An entry in 2009 Lowell Photography Contest

The Lowell National Historical Park’s 2009 “Lowell Photography Contest” has a submission deadline of January 31, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. Submissions can be made by email, so you still have time. For entry information, click here. Judging begins on Monday and the winners will be announced on March 1. The rules are pretty straightforward: you submit one or more pictures taken by you of a scene or subject located somewhere on a map shown on the entry website (the map depicts Downtown and The Acre).

The first 300 entries - including the one shown above - have been posted on this webpage. I encourage you to scroll through the pictures. Our city never looked so good.

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In honor of tomorrow’s NHL Winter Classic at Fenway with the Bruins taking on the Flyers, I reached deep into the vault to find the following short poem with a lengthy footnote. The footnote includes the first poem I wrote, which was about hockey. It was 1972, and I had no idea I’d write another poem. I can’t remember when I wrote the main poem, “A Streetcar Named Frank,” maybe 1979. It’s a tribute to one of my pond-hockey buddies from Dracut whom we sometimes called “Mahovlich.” He turned the nickname into “Streetcar” in honor of the Detroit winger’s barreling style. We also called my friend “Fly” in basketball season, for Walt Frazier of the NY Knicks.—PM

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A Streetcar Named Frank

Fly was Peggy Fleming with a wrist shot.

His specialty was slick:

Yelling, “Clear the track; here comes Shack!”

He’d charge the puck carrier and spin up

To deliver a hip check in the neck,

Knocking some kid into frozen weeds,

Then sweep the puck ahead,

Deke the defense, and flip a little backhander

Over the sprawling goalie.

—–

Title: Frank Mahovlich, Detroit Red Wings.

Line 1: Olympic Gold Medal, 1968.

Line 2: Home-grown pro.

Line 3: Eddie Shack, old  Bruins’ hacker.

Line 4: One motion.

Line 5: Still one move.

Line 6: Cause and effect.

Line 7: Head-man the puck (Montreal style)

Line 8: Head fake or stick-handling trick.

Line 9: a. “Holy Moly, mother of goalies!” (anon.)

          b. “He shoots; he scores!” (Dan Kelly)

          c. My first poem was about hockey:

“Bruins-Blackhawks”

Bruins’ defensemen skate ’round Boston’s net.

The puck is dropped, and Bobby is set.

He crosses the blue-line, stick-handles past Hull,

Gets by Pit Martin, and then there’s a lull.

Orr’s blades are flashing; Mikita’s in shock.

He passes to Pie and heads for the slot

(Tony O’s nervous, expecting a shot).

Number 4 gets the goal, Pie the assist,

And big chief Magnuson gets Sanderson’s fist.

—Paul Marion (c) 1972, 1979

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As we reach the end of the first decade of the Twenty-First Century, how do folks in Lowell and vicinity celebrate New Years Eve?  Chinese food?  Go out to eat?  A house party?  The Three Stooges Marathon?  Share your plans with us.

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Blue Moon fire in Lowell, MA (photo courtesy of Gary Francis)

Tony did a post yesterday linking the astrological phenomenon of a Blue Moon (i.e., the second full moon in the same month) with a song by the same name.  Comments to the post addressed both of those themes and, as is usually the case, linked everything back to Lowell where there was once a night club named the Blue Moon.  The above picture from Gary Francis (thanks for sharing!) shows the demise of the Blue Moon while the comments below recount a few reader memories of the place.  If you remember Lowell’s Blue Moon, please share your story using the “comment” feature:

Gary Francis

The Blue Moon was also the name of a former business in Lowell…..a nightclub at the corner of Wood Street and Princeton Blvd….right where Market Basket/Osco Drug is today….except that the building was orientated to face the Blvd as oppposed to Wood St. It was owned by the Molansen (sp?) family who lived on Westchester St in the Highlands - right across the street from where I grew up. It burned down in the 1960’s. I have a picture of the building at the height of the fire….if anyone wants a copy send me an e-mail and I will forward it off to you.

John Quealey

Years ago a nightclub named Blue Moon was on Woods Street beside the First National Store which is now Market Basket.I was invited to the breakfast there after serving a wedding Mass at Sacred Heart.Blue Moon was the only business in that shopping center when I was at the breakfast in 1950.

Marie

Love the Marcels and love this version of “Blue Moon” although there are many more.
Re: Lowell’s Blue Moon - Many a celebrity played there and they hosted many a wedding and special social event. Sampascoopies often noted people “seen at the Blue Moon.”

DickH

I remember Lowell’s Blue Moon although I wasn’t old enough to go inside. Diagonally across the intersection of Wood St and Princeton Blvd was the Hi-Hat roller skating rink. My mom tells me that on the other corner - where the White Hen Pantry now stands - was a small house that served as a veterinarian’s office. When the White Hen was to be built, the house was moved a few blocks over to Ostrander Ave where it still stands as someone’s residence.

