With the Lowell City Council holding regular meetings on just the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month during the summer, we have a second consecutive week with no meeting to report on, so today we’ll pay another visit to Lowell’s political history. In the May 12, 2024, edition, I wrote about the school desegregation lawsuit and settlement of the mid-1980s, and on July 7, 2024, I wrote about all the other things happening in Lowell politics at that time. Today’s edition begins with the 1989 city election and covers the next six years, ending with the 1995 city election.

As you may recall from my newsletter about the desegregation lawsuit, not everyone was pleased with the settlement reached between the city and the minority parents who had brought the suit. Some who ran for office in 1987 on a “no forced busing” platform continued inciting racial animosity by placing a non-binding referendum that declared “English is the official language of the city of Lowell” on the 1989 city election ballot.

A week before that election, the Lowell School Committee endorsed the “English only” position by a four to three vote with committee members Kathleen Janas, George Kouloheras, Kathryn Stoklosa and Sean Sullivan supporting English only and Mayor Richard Howe and members Mary Anna Sullivan and Regina Faticanti voting against it. The Lowell Sun wrote several editorials urging residents to vote NO, saying “English only” was a “divisive, expensive, unnecessary proposition.” Bishop Alfred Hughes, the regional Roman Catholic bishop, made known his opposition to the bill. On Election Day, the New York Times published a story about the referendum. Its title was, “Immigrants’ town is divided over official-language issue.”

However, when the ballots were counted, the people of Lowell had voted overwhelmingly in favor of English as the official language of the city with 14,875 voting YES and 5,679 voting NO. But other than stoking racism and hostility, nothing ever came of the vote.

Although candidates who had opposed the desegregation plan and were most vocal in favor of the English only referendum topped the ticket for both city council (Tarsy Poulios) and school committee (George Kouloheras), a slim majority of the new school committee continued to back the desegregation settlement and the focus soon shifted to building all the new public school buildings with state funding that flowed to Lowell as a result of the desegregation settlement.

Notably, mobilizing racial animosity for political gain was not limited to Lowell city politics. John Silber, the president of Boston University who was seeking the Democratic nomination for governor of Massachusetts in the 1990 state election famously declared that Lowell had become “the Cambodian capital of America” because it was a “welfare magnet.” When called on it, Silber declared, “I am not a racist.” (Silber became the Democratic nominee but lost the gubernatorial election to Republican Bill Weld.)

At the same time, the bottom had fallen out of the Massachusetts economy with Lowell being hit particularly hard. The catalyst for the collapse was the demise of several Massachusetts-based computer giants, most notably Wang Labs which was headquartered in Lowell. Wang’s death spiral began in the early 1990s and culminated in 1994 when the Wang Towers which had cost $60 million to build and housed 4,500 workers, were sold at a foreclosure auction for $525,000.

While the Wang Towers was the most publicized foreclosure, there were many others. In fact, the number of foreclosures in Greater Lowell in the early 1990s surpassed the number seen in the Great Recession that began in 2008. The peak volume of foreclosures in the more recent downturn was 602 in 2008. In the prior decade’s real estate collapse, three consecutive years exceeded that amount with 762 foreclosures in 1992; 701 in 1993; and 624 in 1994.

Every bank in Lowell suffered losses when the “Massachusetts Miracle” real estate boom collapsed, but those losses proved catastrophic to four Lowell-based banks: COMFED Savings Bank was seized by the FDIC in December 1990; Lowell Institution for Savings was taken over in August 1991; Central Savings Bank in February 1992; and Commercial Bank and Trust in May 1994.

Economic ills reached all phases of the local economy. By July 1991, the unemployment rate in Lowell was 13.4 percent, a 15-year high.

This all had a devastating effect on Lowell’s municipal finances. In Fiscal Year 1992, the city was $13 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. The Commonwealth stepped in to bail the city out, but instituted a five-member financial control board that had the final say on future city budgets and spending. The control board, which had three members from the state along with Lowell’s city manager and mayor, oversaw city finances for the next three years until the city got back on its fiscal feet.

Tough economic times and the crisis in municipal finance drew 30 candidates to the 1993 city council race. The Sunday before the preliminary election, the Lowell Sun ominously (for incumbents) predicted that the cable TV broadcasts of city council meeting that began the year before “could spell trouble for at least a few current councilors.” The story also quoted a resident as saying that after seeing councilors on TV, that voters had discovered “the emperor has no clothes.”

Sure enough, six of the nine city councilors elected in 1993 were newcomers. One incumbent councilor was eliminated in the preliminary (they finished 23rd); four more lost in the general election; and a sixth did not run. The new councilors were Laurie Machado (whose spouse is State Representative Rodney Elliott); Stephen Gendron; Matthew Donahue; Michael Geary (current City Clerk); Grady Mulligan; and Larry Martin (father of current school committee member Connie Martin). The three incumbents who survived were Richard Howe, Tarsy Poulios, and Bud Caulfield.

Inheriting a dire financial situation both in city government and in the community, the new council was more amenable to using the power of city government to assist local businesses and to promote economic development than their predecessors had been.

For instance, in February 1990, the struggling Hilton Hotel had asked the prior city council to forgive a $2.7 million second mortgage held by the city so the hotel could renegotiate its first mortgage and continue operations. While a bare majority of city councilors supported doing that, such a measure needed a two-thirds vote of the council, so it was defeated with five voting yes and four voting no.

