Menu
RichardHowe.com – Voices from Lowell & Beyond
Elections & Results
See historic Lowell election results and candidate biographies.
Seen & Heard, vol. 31
A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.
Book Review: Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs by Antony Beevor (2026). Earlier this year a glowing review of this book caught my attention and, since I’m already a big Antony Beevor fan (he’s a military historian with a dozen books about World War II), I dropped some hints that this would be a nice Father’s Day gift and was rewarded for my efforts. I had heard the name Rasputin many times but knew little about him or his place in history. This book not only solved that gap but it did so in a compelling way that rivaled the best adventure novels. Born in 1869, Grigori Rasputin was a Russian peasant who gained fame as a religious mystic who became an irreplaceable confidant of the empress Alexandra and her spouse, Czar Nicholas II. Rasputin gained enormous influence over governmental affairs but his personnel recommendations were based on purging those who thought him a fraud rather than with competence. This was disastrous when World War I began and the Russian Army collapsed as did domestic support for the Czar. This book ends with Rasputin dead and the Czar and his family under arrest. Another Beevor book covers the resulting Russian Revolution. I have that on my reading list.
Article: “Trump U-Turn Kept Graham ‘In the Game’” by Peter Baker, New York Times, July 14, 2026. When US Senator Lindsey Graham died unexpectedly on July 11, 2026, at age 71, his passing tested the old saying, “Of the dead nothing but good is to be said.” The basis of that, I guess, is that since the dead aren’t able to defend or justify themselves, it’s unfair of the living to speak ill of them. I think that’s BS when it comes to a public figure since their record should speak for itself. In this “think piece,” Baker, a longtime DC reporter for the Times, conveys Graham’s own explanation for his “head-spinning transformation” from “one of President Trump’s most scathing critics to one of his closest allies.” Baker, who had known Graham since 1998, described him as cynical and opportunistic and quoted Graham himself in saying Trump had the power in the Republican Party and in government and, if someone wanted to partake in that power, as Graham did apparently beyond all else, one had to become an open and unabashed Trump enthusiast. My sense is that history will not be kind to Graham and enablers like him, but that depends on who gets to write that history which remains an open question.
Podcast: “You can’t ignore Google Zero anymore”The Vergecast, July 25, 2026. “The Verge” is an online news site that has covered the tech sector since 2011. Besides its website, it produced several podcasts including The Vergecast which features reporter David Pierce and editor-in-chief Nilay Patel. Trained as a lawyer but with a long career as a tech journalist and editor, Patel has long warned of “Google Zero,” the point at which Google stops sending web traffic to third-party websites. Patel explains that the web until now has rested on an unwritten contract whereby independent sites create content and make it available for free while Google indexes that content and sends people to it where they see ads that help pay for the independent site and its employees. However, within the past year, Google radically altered its search method. Now, when you type a query, Google first gives you an AI generated answer and only then provides links to websites in the traditional way. Google does embed links in the AI response, but few people click through to them and rely solely on the AI response. Diminished traffic also diminishes revenue going to the independent sites which makes them unsustainable. They either go out of business or block Google’s AI engines which in turn diminish the usefulness of the information put out in Google’s AI replies. This is a complex, multidimensional problem without a clear solution but it’s important that we’re all aware of it since we rely on the web for so much of the information we use in our lives.
Newsletter: “Free Ride” in GBH daily newsletter. Formerly known as WGBH and with a television, radio and internet presence, GBH has a free newsletter each weekday with stories and information from Boston and vicinity. To help promote the MBTA’s “free ride” program which allows everyone to ride commuter rail for free on Fridays in the summer, GBH has a recurring newsletter feature suggesting ways to utilize that service. Last month, “Free Ride” suggested going to Lowell to check out the arts scene. Here’s an excerpt: “But you can also head north to Lowell, home to a collection of art galleries and local artists you can enjoy absolutely free: Each one of these galleries costs $0 to visit. If you have some extra cash and see something you love, you can of course buy a print or original work of art — I spotted small pieces for as little as $6 and larger ones for a few hundred. Your Free Ride won’t be free anymore, but you can feel good knowing you supported the Merrimack Valley’s art scene.” The article highlights The Brush Art Gallery and Studios as 256 Market Street, ALL Arts Gallery at 307 Market Street, and Western Avenue Studios at 160 Western Ave. It’s great that GBH is urging people from Boston to travel to Lowell to visit these places, but I’d like to urge those already living here to check them out as well.
Forest Fires
Forest Fires – PIP #110
By Louise Peloquin
American media have largely covered the unprecedented inferno consuming southern Europe.