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The Globe and the Herald both explore the possibility of UML Chancellor Marty Meehan moving on to the presidency of Suffolk University in competing stories in this morning’s editions.  The president of Suffolk, David Sargent, will be 82 when his current $1.5 million contract expires and the speculation is that he will retire then if not sooner.

The Globe reports that Meehan, who had been a member of the Suffolk board of trustees for some time but who stepped down temporarily to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest while the UMass system was deciding whether to open a law school – Suffolk, which has its own law school, opposes such a move – is now uncertain about whether he will rejoin the Suffolk board at all.  According to the Globe, “Meehan said yesterday that he is not vying for the Suffolk presidency, despite the fact his Umass Lowell contract expires in June – He is negotiating a new three- to five-year contract with UMass.”  The Globe goes on to quote Marty as saying “There’s still a lot I want to accomplish at UMass Lowell” but the paper then adds “After that, he said, he would consider the Suffolk presidency along with other options.”

The Herald story, by former Sun reporter Hillary Chabot, covers much of the same ground as the Globe report, but includes a much more emphatic slamming-shut-the-Suffolk-door quote from Meehan.  “’I’m staying at UMass-Lowell’ said Meehan, adding he is not interested in the $1.5 million-a-year Suffolk position, ‘in any way, shape or form.’”   

It’s hard to believe that Meehan’s contract is up this coming June.  It seems like such a short time ago that he decided to leave Congress.  Since then, however, the University has been a whirlwind of activity, acquiring the Tsongas Arena and the downtown hotel, moving forward on the construction of a new academic building and invigorating the relationship between the city and the university.  For those reasons alone, it would be best to keep the current leadership of the university in place for the foreseeable future.

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The Boston Red Sox announced yesterday that they had extended their player development contract with the Lowell Spinners for two more years, ensuring that the Lowell team will be affiliated with the Red Sox until at least the end of the 2012 season.  With the city of Lowell earlier this year extending the Spinners’ lease on Lelacheur Park for an additional ten years, 2009 has indeed been a good year for minor league baseball in Lowell.  The Spinners first came to Lowell in 1996 and began playing at Lelacheur in 1998.

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The 2009 Lowell Photography Contest sponsored by the Lowell National Historical Park will continue taking submissions up until January 31, 2010.  Contestants may submit up to three photos taken in 2009 “of any natural, historical, or cultural subject” taken in an area consisting of downtown Lowell and the Acre.  “Judges are looking for images that draw attention to the ‘essence’ of Lowell and/or celebrates Lowell’s hereitage.”

More information about the contest including rules and the entry form can be found HERE.  Photos already submitted may be viewed HERE.

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Today’s Globe has a short article by John Ellement about history activists in Methuen seeking to preserve an 1893 attendance book written by a schoolteacher who would become a famous writer—young Robert Frost of Lawrence. Read the Globe article here, which includes a photo of the logbook.

One of this blog’s readers and past commenters, Matt Kraunelis, is credited with “rediscovering” the  book in a storage room in the local Masonic Lodge. Matt is chief of staff for Methuen Mayor William Manzi III. Early on, Frost tried teaching and then chicken farming to make a living. He was 40 years old before his poetry received serious notice.

Working with the Methuen Historical Society, City officials hope to restore the artifact. An application has been filed with the Institute of Museum and Library Services for a $3,000 grant, but Matt and his colleagues are seeking donations to help cover project costs. Checks made out to the Frost Account can be sent to the Mayor’s Office, 41 Pleasant Street, Suite 306, Methuen, MA 01844.

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The Lower Highlands Neighborhood Improvement Plan developed this past fall by MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning in conjunction with the city’s Division and Planning and Development is now available online in its entirety.  four sites in the neighborhood are the focus of this effort: Pailin Plaza/Clemente Park; Cupples Square; Nottingham Mills & RMV site; and the Gallagher Terminal.  I was not able to attend the planning team’s outbrief in early December, but I did go to a comparable presentation last year on the Back Central Street neighborhood and was quite impressed.

The web site with links to the full Lower Highlands Plan and the slides used at the public meeting is located HERE.

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It was a busy year in Lowell politics, so I won’t limit myself to just ten items.  Here is my list of the top political events in Lowell in 2009:

Incumbents lost in all three local elected boards this November.  On the city council, Alan Kazanjian and Armand Mercier failed to win re-election.  They (and Mike Lenzi who did not run) were replaced by Franky Descoteaux, Joe Mendonca and Patrick Murphy.  On the school committee, Regina Faticanti, the longest serving elected official in Lowell at the time, was not re-election.  She was replaced by first-time candidate Alison Lariba.  And on the Vocational School Committee, long-time incumbent Mike Hayden was not re-elected with the voters choosing Fred Bahou instead. 

