Been listening to Billy Joel in the car this week and remembering his visit to UMass Lowell in 2011—can it be that long ago already? Turns out the student who played “Leningrad” was not a Lowell student, but I didn’t know that when I wrote the post.—-PM HISTORY, LOWELL JOEL-LOWELL RHYMES…
Read More »
The South Common has begun to look like its warm-season self in the past week. I was out with Ringo the dog, my family’s Boston Terrier, last week just after the first lawn-mowing on the green slopes. The smell of freshly cut grass is one of those memory scents that…
Read More »
In her book Monuments and Memory: History and Representation in Lowell, Massachusetts (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002), Martha Norkunas, Ph.D., writes about the South Common: “In 1845 the mayor of Lowell, Elisha Huntington, recognized that the city needed open public spaces beyond those of the Lowell Cemetery. The city purchased ten…
Read More »
In the current Master Plan for Lowell, Sustainable Lowell 2025, the chapter on Sustainable Neighborhoods includes the following recommendation: ◙ Identify funding and implement planned improvements at South Common.
Read More »
Game One Goes to Montreal; Chapter Two Set for Saturday
Read More »
From the Pacific Rim and the richardhowe.com western desk comes a new poem by Tom Sexton, occupier of poetry precincts on both coasts of America and distinguished alumnus of Lowell High School. — PM . Leaving Lowell, Mass. for San Francisco, 1915, a Postcard Standing beside Mayor Murphy on the…
Read More »
Congratulations to everyone who participated in the successful civic-engagement action at the Lowell City Council last night, encouraging the councilors to study further refinements of the current design of Father Morissette Boulevard as opposed to removing bike lanes and parking meters. Kudos to the council as a whole for showing…
Read More »
In all the good words spread around last Thursday at the announcement of the forthcoming UMass Lowell Innovation Hub in the 110 Canal St. building, formerly Freudenberg Nonwovens, this statement by Mayor Rodney Elliot resonated strongly for me because it had a familiar theme: “The location of UMass Lowell’s Innovation…
Read More »