Left In Lowell

If you are not in a coma, you have heard that City Manager Bernie Lynch has a TERRIBLE relationship with the State Delegation. It keeps me awake at night. You?

There just isn’t enough bytes on the blog server to handle all of WCAP’s and the Blog of Record’s breathy coverage of this … “awkwardness,” maybe?

But you don’t hear much about this:
They’re For Cox(April 26, 2006; Dennis Shaughnessey; The Sun; Archived Offline)

Robert Cox pointed the finger at one person.

“It’s a matter of someone who has been lying in wait for the right time until she had all her votes lined up, and that person is Eileen Donoghue,” he said.

(bold mine)

Do we hold grudges in Lowell?

LOWELL — In a strong show of support for City Manager John Cox, about 150 people lined Merrimack Street yesterday morning, holding signs that read, “I’m For Cox,” and gathering signatures that will be presented to the City Council on Tuesday.

State Reps. Tom Golden and Dave Nangle said Cox has been the linchpin between the Statehouse and the city.

“Every time we’ve needed his help, he’s been there for us. Now he needs our help so I’m here for him,” Golden said, holding a sign and waving to motorists.

Nangle said Cox has been the driving force behind the city’s recent revitalization.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” he said. “If the council wants to make a change it’s their prerogative, but I don’t see anything drastically wrong with the city that would necessitate that change. I’m here to support the city manager.”

Since our traditional media types are focused, laser like, on the awkwardness of the CM/Delegation relationship, I’m wondering if Lowell’s blogscape should conjure a myth of a huge divide between our Senator and her House brothers. We can do histrionics as well as any GOB, btw. It won’t be an easy pitch, though. Since Donoghue’s election, the gang that can’t shoot straight is minding their P’s & Q’s. You can see, should you go to a bubble event, the Bernie Bashers demure in the presence of our freshman Senator. On cue, they tuck their tails, bite their lips and mumble, “Yes, Ma’am. No Ma’am. Three bags full.” For sure, some are better at it than others. They even smile, with an offhanded joke.

Then, as the Senator departs, they turn to the bar, order a Bud Lite and savor the flavor of their self-respect.

James McSwain, employee at the Old Court, was one of those attacked in our fair city in recent months, last December the 15th. Local bands are putting together a show (Facebook event link) at the Old Court for him:

Please join us on Friday, February 17th for a special show at the Old Court to benefit James McSwain. James is an Old Court employee who was severely injured in a vicious attack on the night of December 15th after walking a friend home. James suffered multiple skull fractures and major brain trauma in the attack and is undergoing extensive rehabilitation at the New England Rehabilitation Center in Woburn.

We’re donating all proceeds from our show for a couple reasons - first, the Old Court has always been a great venue for us and we were inspired by their earlier benefit for James. Second, we were all horrified by the extreme violence of the attack and think it’s unacceptable that you can’t feel safe just walking home from work downtown.

We hope you’ll join us and donate what you can. And we’ll try and put on a good show for you.

The Abbadons
The Subprime Lenders
MED

Tickets at https://www.wepay.com/events/rock-for-james. This would be a good opportunity to check out Lowell’s rock scene for a good cause. The community needs to come together, and not just to solve the problem for the future, but to help victims of past violence.

Is the Merrimack Valley Economic Development Council holding many of Lowell’s “Most Valuable Players” hostage?

A small blurb in the Blog of Record listed the identities of those for and against Enel’s proposed “Bladder Dam.”

In Enel’s corner: The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua; the City of Nashua; the Lower Merrimack River Advisory Committee; Lowell Motor Boat Club; City of Methuen; Pennichuk Water Works; Greater Lawrence Community Boating; National Marine Fisheries Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Massachusetts and New Hampshire fish and game officials; Merrimack River Watershed Council; the Merrimack Valley Economic Development Council; UMass Lowell rowing coach Veronica Platzer; local fishermen; a handful of local residents; a Methuen business owner; and the chief engineer for new Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services.

In opposition: The City of Lowell; the National Park Service; Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Northern Middlesex Council of Governments; the town of Chelmsford; the town of Tyngsboro; U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas; state Rep. Tom Golden; the Massachusetts Historical Commission; Lowell Green Building Commission; Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust; the National Trust for Historic Preservation; the property manager for the Williamsburg condominiums in North Chelmsford; and several Lowell residents, including members of the Lowell Flood Owners Group and Pawtucketville Citizens Council.

(bold mine)

What’s interesting is that the Merrimack Valley Economic Development Council (MVEDC) has a big chunk of its Board of Directors that are, on an individual basis, OPPOSED to the bladder dam. Yet, as demonstrated by the letter below, MVEDC’s president David A. Tibbetts has bundled a number of political and business heavyhitters, endenturing their “gravitas” under his letterhead.