A ballot referendum to change the method by which Lowell voters chose their city councilors called Choice Voting was defeated by a total of 6841 against to 5174 in favor.

The world fiscal crisis forced the city of Lowell to make substantial cuts to its FY09 budget including a significant number of layoffs.  Arguing that more cuts were needed, a majority of the city council voted to eliminate funding for the position of Assistant to the City Manager (held by Andy Sheehan).  The same councilors also voted to eliminate the city’s primary election.  At election time, many voters later identified the outcome of these two matters as a cause for dissatisfaction with some members of the city council.

The school committee also made substantial cuts, eliminating more than 120 jobs.  In a controversial move (to some), the committee also voted to move the school department headquarters from the Bon Marche building to the newly vacated Rogers School (which was also closed in a cost cutting measure).

Two of the elected officials who lost in November became involved in legal matters prior to the election.  Early in the year, a clerk-magistrate in the Lowell District Court issued a complaint against Regina Faticanti for threatening to commit a crime with the alleged victim being Superintendent of Schools Dr. Chris Scott.  Just before Christmas, the case was resolved short of trial with all parties agreeing that Faticanti be placed on pretrial probation with various conditions imposed but with no admission of guilt or any wrongdoing.  Back in September, a photograph of the city’s plumbing inspector sleeping at a business owned by City Council Alan Kazanjian emerged in the media along with an investigative report that revealed the inspector performing private work on city time.  Then in October, it was disclosed that a building in Chelmsford owned by Kazanjian was tied into the Lowell sewer system despite the city’s earlier denial of a request to do just that.  Finally, the Middlesex District Attorney’s office had subpoenaed all records related to all properties owned by Kazanjian, although there have been no further disclosures about the scope or progress of that investigation.

The University of Massachusetts Lowell became the owner of two of the anchor buildings of downtown Lowell, the Doubletree Hotel (which was purchased from private owners in April to become the UML Inn & Conference Center) and the Tsongas Arena (which was transferred by the city to the university in October).

In economic development news, the new Target store on Plain Street opened in October, the official ground-breaking for the Hamilton Canal development occurred in November and by Christmas, the Lowe’s on Chelmsford Street is rapidly taking shape.  In addition, the new Jeanne d’Arc Credit Union headquarters opened and a number of new stores, shops and markets opened in downtown.  And Elliot’s Hot Dog stand re-opened.

Senator Ted Kennedy died in August after an extended illness.  Controversy arose when the state legislature voted to alter the method of filling a vacancy in the Senate.  Formerly, the governor would appoint someone to fill the seat until the next state election but in the expectation of John Kerry becoming president in 2004 with a Republican governor in office, the legislature changed the law to have the seat filled by a special election.  But this year, with health care reform possibly hanging on a single vote, the governor and legislature decided to change the law once again by allowing the governor to name an interim Senator until a successor could be elected.  Governor Patrick appointed Paul Kirk who did, in fact, cast a critical vote on health care reform just last week.  As for the special election, after Joe Kennedy, Marty Meehan and Steve Lynch all decided not to run, the Democratic field ended up with Martha Coakley, Mike Capuano, Steve Pagliuca and Alan Khazai with Coakley winning by a wide margin in the December primary.  In January 2010, she will face Scott Brown who defeated Jack E Robinson in the Republican primary.

In April, TV trucks from Boston descended on the Pine Street headquarters of the Lowell Health Department to report on the first cases of the H1N1 flu in Massachusetts which were diagnosed in two boys here in Lowell.

Hollywood came to Lowell this summer as Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and a large production company spent several weeks on location filming The Fighter, the story of Lowell boxer Micky Ward.

In March, Lowell issued homeowners cranberry colored barrels and changed the way the city’s trash was collected.

In May, the city of Lowell and the Lowell Spinners entered into a new 10-year lease for Lelacheur Field.

A town hall meeting on health care reform in Chelmsford hosted by Niki Tsongas featured many opponents such reforms and previewed emotional confrontations around the country throughout the summer and fall.

Old media continued to suffer with the Boston Globe being threatened with closure if its unions didn’t make major salary and benefit concessions (which they did).  The Lowell Sun forced all employees to take furloughs in February, laid off some employees in April, raised the newsstand price of the daily paper from 50 to 75 cents, and removed The Column from its website in a move preparatory to charging for content delivered on its website.

The influence of new media continued to grow with a number of local candidates making YouTube and other social networking sites major components of their campaigns.  A number of new blogs such as MrMillCity, Lowell Shallot, Lowell Handmade and Art is the Handmaid of Human Good all appeared on the scene.  An entirely web-based news site, ChelmsfordMassNews.com, was launched.  Twitter users keep the city apprised on breaking news by using the #Lowell tag.  In August, more than 50 people brought together by blogs and Facebook gathered at Elliot’s Hot Dogs to celebrate the re-opening of that Lowell institution.

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