Last Sunday, the Lowell Sun reported “Several bombshells dropped during the [February 27th] meeting of the School Building Committee for the Lowell High School renovation project.” (“Cost overruns, 4-month delay forecast”). This newest problem arose in the 1922 building which runs along Kirk Street and involves the cement floor of the basement. As portions of that floor were cut open, contractors discovered that instead of resting upon a bed of dirt, there was a void or vacant space beneath the concrete. The dirt below had either settled or washed away due to water infiltration. While this had not created any obvious problems – there were no evident cracks or sagging of the floor – it cannot be left as is for the project to safely continue. Instead, according to the contractor, the floor will have to be removed and properly reinstalled. This was not included in the project plan so it will be an additional cost and will add four months to the project.

Councilors discussed this at some length at Tuesday’s meeting with several asserting that this condition was widely known and should not have come as a surprise to the contractor. Some of these councilors urged the city manager to consider the possible liability of the contractor for negligence. Others worried that when the project reaches Coburn Hall, which was constructed in the 1890s, even more unknown problems might arise. City Manager Tom Golden struck a tone that was both somber in recognizing the scale of this issue and hopeful that the Massachusetts School Building Authority might assist with the additional costs.

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In what has become an annual occurrence, a representative of the Lowell School Department came before the council seeking authorization to pay some “bad bills.” State and local governments in Massachusetts work on a strict July 1st to June 30th fiscal year. A liability incurred during that fiscal year must be paid from funds for that same fiscal year. When that doesn’t happen, the resulting bill becomes a “bad bill”, and the city council must authorize its payment.

While this has happened repeatedly with the Lowell School Department, there were indications that the School Department is making progress in getting this problem under control. Assistant Superintendent of Finance Derek Pinto appeared before the council and gave reasonable answers to the questions that arose while also explaining how the internal processes of the school department have been improved which should further reduce instances of bad bills in the future.

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Councilors received a report on the amount of financial support the city has provided to local business over the past three years. Almost all the $2.8 million granted to local businesses came from two federal programs: the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). The money was shared by 121 businesses, most in downtown but some from every neighborhood in the city.

Hopefully the businesses used this money to become financially self-sustaining because given the direction in which the federal government is heading these days, little if any federal money will flow to the city in the coming years.

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One of the most visible casualties in this cutback in federal funding could be the Lowell Folk Festival which has relied heavily on the National Park Service as a principal partner of the Festival throughout its 40 year run. However, the Lowell Sun recently reported that Festival organizers have pledged that the Lowell Folk Festival will be held regardless of the level of support provided by the National Park. (“The show must go on: Festival will persist, with or without full NPS help.”)

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Back at the February 25, 2025, council meeting, Councilors Paul Ratha Yem and Sokhary Chau jointly moved “to have the appropriate department explore and report on a potential ordinance allowing residents to own and raise chickens, similar to regulations in other municipalities, for review and discussion by the entire Council.”  Councilor Yem read a letter from a constituent asking the city to consider allowing residents to raise chicken and said others had approached him with similar requests. Other councilors, however, weren’t open to the idea and the motion was defeated with 9 voting NO and only Councilor Yem voting YES (Councilor Chau was absent).

There was a déjà vu quality to this motion since the same question came before the council in 2013. Back then, the council’s neighborhood subcommittee held a meeting on the matter with considerable public input after which the subcommittee recommended against allowing residents to raise chickens. Most of the council concurred, with Councilors Ed Kennedy, John Leahy, Rita Mercier, Marty Lorrey, and Bill Martin all voting against it. Voting to allow a pilot program for raising chickens were Mayor Patrick Murphy and Councilors Vesna Nuon and Joe Mendonca.

While I was and continue to be ambivalent about raising chickens in an urban setting, in 2013 this issue was part of a bigger philosophical fight about the direction of the city. As has often been the case throughout the city’s history, the struggle in Lowell reflected the larger struggle across the United States. With that in mind, here is what I wrote about that struggle twelve years ago:

Counter Revolution in Lowell: I’m convinced that much of the political conflict in Lowell flows from deeply held philosophical differences between those who embrace change and those who embrace the past – progressives and conservatives to use the common labels. In that the city is just a microcosm of the entire country. It’s been this way for a long time and will continue to be so well into the future with momentum constantly shifting from one side to the other. The pendulum swung dramatically in the progressive direction in November 2012 when Elizabeth Warren defeated Scott Brown to win the election for US Senate. In Lowell, Warren beat Brown by 17% despite much of the city’s power structure, Democrat, Republican and unenrolled, being firmly behind Brown. Warren’s victory in the city was the result of a lot of hard work by people young and old, many of whom were either immigrants or just new to the city. Few of those who were most active in that campaign had ever participated in city politics. In the aftermath of Warren’s trouncing of Brown in Lowell there was much speculation that the city had pivoted politically in a new, much more progressive direction. That caused a reaction, a counter revolution if you will, by conservative elements in the city led by the Lowell Sun and radio station WCAP. Mayor Patrick Murphy, one of the few elected officials in Lowell who had vigorously campaigned for Elizabeth Warren but also the foremost proponent of progressive policies for city government, became the prime target of the conservative struggle to regain dominance in city politics. The attacks reached their peak on April 2, 2013, with Rita Mercier’s motion of “no confidence” in Mayor Murphy and then tapered off with the knowledge that Murphy would not seek reelection to the city council. But there were many others skirmishes in this struggle: backyard chickens, bike lanes, disdain for “professional” management, Jack Mitchell and the “Taliban”, Gerry Nutter and the Election Commission, the list goes on and on. There are many explanations for why the city council election ended as it did, but part of the outcome, at least, was attributable to the conservative elements in the city fighting hard to strengthen their long-time grip on city government, a grip they feared was slipping away after the Warren victory in Lowell in 2012. That 2012 election, just like the 2013 city council election, was just another chapter in a long and ongoing struggle over the city’s direction. The length of time someone has lived here has nothing to do with this conflict other than the fact that many of the people who have been drawn to Lowell by its embrace of the arts, its higher education opportunities, and the high value placed on its immigrant culture and heritage are progressive in their politics and their outlook on life. This is all about change. It’s a struggle between those who embrace change and see it as a positive thing and those who resist change and look to the past for comfort and guidance. That’s what it’s about in Lowell and that’s what it’s about across the United States.

Coincidentally, the issue of backyard chickens was not limited to the Lowell City Council last week. According to Newsweek, when asked what the administration was doing in response to the rising price of eggs, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins suggested that Americans should keep chickens in their back yards in response to rising egg prices. (See “Trump Admin Says Americans Should Farm Chickens to Combat Egg Prices”)

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Another “back to the future” Lowell moment occurred when President Trump signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the U.S., the first such designation in the country’s history. The order, which Trump signed last Saturday, rescinded a policy issued by former President Bill Clinton requiring agencies to help people with limited English proficiency.

Back in 1989, the Lowell city election ballot contained a referendum question that sought to make English the Official Language of Lowell. The prime mover of the referendum was School Committee member George Kouloheras. The referendum was widely seen as a negative reaction to the city’s recent settlement of the civil rights lawsuit brought against the city by the parents of minority students who sought to desegregate the city’s schools. The settlement did that, however, Kouloheras and many others bitterly opposed the settlement.

On election day, the English Only referendum passed with 14,875 voting YES and 5,679 voting NO.

A Lowell Sun editorial the next day (“A sad symbol in Lowell”) wrote that the measure “was a terrible symbol for Lowell to adopt after its long history of welcoming people of other lands and languages. The campaign brought out a level of civic meanness and ethnic bigotry that should have no place in any American city.”

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Let’s conclude with some positive news for Lowell. The Spring 2025 UMass Lowell Magazine arrived this week with an insert titled “8 ways Lowell Innovation Network Corridor will transform UMass Lowell and the City.” Better known as LINC, this partnership between UMass Lowell and private industry will bring laboratories and office space to Lowell to take advantage of the university’s talent pipeline. It includes new housing, restaurants, retail and entertainment opportunities. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $788 million with 80 percent of that from private investment.

I’ll write (much) more about LINC in the future but for now, here are the eight bullet points featured in the magazine:

1. More jobs
2. A big boost to the local economy
3. More fun!
4. More housing – for all
5. A greener city
6. Refreshed infrastructure – from the streets to the internet
7. Career-connected work for students
8. Incredible opportunities for collaboration and volunteerism

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This week on richardhowe.com:

Terry Downes welcomes Spring Training with a baseball poem.

Bill O’Connell, who lives west of here, has a poem on the passing of his beloved 21-year-old cat.

Louise Peloquin recounts a 1925 campaign by Lowell’s French language newspaper to save local industries.

I wrote a review of “Savage Storm: The Battle for Italy 1943”, a book about a lesser known campaign from World War II, but a campaign that claimed the lives of many servicemembers from Lowell.