(more…)

Lowell has had a rash of trouble, late night, Downtown.

In response, the City Council is scheduling a special meeting on Thursday February 16th at 6:30. All the stakeholders are encourage to attend. I need to single out C.Elliott, as he had the insight to suggest that a special invitation be made to the License Commission.

That was a heads up play, Councilor.

April 2006 - CM Cox resigns.
June 2006 - CM Lynch is hired.
End of July 2006 - Lynch takes the helm.

John Cox’s Future

Lowell’s city manager still has the entire month of July on the job, before he takes some time off to rest and relax and reflect on his future. John Cox told me earlier this week that he has some prospects, but nothing definite.
-snip

With his many contacts at the Statehouse, Cox could be an asset in the right lobbying mix. He’s done it before with success, although Cox said he is reluctant to plunge into it. “You can make a lot of money,” he said, “but my daughter is going into high school and I’d like to be around my family rather than in Boston.” As Cox explains it, being a successful lobbyist means longs days and late nights. It can wear on you after awhile, he said. For six years, Cox was the face behind Lowell’s revitalization and growing reputation as a great place to live. He’ll leave with nary a severance package, just his last paycheck and many fond memories of serving the City Council and the people of Lowell to the best of his ability. Sure, Cox made mistakes, but his successes far outweighed the miscues. His ability to get things done, even during the recession, will be hard to duplicate after his connections to the Legislature’s political heavyweights are gone. …

That was June 2006. Soon, storm clouds blotted out The Sun. (more…)

The new public statements by former state rep & city manager John Cox, sorta reminds me of Groundhog Day.

LYNCH TOUTED the city’s $2.1 million surplus from the end of last fiscal year this week, noting in a Jan. 27 memo to councilors “a vast improvement over our condition in 2006″ when the city had a negative $2.2 million in free cash. Lynch typically uses the numbers to point out how he believes he has helped strengthen city finances after the departure of City Manager John Cox.

…

“The easiest thing to do is for a city manager is to come in and blame the past administration for any mistakes,” Cox said. “Enough is enough. This guy needs to grow up and take responsibility for what he has done in the last 5 1/2 years.”

…

Cox also pointed out that when Lynch criticizes the prior administration for using surpluses to prevent steep tax increases, Lynch is putting down four current councilors who had to approve the move: Elliott, Mercier, Kevin Broderick and Bill Martin.

Cox ended with a suggestion for Lynch: “Being manager is a tough job. If you don’t like it, leave.”

Not sure about you, but I preferred Cox wringing his sinister hands in the shadows, stabbing rusty needles into a Bernie Lynch vodoo doll and whispering Machavellian-lite schemes into the bent ears of the ‘gang that can’t shoot straight.’

But, however, Cox has popped up. Did he see his shadow? Would that mean 6 more years of Bernie Lynch?

Check the graphs below the fold and tell me that Manager Lynch’s stewardship has been a bad thing: (more…)

Is it an epidemic, yet?

Photo by Kelly Fox.

LOWELL — Police are asking the public to help find those who assaulted two men on Middle Street downtown early Saturday morning, sending one of them to a Boston hospital with serious injuries.

About 2:14 a.m., officers patrolling downtown Lowell found two Westminster men assaulted in front of 172 Middle St., according to Lowell Police Superintendent Ken Lavallee. The victims, who are in their early 20s, had just left Village Smokehouse on Middle Street and were walking toward their car parked on the street when they became involved with an altercation with another man, Lavallee said.

One victim was injured so seriously that he was flown to Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston by medical helicopter. He remains in serious condition but is expected to survive, Lavallee said.

The other victim was transported to a local hospital. Lavallee did not know if he has been released from the hospital. Lavallee did not know the victim’s identities Saturday night.
-snip

Now, let’s talk about this guy:

(more…)

So cool. It looks like Elizabeth Warren’s baby, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is doing a lot of good work (via dkos) for a department in its infancy:

In the first six months of its existence, the CFPB fielded 13,210 complaints from consumers via its phone line and online submission forms, as well as referrals from other regulators, the report said. Of those complaints, 9,307 were tied to credit cards, with another 2,326 pertaining to mortgages.

On credit cards, billing disputes were the most common complaint, totaling 13.7 percent of responses for that financial product. Under the mortgages category, 38.2 percent of complaints deal with a situation where someone is unable to make their mortgage payment.
…
The team at the CFPB devoted to responding to consumer concerns processes the complaints, and then sends them along to the company that is the subject of the complaint to offer a chance to respond.

