“(We hope) that our transportation crisis will be solved by a bigger plane or a wider road, mental illness with a pill, poverty with a law, slums with a bulldozer, urban conflict with a gas, racism with a goodwill gesture.” – Philip E. Slater “Wisdom demands a new orientation of…
From my vantage point, the real estate recovery is reality and no longer just hype. Here are the Lowell sales for the past week: July 15, 2013 (Monday) 16 Merrimack St Unit 4D for $90,000 29 School St Unit 29 for $174,500 13 Wiltshire Cir for $189,000 356 Wentworth Ave…
I was disappointed to miss the state Democratic Convention in Lowell last Saturday (although faced with the choice of vacationing in Berlin with my wife or spending a Saturday at the Tsongas Center with a thousand political activists, Berlin wins every time). Thankfully, frequent contributor Jim Peters attended the convention…
Kendall Wallace of the Sun kindly mentioned in today’s Saturday Chat column the progress being made by the Greater Lowell Music Theatre, another piece of Lowell’s creative-economy puzzle that has been put in place. There are audience niches yet to fill, as the GLMT experience demonstrates: 1,200 people in two…
It was last Wednesday, our first afternoon in Berlin. Struggling to stay awake against the effects of losing a night’s sleep by flying across the Atlantic, we found a peaceful cafe with outdoor seating along the banks of the Spree River right in the heart of Berlin for a late…
In the past few years at the Lowell Summer Music Series at Boarding House Park, I have been struck by the superlative musicianship of the artists presented by the organizers, Lowell National Historical Park and the Lowell Festival Foundation. Night after night the featured artists and their bands demonstrate the…
The 54th Regiment was the first military unit consisting of black soldiers to be raised in the North during the Civil War. On this day – July 18, 1863 – the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment launched an attack against Fort Wagner, South Carolina – a highly fortified outpost on…
For anyone who enjoys history, Berlin should be high on the list of places to visit. I just got back from a seven day visit (which is why I’ve been AWOL from blogging). Beginning with the German History Museum where we say a document preserved in bronze from the year…
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. Arrests were made overnight in Los Angeles and Oakland as crowds protesting the “not guilty” outcome in the Trayvon Martin murder case turned violent. Had the verdict gone the other way, others would have protested. Even though, according…
The closing was a negative milestone in the business life of Lowell and a disaster for those employed at the Prince Macaroni plant. Ted Kennedy stood with the employees and tried with federal funds to make a deal to save the plant – to no avail. From the blog archive: MassMoments:…