Author Archive

Blizzard report: Jan 4, 2018

Time for another “storm blog” in the tradition of our team post of January 26, 2015 on the Blizzard of ’15. We’ll collectively update it through the day as the storm progresses. I begin this post at 6 a.m. on Thursday, January 4, 2018. The temperature is 17 degrees –…

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Lowell City Council Meeting: January 2, 2018

Minutes of Zoning SC December 12th; City Council Meeting December 12th, accepted. Communication-Appoint Cormac Hondros-McCarthy to Sustainability Council. Appointed unanimously by council. REPORTS (SUB/COMMITTEE) – none. CITY COUNCIL – MOTIONS Councilor Mercier – Req. City Mgr. allow people of Laotian descent to acquire a site at the JFK Plaza to…

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Lowell Year in Review: 2017

Lowell High School – Future Location Cawley or Downtown? Like weekly episodes of a dramatic television miniseries, that was the question that confronted the people of Lowell throughout 2017. The process was slow to start, but then one group of residents mobilized a vigorous campaign to build an entirely new…

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“The Perfect Tree” by Henri Marchand

A Christmas tradition here at richardhowe.com is posting Henri Marchand’s “The Perfect Tree” essay which was originally composed for the Sunrise radio program. We begin the holiday season engaged yet again in a debate of vital importance. It’s an annual and endless argument and we look forward to every December—what…

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100 years of Christmas Eve headlines

It’s been a quiet week in Lowell politics and with this Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday, today I opted for nostalgia over current events. Here is a sampling of Christmas Eve newspaper headlines, weather observations, and advertisements over the past 100 years. Please check back next Sunday when local…

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Lowell Week in Review: December 17, 2017

Discussion of two proposed modifications to the city’s zoning code dominated last Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting. Both involved parking and both were rejected by councilors. The first would have eliminated the parking requirement for a microbusiness, meaning a business in a small space with few employees. This amendment was…

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