From January to the end of July, wildfires destroyed approximately 287,000 acres in France. In the Gironde region, over 220,000 people were forced to evacuate. Mayor Thomas Cazenave of Bordeaux, the largest city in the southwest, announced that he was “ready for anything” given that the conflagration was only 9.3 miles away from the center.
More than 370,000 acres have burned in Spain since January, six times more than the area destroyed in 2025. Although wildfires scorch Spain yearly, the summer of 2026 conflagración is exceptional, prompting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to declare a civil protection emergency on Tuesday July 28th.
Una conflagrazione also hit Italy’s southern Adriatic coast where fire forces evacuated more than 400 beachgoers and tourists by boat, the only viable evacuation route.
Paris was burning when it reached 107 degrees in June. Details on the summer’s second Parisian heatwave are on this link:
https://richardhowe.com/2026/07/07/a-bigger-splash-in-a-bigger-heat/
And now, parts of southern Europe are literally being swallowed up by seemingly uncontrollable flames and toxic smoke.
We express our gratitude to the valiant individuals all over the world who risk their lives daily and we pause to honor the four firefighters who have most recently sacrificed their lives in the service of their French compatriots.
Décès en service commandé – morts au feu
(Death in commanded service – died at the fire)
- On May 28, 2026, 28-year-old Dylan Pinoteau of Marseille.
- On July 8, 2026, 22-year-old Baptiste Gerfaud-Valentin of Albertville.
- On July 21, 2026, 34-year-old Anthony Berthome of Saint-Médard-en-Jalles in Gironde.
- On July 21, 2026, 34-year-old Wilfried Schmitter of Saint-Ménard-en-Jules in Gironde.
Alas, the following L’Etoile editorial remains relevant.
L’ETOILE – July 20, 1944 editorial
FOREST FIRES
Every year, our region is greatly affected by forest fires. However, this year’s situation is more disastrous than ever because fire is not only attacking trees but also villages and cities.
The principal factor for these fires is certainly the high temperature. No one can be blamed or held responsible.
These tragedies should make us reflect upon the terrible consequences of forest fires. They should be an opportunity for us to fully grasp the necessity of being even more alert when spending time in the forest.
The competent authorities should also search for even more effective means than those presently at their disposal in order to fight what, for several days, has proven to be a real threat causing losses mounting to many millions of dollars. (1)
****
1) Translation by Louise Peloquin.
Young Dave’s Lament—The True Untold Story of the Rusty Panamint Can
Here’s another tribute to the late David Daniel (1945-2026) from longtime friend Bill Crawford. He and Dave met long ago as fellow US Army soldiers and remained in close contact until Dave’s recent passing.
Bill, a writer and photojournalist, composed this poem while on a road trip from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney. He, “Young Dave,” and Jim Provencher, paused in the desert to relieve themselves and noticed a rusty fuel can in the brush. To poke fun at Dave’s affection for the writing of Lowell-native Jack Kerouac, Bill composed this Mexico City Blues-style poem, his first and only effort at verse.
Young Dave’s Lament—The True Untold Story of the Rusty Panamint Can
By William C. Crawford
Jimmy Pro held the Jetta at steady 80,
speeding hard West.
Golden Hour Light beckoned as we hoped to
avoid arrest.
We raced to photograph a majestic mountain
Lady, but our full lizzards prompted an early stop.
The High Sierras went on hold as we happily
squeezed out every last drop.
Jimmy saw it cocked sideways, half covered
by scrub mesquite.
We set it dead upright; the morning
sun lit it just neat.
I called out to Young Dave that this rust
Bucket might hold a million colorful stories…but
He blew me off in an instant, saying
“Hell yeah!”—his words were just noise.
But that pinged, rusty can was really a big treasure,
not just junk as Young Dave imagined.
For the grizzled old miner who once
toted it was bonafide desert legend!
Death Valley Sam started hauling borax
in ’99 with 20 leather tough mules who conquered the heat.
But when he found his first yellow eyeball
sized nugget, he realized gold was neat.
Rhyolite was home, a burgeoning ville
which featured a stock exchange and indoor tennis court.
Sam prospered big time by prospecting
hard on the desert floor as he pushed due North.
Kerosene was a staple, it provided light
and heat.
His five gallon can was a fixture strapped
tightly to his truck, nothing more than a heap.
The gold ran slim by ‘09 and after.
Hauling borax now failed to satiate Sam
who could no longer find what he was really
after.
His truck was found deserted outside
a seedy Rhyolite saloon.
