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Harvard economist Edward Glaeser, one of the foremost urban thinkers in America today, has a provocative op-ed in the Globe. In “Best deal in town: on-street parking“, Glaeser examines the economics of urban parking. He contends that the because real estate is so valuable, the true cost of a parking…
Read More »Ironic that on the 35th anniversary of the Blizzard of ’78, we’re preparing for another big snowstorm. I stopped at Market Basket on the way home from work and bought all the essentials needed to make French Toast which, as all of you who are recent arrivals should know, is…
Read More »Early yesterday morning I headed to Malden for the formal announcement of Ed Markey’s candidacy for U.S. Senate. The event was at the Malden YMCA which is a very impressive facility. I volunteered to help with settup and so arrived two hours before the scheduled start time. This gave me…
Read More »The 2nd Annual Lowell Writers and Publishers Winter Roundup is set for Saturday, February 23, 12.30 to 4.00 pm, upstairs at the Old Court Irish pub at Central and Middle streets in downtown Lowell. Publishers and writers attending include playwright Jack Neary, poet and memoir-writer Judith Dickerman-Nelson, Sweeney-and-Seawell creator Dave Robinson, John…
Read More »Martha Norkunas is a scholar, a folklorist, who was the director of cultural affairs at the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission in the early 1990s. Her book “Monuments and Memory: History and Representation in Lowell, Massachusetts” was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 2002. In it she catalogues the various…
Read More »Between 1990 and 1993, a very different kind of public-art project happened in the power house of the Boott Cotton Mills. This was part of the growing Lowell Public Art Collection. UMass Lowell art students and dozens of volunteers joined San Francisco-based artist David Ireland (since deceased) in his effort…
Read More »Growing up in Lowell, I always heard stories of my great grandfather using ashes from the coal furnace in the family home on Shaw Street to fertilize the backyard where he grew hundreds of pounds of potatoes each year. It is those stories, in part, that propel me outside each…
Read More »I just noticed this promo for Threads, a new local news and current affairs program that is in production at LTC (Lowell Telecommunications). Hopefully it will be available on cable and online soon. I believe there’s an insatiable appetite for local news and discussion. Why else would so many people…
Read More »This poem is from Matt Miller’s new prize-winning collection of poems called “Club Icarus,” published by the University of North Texas Press. Matt is a Lowell High School graduate who earned degrees at Yale University, where he also played varsity football, and Emerson College. He teaches English and coaches football…
Read More »As a follow-up to my earlier post on a Patrick Keely-designed church that was saved – unlike Lowell’s St. Peter’s Church – here’s a link to a New York Times article about the re-opend St. Brigid’s Church in New York’s Lower East Side ~ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/nyregion/st-brigids-church-on-lower-east-side-celebrates-a-new-beginning.html?nl=nyregion&emc=edit_ur_20130128 History lived in that sacred space. Immigrant families found faith,…
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