Obama Ringtones

Read about how the project grew at http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_10235896

• The Revolving Museum

Program Name: Commonwealth Corps 2008-2009

Amount: $10,260

The Revolving Museum is an evolving laboratory of creative expression for people of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities who seek to experience the transformative power of art.  The organization seeks three Commonwealth Corps members to work on three distinct projects: 1) Volunteer Program Coordination; 2) Website Manager; and 3) Facilities Coordinator.  Some goals for the projects are to 1) establish a permanent volunteer program; 2) use web technology to increase community participation, provide better services to the public, expand audience, improve communication; and 3) serve the mission of TRM by insuring facility needs are met.

• Universityof Massachusetts Lowell

Program Name: Project IMPACT

Amount: $53,600

Project IMPACT will provide a program of consistent math tutoring for 9^th grade students at Lowell High School to increase the passing rate in Algebra One and prepare students for success on the MCAS test required for graduation.  The goal is to increase the passing rate in Algebra One by 68%.  UMASS Lowell will recruit 1 part time Corps member and  24  14 flex-time members from the student body at the university to tutor the Freshman Academy.

Despite receiving the invitation to sign up several days ago, I initially decided against it figuring that I’d find out soon enough through some other means.  But today I read an oped column by Garrett Graff who was one of the web gurus involved in John Dean’s presidential campaign.  As Graff explains, “announcing Mr. Obama’s running mate by text message has little to do with proclaiming the selection and everything to do with getting out the vote on Election Day in November.”  As someone who has volunteered occasionally during the past ten years to do Get Out the Vote telephone calls leading up to and on election day, I immediately saw the benefit of a campaign being connected via text with tens of thousands of voters.  Between Caller ID, answering machines and busy families, it’s almost impossible to reach a receptive and responsive human being by calling a home telephone.  The recent flood of robocalls and the resulting disdain in which they are held by most telephone owners has further diluted the historical benefits of Get Out the Vote efforts.  And Graff cites an impressive statistic: 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 don’t even have a landline telephone.

This November, the majority of young people born in 1990 will be eligible to vote.  These are kids who mastered the computer before they could walk and are more at ease communicating via text message than by landline.  Anyone involved in politics who is not interested in learning more about the power of this technology as an electioneering tool is guaranteeing his own obsolescence. 

Note: Those of you who are aficionados of Lowell history will remember the duo of Freeman Ballard Shedd and Eli W. Hoyt as purveyors of Hoyt’s German cologne. For more information on Shedd, his businesses, his philanthropy and the magnificent “mirror image” Andover Street homes, check out the UML/Center for Lowell History website and read the Helen Desjarlais exhibit essay: “One Man’s Legacy.” http://libweb.uml.edu/clh/Mans/Mans3.Html

Forrant contrasts Springfield’s inability to plan with the planning process recently utilized in Lowell as part of the Hamilton Canal development, a process economists might call a “virtuous circle of collaboration.”

[Lowell] insisted on an open set of conversations over months for people to talk about what they want to see in the city . . . It’s clear, as the project has been defined and redefined, that the input has really been used. It’s not a fake. I’m pleasantly surprised and encouraged by it. This is something Springfield will definitely need to do.

While Professor Forrant complements the planning process used in the Hamilton Canal project, one of the major shortcomings in Springfield is one that he’s frequently cited as plaguing Lowell and that’s the seeming inability of cities to generate well paying jobs for residents, jobs that were often union and blue collar but that propelled employees and their families well into the middle class. Tourism and entertainment are fine, but neither of them yield the types of jobs that allow a city’s middle class to flourish. There are many who say “manufacturing jobs are gone – get over it” but such sentiments represent a failure of imagination and intellectual laziness. Today in Lowell, many can name the latest restaurant to open, few can name the company that has created the latest well-paying job in the city.  If it was the other way around, we might be better off.

Our current Councillor, Marilyn Petitto Devaney of Watertown, was elected to the position in 1998 and has held it ever since, winning re-election every two years.  This year Devaney received some adverse publicity after she became involved in a dispute at a Watertown beauty salon.  The case was recently resolved short of trial.  While Devaney did not admit guilt, she did agree to send a letter of apology to the other party.  Devaney is a candidate for re-election and will undoubtedly be tough to beat.

The Third District Governor’s Council seat has several Lowell connections.  Here’s the order of finish in the 1998 Democratic primary that led to Devaney’s election:

1. Marilyn Petito Devaney of Watertown - 12,541
2. Ruth Nemzoff of Newton - 12,181
3. Frank Talty of Lowell - 11,010
4. Howard Goldstein of Newton - 8,725
5. John Costello of Weston - 7,776
6. Ginny Allan of Sudbury - 7,595
7. Garrett Barry of Belmont - 6,036
8. Leonard Golder of Stow - 3,373

Prior to Devaney’s victory, the seat was held by Cynthia Creem of Newton who was elected in 1994.  Here are the results of that year’s Democratic primary:

1. Cynthia Creem of Newton - 25,968
2. Joseph M Downes Jr of Lowell - 13,526
3. Jackie Morrissey of Newton - 11,276
4. Robert Kahn of Brookline - 5,334

Prior to Creem, the seat was held by Lowell’s own Robert Kennedy who, in 1988, challenged incumbent Herbert Connolly of Newton.  Kennedy won, 14,716 to 14,715 - that’s right, out of 38,747 votes cast, Kennedy won by a single vote.  But the story gets better: Connolly and his wife were so busy campaigning on election day that they both neglected to vote.

Good luck to Mr. Doyle.  I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more of him in the coming weeks.