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Congressional Election The big news this week – if you set aside the possibility of a nuclear exchange between North Korea and the United States – was the announcement by Niki Tsongas that she would not seek reelection to Congress in 2018. After Tsongas released her news this past Tuesday,…
Read More »The following is an excerpt from Charlie Gargiulo’s memoir about growing up in Lowell’s Little Canada neighborhood in the 1960s during the time when political leaders had targeted the area for wholesale destruction in service of an economic redevelopment policy fueled by government money. The process was called Urban Renewal,…
Read More »City Election The late Paul Sullivan (of WBZ, WLLH, and Lowell Sun fame) used to say that between Independence Day and Labor Day, candidates for city office should go to Hampton Beach because in the summer, there are more Lowell voters there than there were in the city. I’m not…
Read More »Book launching for HISTORY AS IT HAPPENS: Citizen Bloggers in Lowell, Mass. Saturday, August 5, 2017, 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, at Lowell Telecommunications Corp., 246 Market St, Market Mills, Downtown Lowell. The book has writing and pictures from the first ten years (2007-16) of the RichardHowe.com blog. Forty contributors…
Read More »New Lowell High: Buyer’s Remorse? One of the many things that has amazed me about the new Lowell High issue has been the abscense of an in-depth discussion of whether tax payers will be willing to pay for it. City officials have often said we have the “excess levy capacity”…
Read More »We have a new poem from Tom Sexton today, which he sent from his home in Alaska. In this new composition Tom recreates an extended moment in his Lowell youth, reflecting on a kind of confusion most of us have experienced. The details are just right in this self-portrait of…
Read More »2017 Lowell Folk Festival This year’s Lowell Folk Festival kicks off Friday night with a parade at 6:30 pm and the opening ceremony at Boarding House Park at 7 pm. The Festival website provides a full schedule of performances and activities. Musical performers this year include an Afro-Venezuelan group from…
Read More »Thanks to Paul Marion for pinch hitting for me in this space last Sunday. I was away for a few days visiting Washington, DC, and vicinity. In a way, the trip became a hunt for Lowell connections in American history. I found many, which I will write about separately in…
Read More »I’m pinch-hitting for Dick this week while he is otherwise occupied. Instead of his usual round-up of major happenings and ongoing issues, I will share some observations about life in the city. It’s helpful to step back and look at the big picture. I had an opportunity to walk through…
Read More »I have a 15-year-old white T-shirt with teal blue lettering on the back that reads “Partners in Progress, UMass Lowell & the Community.” The Hanes Beefy-T has been washed maybe 700 times, but the fabric has not frayed and the words are not faded. There’s a slight tear under the…
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