The body was another mile out, dead stiff
under the pale desert moon.
How Sam’s rusty can came to be out in
the Panamint, we can never really know.
But it was crammed full of stories
from that exciting gold rush so very long ago.
I unscrew the rusty cap and listen
against the desert wind.
Sam’s strong, gravelly voice is
heard at last again.
Young Dave coughed up a hearty laugh
as I cupped my ear to the can.
He shouted out an inane obscenity and off
To the car he ran.
Sam’s voice held steady as gold
rush tales poured out.
Enough to fill my writer’s notebook,
and I didn’t even need a spout!
I turned in Sam’s gripping words to
fancy lit magazines scattered ‘round.
Dave’s cynical smirk later changed
a bit when my fat author’s check rolled in bound.
Now every time I drain my lizard in my
old shaking hand,
I picture Young Dave foolishly mocking Sam’s battered
can, amid the desert sand.
****
Bill Crawford lives in Winston Salem, NC. He is a social worker, writer, and photographer. He was an army photo-journalist in Vietnam. His previous contributions to this site include:
Lowell Politics: August 2, 2026
The Lowell City Council met on Tuesday (July 28, 2026). I don’t watch council meetings live. Instead, I catch them Wednesday morning from the YouTube recording. It’s always interesting to open that app and discover how long the meeting took, although in summer when there are just two meetings per month, they typically take 3 hours, 30 minutes. That’s the maximum time a meeting can take under the council rules which prohibit a meeting going beyond 10 p.m. (With the meeting starting at 6:30 p.m., going all the way until 10 gives you 3.5 hours.)
When I finished watching the meeting video two weeks ago, I felt a vague sense of contentment. Nothing major or controversial had come up, but the council and city administration seemed to be doing the work of government in a rational, responsible way.
I was left with a different feeling after watching this week’s meeting. The best word to describe it might be dysfunctional.
****
An early item on the agenda was a motion by Councilor Rita Mercier to reconsider a vote taken by the council at their last meeting. That vote authorized the city manager to file special legislation on behalf of Vincent Fernandez, a former city employee who seeks to alter his retirement status and pension payments.
Looking back at that July 14, 2026, council meeting, the vote document the council acted upon explained that while working as a Lowell Police Officer in 2016, Fernandez was severely injured in the line of duty which left him unable to return to work as a police officer. Consequently, he received a disability retirement pension from the Lowell Retirement Board. The document presented to the council contains a page and a half of language which was difficult to comprehend for anyone not deeply immersed in the intricacies of Massachusetts government disability pensions, a group that includes me as well as most councilors, I suspect.
The city administration provided no further explanation or information to councilors. A couple of councilors asked if this would set a precedent and how many others in a similar situation would now come forward. City Manager Golden seemed to sidestep those issues and instead explained that the council passing this vote would only be the first step and it would ultimately be up to the state legislature whether to enact this special bill for Mr. Fernandez.
When the initial vote was taken, it passed with Councilors Sokhary Chau, John Descoteaux, Sidney Liang, Sean McDonough, Rita Mercier, Corey Robinson, Dan Rourke, and Kim Scott voting yes; Mayor Erik Gitschier voting no; and Councilors Belinda Juran and Vesna Nuon abstaining (Councilor Juran had earlier stated she was uncomfortable voting on this without knowing more about the implications).
This week, when Councilor Mercier’s motion to reconsider was called, former Fire Chief Bill Desrosiers, who is now chair of the Lowell Retirement Board, spoke on the motion. He explained that the retirement board first learned this had come before the council a few days after the council had already voted on it (which was why the Board was only just now addressing the council).
He further explained that sometime after Mr. Fernandez was granted his disability retirement, the state legislature changed the law to allow police officers injured by violent acts in the line of duty to collect more generous disability retirement pensions than had previously been the case. However, that legislation specifically prohibited the retroactive application of the new law. In other words, if you were already collecting a disability pension (as Mr. Fernandez was), you had to keep that pension and were unable to have the new law applied to you.
Notwithstanding that language, Mr. Fernandez petitioned the Lowell Retirement Board to revise his disability retirement pension so that he could receive the more generous benefits provided by the new law (it was unclear with the proposal would bring him within the law or place him in some hybrid situation with benefits equivalent to those in the new law). The Lowell Board, after checking with the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC), the agency that provides oversight and guidance for the operation of the state’s public pension systems, rejected the request of Mr. Fernandez.
