Lowell

Bonne et heureuse année!/Good and happy new year! (PIP #14) By Louise Peloquin How would Louis-A. Biron have welcomed in this new year? At the dawn of 1936, here is an excerpt of his address to L’Etoile readers. (1) *********      Just as the torrent rushes towards the abyss, time…

On Tuesday, January 2, 2024, at 10 am, the newly elected Lowell City Council took the oath of office at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. City Clerk Michael Geary chaired the event until the new Mayor was elected. Geary explained that the inauguration ceremony had been moved to the Auditorium when…

Here are my choices for the most important political events in Lowell in 2023: Turnout in the November city election was historically low with approximately 7500 people voting. Two years ago, nearly 12,000 cast votes. While that seems like a lot compared to the total this year, remember that in…

The Lowell City Council met Tuesday night. Councilor Corey Robinson participated in this meeting via Zoom. He had two motions on the agenda. As they did last week, his colleagues voted to table Robinson’s motions which means no action was taken on them. Other than speaking on a point of…

An Eye on the Sky (PIP #11) By Louise Peloquin As winter looms, we wonder how snowy and cold the season will be. There was no “Weather Channel” or “Weather Radar” app a hundred years ago. Nonetheless, L’Etoile‘s readership obtained meteorological news. Surely, Lowell’s Franco-Americans studied the crystal ball in…

The consequences of Councilor Corey Robinson’s pending criminal charges dominated Lowell politics again this week. The Councilor is not due back in court until early January, however, on Tuesday he participated in a Council meeting for the first time since his mid-November arrest. In spite of six of the ten…

There was no Lowell City Council meeting last week. Normally the meeting would have been held on Tuesday night, but the preceding Thursday was the Thanksgiving holiday and I believe City Hall was closed entirely on Friday which is the day on which the Tuesday night agenda must be finalized.…

Appreciation of CBA Director Yun-Ju Choi By Charlie Gargiulo Earlier this month, Yun-Ju Choi, who has served as the Coalition for a Better Acre’s (CBA) Executive Director since 2014, announced that she will be stepping down next June. In her statement announcing her decision to resign from CBA, Yun-Ju showed…

From Darkness Into Light—Thankful Tonight By Ed DeJesus Tuesday, November 9, 1965, began like every school morning—but it sure ended differently for this fifteen-year-old boy from Lowell, Mass. I was fortunate to grow up in a ten-room, two-story tenement on Cambridge Street that my Dad, a WWII Vet, bought with a…