Fast forward to July 1994. The new owners of the Wang Towers renamed the property Cross Point and sought a new anchor tenant. Because the building was so new, it was outfitted with state-of-the-art fiber optic cable and other high-tech attractions. NYNEX was interested in opening a huge regional center in the building but questioned the financial ability of the new owners to uphold their commitments under the lease. The city stepped in and used $4 million in federal funds already committed to Lowell to “guarantee” the landlord’s performance under the lease. That was good enough for NYNEX which signed a long-term lease. Other tenants quickly followed, and the Cross Point towers have thrived ever since. Had the 1990 council been presented with this same opportunity, it likely would have rejected it and Cross Point would never have taken off the way it did. Best of all, not one penny of the city’s $4 million guarantee was ever used.

Another economic development proposal at this time proved more controversial. That involved the construction of a “civic arena” on the edge of downtown Lowell.

Paul Tsongas was the prime mover in the successful effort to construct the arena that later came to bear his name. Coming off his unsuccessful effort to win the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1992, Tsongas returned to Lowell with a determination to make the city a better place. His efforts included school reform and public art, but he also believed the city needed a large athletic and performance venue to reach the next level of American cities.

The fight to build the arena was a messy one. Primary funding for it came from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, especially from UMass Lowell. With the River Hawks hockey team rising in prominence, the school needed a larger venue for the team’s games. Tsongas convinced Chancellor Bill Hogan that a university arena built on the edge of downtown Lowell rather than on one of the existing UML campuses was better for everyone. In the face of much opposition on campus, Hogan assented.

Although the project was promoted as needing “no city money”, that was not exactly the case. Early on, the city council was asked to approve $57,000 for a feasibility study. That vote just barely passed with YES votes coming from Councilors Matt Donahue, Steve Gendron, Michael Geary, Grady Mulligan, and Mayor Richard Howe. The NO votes came from Tarsy Poulios, Bud Caulfield, and Laurie Machado. Councilor Larry Martin was employed at UMass Lowell, so he had to abstain from all votes related to the arena.

In August 1994 a consultant’s report predicted that the arena would “help connect the UMass Lowell campuses to downtown Lowell,” a vision that foreshadowed the transformative LINC project announced by UMass Lowell earlier this year.

Originally, the arena was to be solely for UMass Lowell hockey, but sometime during 1994, Paul Tsongas, while pursuing a minor league baseball team for Lowell, learned that the American Hockey League wanted to place a franchise in southern New Hampshire. With that information, Lowell pursued a pro hockey team to share the arena with UML.  In May 1995, the American Hockey League announced it had awarded a franchise to a Lowell group led by George Behrakis, Gil Campbell and Elkin McCallum. The team which would be known as the Lowell Lock Monsters was scheduled to begin play in the 1996-97 season.

Although progress on the arena and on a baseball stadium suitable for a minor league team continued, both projects where hugely controversial in Lowell politics, creating a level of divisiveness that was unsurpassed until the bitter fight over the location of Lowell High School in 2017. (And having lived through both, the arena fight was nothing like the high school battle.)

This anti-arena sentiment led to a slate of anti-arena candidates in the 1995 city election. In the preliminary election held on October 10, 1995, four of the most vocal arena opponents finished in the top nine. They were newcomer Rita Mercier, radio talk show host Casey Crane, former police officer Bernie Lemoine, and newcomer Rodney Elliott, whose spouse, Laurie (Machado) Elliott did not seek reelection. Also, in the preliminary, pro-arena incumbents Matt Donahue and Grady Mulligan finished tenth and eleventh. If the order of finish in the preliminary carried over to the general election, the arena and ballpark projects would likely be killed.

The Lowell Sun, which was rabidly in favor of both the arena and ballpark, pulled out all the stops in promoting pro-arena candidates in the weeks between the preliminary and the general elections and the poor finish of the pro arena candidates in the preliminary energized their campaigns in the sprint to the general. The effort worked, for when the votes were counted in November, the arena had seven solid supporters on the council. These were Steve Gendron, Bud Caulfield, Matt Donahue, Richard Howe, Grady Mulligan and newcomers Eileen Donoghue and Peter Richards. The only clear arena opponent elected was Rita Mercier. Larry Martin also won but he still could not vote on either the arena or the ballpark. Anti-arena candidates Bernie Lemoine, Casey Crane and Rodney Elliott, who had done so well in the preliminary election, slid out of the top nine finishing tenth, eleventh and twelfth.

As we all know, the arena and the baseball park were both built and for a while provided the people of Lowell with great affordable entertainment and put the city on the regional and national map in the sports world. But nothing stays the same and both facilities have reached different chapters in their existence, which is something that always happens in Lowell. (For more on that, check out the TEDx talk I gave on the history of Lowell back in 2013).

Time and space do not permit me to cover other political events from 1989 to 1995 in Lowell. Perhaps in a future edition . . .

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Upcoming Events

Several Lowell history tours have been scheduled, all are free and do not require advance registration:

On Sunday, September 8, 2024, at 11am at Tyler Park, I will lead a walking tour of the Tyler Park Historic District. This walk is hosted by The Friends of Tyler Park.

On Sunday, September 15, 2024, from 10am until noon, the Lowell Cemetery will hold a Portrait & Mausoleum Tour. This is a self-guided tour of the various mausoleums within the cemetery, offering a rare opportunity for visitors to see the inside of these structures. Additionally, portraits of many of the decedents will be on display alongside the mausoleums in which they are interred. Lowell Cemetery is hosting this event in partnership with Lowell Historical Society, Pollard Memorial Library, and Whistler House Museum of Art.

On Saturday, October 5 and Sunday, October 6, both beginning at 10am from the Knapp Avenue entrance, I will lead the traditional walking tour of Lowell Cemetery. The same tour is offered on both days, lasts 90 minutes, and will tell the stories of some of the fascinating people buried in the cemetery.