’re scratching your head at which of the new or existing Fro-Yo places to try, Marianne has a really good review. She went to all of the locations to try out the wares, so you don’t have to…unless you want to.

I find it mildly disturbing that the number of Fro-Yo places in Lowell is creeping up to about half of the number of Dunkin Donuts. What gives???

I am guessing that there’s a chance that a lot of these survive for a while, at least the ones which are scattered in various neighborhoods. If the people in those neighborhoods decide to get addicted to fro-yo, that is. It remains to be seen.

But seriously, all this fro-yo and no Trader Joe’s…my heart is broken!

Of interest to anyone who ever tries to drive over the river into Pawtucketville and Centralville (and back), UMass Lowell is hosting a public meeting to talk about North Campus area traffic affected by the new buildings UML is building there.

The East Pawtucketville Neighborhood Group invites you to a Community Meeting sponsored by UMass Lowell to learn more about the big changes taking place in regard to traffic in our neighborhood.

Monday, July 23, 2012
6:30-8:00 pm
Alumni Hall
UMass Lowell North Campus

There will be a formal presentation on traffic impacts, and the Chancellor will be present from 6:30-7:30 pm to listen to concerns and answer questions. The City will also have representatives there as well talking about bridges and traffic.

Here’s what an active neighborhood group can do for you, as the East Pawtucketville Neighborhood Group instigated this meeting. By the way, you can keep up with their doings and meetings on Facebook by liking their page.

I want this to succeed:

Now, a group of movie-loving Lowellians with downtown connections has been meeting quietly in hopes of returning just a little piece of the majesty to the downtown business district by opening an independent movie theater.

During the last several months, the group has studied the rich movie-house history of Lowell, taken road trips to numerous urban movie houses throughout New England, researched the projection and sound equipment needed for a venue, developed capital equipment and operating budgets, drafted the necessary nonprofit legal documents, and toured about 15 potential sites in downtown Lowell.
…

The current concept is for a downtown site, 2,500 to 4,000 square-feet with 75 to 125 seats. It would show everything — from popular box-office second-run titles to classic and Golden Age movies to award-winning and festival-circuit films to documentaries to midnight screenings of cult favorites — six days and nights per week with periodic film festivals and filmmaker events.

“It would be a gathering place for movie lovers of all ages, from students to seniors,” said lawyer Michael Gallagher, who is among those leading the effort. “It would be clean and neat, and have a contemporary feel with first-rate projection and sound equipment.”

I grew up watchng the greats. To this day, my favorite actors are Henry Fonda & Jimmy Stewart. This is not to take away from modern day films. My facebook page longs for the release of the next Peter Jackson movie, The Hobbit. But the classics relied more on actors, than special effects. The scripts were more nuanced, allowing the actors to fill in the difference with facial expressions and body language. These actors studied people. Each scene was a tutorial on the human condition.

Okay, I’m back. They were awesome. We don’t truly appreciate their craft, as much as we should. So, such a theatre would allow for us to reexperience these artists. That would be wonderful.

Further, some films are just fun or quirky. I’d love to take my daughters to see the Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense or the Scorcese film The Last Waltz.

Your taste in cinema may vary. It’s all good. If the folks behind this effort get the formula correct, Lowell will be that much better for it.

For years, friends living at 181 Market St. have vented their frustrations of shoddy workmanship and unscrupulous behavior by the developer that took his “Mills to Martini’s” money to the extreme. At the end of this last May, rumors where swirling that this developer, John DeAngelis, was moving quickly to reach for another brass ring in downtown Lowell - The Chalifoux Building.

A ZONING Board hearing on the proposal by Nashua developer Tom Monahan to redevelop the upper floors of the 112-year-old Chalifoux building at the corner of Merrimack and Central streets into 47 market-rate rental apartments quickly turned into a rally against another developer, John DeAngelis of Earth Realty.

“This project is too important for the city to have a developer with the problems John DeAngelis has created,” said Stephen Greene, a resident of 181 Market St.

Seven residents of the DeAngelis-developed properties at 181 Market St. (Market Gallery Lofts) and 58 Prescott St. spoke in opposition to the project, believing that DeAngelis was a member of the development team due to an inaccurate hearing notice sent to neighbors.

(Notice insert mine)

No one in attendance from the city or the developer had any idea how the mistake occurred.

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