So far, a little over half of the complaints received have been settled between the company and the consumer “with relief.” Another 30.6 percent have been settled without a mutually agreed upon remedy, while companies are still reviewing another 11.9 percent.

Remember, this is an agency hobbled by Republicans who prevented Obama from appointing a director until he out of frustration did a recess appointment (arguably, despite the “open session” the Republicans “kept” during the holiday break). It’s an agency which is already somewhat underfunded and under severe attack by Republicans who’d love to totally starve it, if they stay in any sort of power.
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Here’s a personal account of a woman who needed the CFPB’s help, with rave reviews.
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And here is a front-page dkos post outlining how fast Scott Brown is running from his nearly-lockstep Republican voting record. Because, you know, a moment talking to Obama and agreeing with him on politician “insider trading” makes him a total independent/liberal/moderate.

There are two issues here. One is that Scott Brown is running scared from Elizabeth Warren. This is not how it was supposed to play out for Senator 41, the hot new Republican celebrity of the big Republican year of 2010. Massachusetts Democrats were not supposed to be able to find a candidate with a compelling biography, a strong voice on economic issues, exceptional media skills and enormous fundraising ability… But then Elizabeth Warren emerged, and Scott Brown had to start fighting for his political future—and if that means cozying up to Obama, he’ll do it.

Of course, as the post says, the lazy media will probably try to let him get away with that. So we can’t let them do it.

Please, if you can spare some change, donate to Elizabeth Warren via our Lowell for Warren page!!

I haven’t posted on the whole Komen/Planned Parenthood thing. I think it’d be clear where I stand on it (having praised Planned Parenthood many times before, both from a doing-good thing and on a personal level). I’m glad there’s an intense backlash on the fundraising org for its terrible, and apparently very politically motivated decision to stop funding breast exams for poor women at PP clinics (all protestations to the contrary, the evidence is piled quite high…one can doth protest too much).

But this Gin and Tacos blog post (via the dkos “backlash” link above) goes further in dissecting Komen and why you should be boycotting its races and fundraisers, and its products (including this gun):

But you should not have a low opinion of Komen^tm because of their announcement on Wednesday. You should have a low opinion of them because they’re a fake charity run like any other company with a product to sell. In this case the product is a combination of guilt, pity, and hope dissolved in a weak acid and dyed a nauseating pink.

…

And that’s all Komen is – a consulting firm that helps large corporate clients sell more of their products through pinkwashing campaigns. By slathering everything from pasta to baseball bats to perfume to fast food with the Pink Imprimatur, consumers are led to believe that their purchases are making meaningful contributions to breast cancer research. Somewhere down the line a few cents per purchase may trickle into those bloated coffers, but the immediate and motivating effect of that pink packaging is to get you to buy things. In short, Komen^tm is a group of salespeople selling image. Whatever money benefits the sick, researchers, or recovering patients is ancillary. Getting those big, fat tax-exempt checks from their Partners for the Cure^tm is what drives their business model.

The Gin and Tacos post also links to a Marie Claire expose (I know, right?) as background information. Both the post I quoted above, and the Marie Claire article, are well worth a full read. There is a paucity of articles and reporters questioning the very concept of “cause marketing” in general and the breast cancer “pink” campaigns specifically. Like “greenwashing,” “pinkwashing” is a marketing ploy first, a way to make a customer feel good about their purchase and therefore, encourage more buying. The Marie Claire article writes about outfits which provide “pink” branded merchandise that have nothing to do with donating to cancer research, and it’s questionable how much of your purchase of a “good” pink-bedecked item really goes to research. What’s clear is that the proliferation of charities and foundations around the breast cancer awareness and research “movement” have done a lot of enriching of themselves, however, and have become big business.

So next time you are in a store or asked to donate towards or participate in a fundraiser like a race, think before you pink!

Just to add, the last page of the Marie Claire article does outline how to truly support breast cancer research and how to watch out for scam charities. (Sorry, fixed the link!)

I betya that C.Elliott is starting to have second thoughts about his LHA crusade. It might be that he is quickly running out of further places to move the goal posts too. It might be that the buzz around town is turning sour. There is no way to be sure.

The Blog of Record gives two clues:

“This visit confirmed that the LHA and the City will achieve the desired outcome of assuring public safety, compliance of the State Building Code and the issuance of valid Certificates of Occupancy for the renovated units if the plan is followed going forward,” Sullivan wrote.

Oh, there is also this clue:

.

You can read the entire LHA article, written by Lyle Moran, and not find a single quote by C.Elliott. What are the odds?