Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was a business-like gathering with no overt controversies. However, a couple of innocuous items on the agenda shed some light on the workings of local government and some important public policy considerations so I’ll discuss them first. **** A routine public hearing on a request…

Donuts Back in the Day By Leo Racicot There was a time in the 1960s and 1970s when Lowell could have earned the nickname, The Donut Capital of Massachusetts. The city was home to many. Let’s see now: there was Donut Shack. Its made-on-the-premises, old-fashioned donuts have been a crowd pleaser…

Living Madly: Lost Worlds By Emilie-Noelle Provost On my website, I often write essays about places, and sometimes people, that were once an integral part of my life but today no longer exist. Some of them are part of what I call the Lost World Series, but there are others…

“Let them eat …” Croissants! By Louise Peloquin In a world where the wild whirlwind of war blows needless destruction, it seems frivolous and callous to think about the pleasures of sampling food. This post, written by a “Nam generation” baby who participated in a Boston sit-in for peace in…

Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting covered a variety of topics with a discussion of how the Lowell Police Department interacts (or doesn’t interact) with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents being most important, although I’ll save that until last. **** There was a public hearing and then a vote to…

Buttercups and Birthdays By Leo Racicot I started to say there are no more bakeries here in Lowell but there are a couple downtown I’ve yet to investigate. Growing up, I guess I was spoiled for choice; there was Price’s on Chelmsford Street where the family and most Lowellians went…