Lowell

Lowell Week in Review: May 4, 2014

Here’s my review of political events in Lowell this past week: BIKE LANES For Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Rodney Elliott and Councilor Rita Mercier filed a joint motion to abolish the bike lanes that were installed on Father Morissette Boulevard last summer. This prompted a big turnout by local…

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‘South Common’ by Martha Norkunas

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…

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Continuous Civic Engagement

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…

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Downtown Neighborhood Association meeting notes

Thanks to Jack Moynihan for sending the following summary of last night’s meeting of the LDNA (Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association): The Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association met Tuesday, April 28 at LTC on Market Street. Co-Chair Susan Purdy called the meeting to order at approximately 7:07 p.m. The first speaker of…

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The Importance of Neighborhood Businesses

This morning I spent several hours giving a driving tour of the Highlands to a couple of students in the Public Matters program. Public Matters is a “leadership and civic engagement initiative of The Lowell Plan conducted in partnership with Lowell National Historical Park. The mission of Public Matters is…

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