With that avenue foreclosed, Mr. Fernandez now seeks the financial benefits of the new law through special legislation by the state legislature. To accomplish this, he seeks to have the city initiate this special legislation on his behalf, hence the vote that was passed by the city council on July 14, 2026.
Now, two weeks after that vote was taken, Lowell Retirement Board Chair Desrosiers came before the council to explain that (1) the Lowell Retirement Board had already rejected this request; (2) if the proposed special legislation passes, the Lowell Retirement Board will owe Mr. Frenandes approximately $500,000 more than it has already paid him or for which it has budgeted for future payments; (3) this will open the door to other similarly situated retirees; and (4) these unanticipated and substantial increases in pension payouts will place additional stress on the fiscal health of the Lowell Retirement system to the detriment of other retirees to whom the Board owes a fiduciary duty.
When Desrosiers finished, Council Mercier spoke. Although she did it more tactfully, she essentially said it would have been nice to have had all this information before she had voted yes for this two weeks ago because this new information would have caused her to vote differently. She further explained that since she was on the winning side of that vote, the rules allowed her to move for reconsideration of that vote, so she filed this motion.
Councilor Mercier stopped short of asking the city manager why this information hadn’t been provided to the council before taking the initial vote. A couple of councilors probed that issue, but no one pressed it aggressively.
Golden’s position, it seemed, was that there was no harm done in taking this vote since it was ultimately up to the legislature whether to grant this or not.
I have zero knowledge of this issue beyond what I saw and heard at these two council meetings, but reading between the lines of what was said, it seems that Mr. Fernandez or someone advocating for him, has been lobbying for this – at one point Golden mentioned having received inquiries from “the media” about this case – to the point that the city manager opted to “kick the can down the road” to Beacon Hill.
If that strategy was intended to get whoever was pressing him out of his hair, it likely backfired. By presenting the council with this vote two weeks ago without any context or supporting documents and with the retirement board already having rejected it, Golden may have left at least a couple of councilors suspecting that the manager was trying to slip something by them.
After more discussion, the roll call on the motion to reconsider the original vote was taken. Voting to reconsider were Mayor Gitschier and Councilors Belinda Juran, Rita Mercier, Vesna Nuon, Corey Robinson, Sokhary Chau and John Descoteaux. Voting against reconsidering the motion were Councilors Sidney Liang, Sean McDonough, Dan Rourke and Kim Scott. So the motion to reconsider the July 14, 2026, vote passed.
Since the council immediately moved onto another item without any discussion about what would happen with the Fernandez legislation now that the original vote had been reconsidered, that matter is now in limbo. The council reconsidering its prior vote just means the underlying vote is voided so the matter is still pending. It will be interesting to see if it shows up on a future agenda or if it just quietly disappears.
****
If the context of that pension vote was opaque, another agenda item was deep in an information fogbank. This was a motion by Mayor Erik Gitschier that requested the minutes “of the July 14, 2026 Executive Session be released regarding the UHC-TIF; once released all discussion to be held in open session for this topic.”
Google tells me that “UHC-TIF” likely stands for the state’s Urban Center Housing Tax Increment Finance program which was created by Massachusetts General Laws c.40, s.60. While a standard TIF is designed to attract businesses and industry, this one (usually called UCH-TIF) promotes multi-unit residential development.
But maybe a UHC-TIF is something else. I couldn’t tell because watching this portion of the meeting put me in the mind of a World War II cryptographer trying to crack the German’s Enigma code. Whatever this thing is related to was discussed by the council in executive session, so everyone who spoke about it on Tuesday used riddles and codes to remain within the confidentiality required of executive sessions. The councilors all knew the secret handshake, but the public did not. This created the impression that councilors (1) are keeping something from us; or (2) don’t know what they’re talking about. Either way, it’s not a good look for the council.
I assume the mayor saw some tactical advantage to be gained by releasing the minutes sooner rather than later, but the motion failed with six councilors voting no (Juran, Liang, Mercier, Nuon, Rourke and Descoteaux) and just five voting yes (Gitschier, McDonough, Robinson, Scott and Chau).
****
Another instance of “there’s more going on here than councilors let on” happened with a vote to transfer $249,708 to the city’s Health & Human Service Department to pay its lease at 107 Merrimack Street. (From some council comments, it seems this is related to something discussed in executive session, as well.)
HHS used to be at the old Brady School on Pine Street and will eventually move to 40 Market Street, the one-time Lowell Police Station and “police court” that the city reacquired last year. In the meantime, HHS moved into its current location which is alongside Purple Carrot Bread Company at the corner of Merrimack and John Streets.
From the (public) discussion of this vote, it sounds like the city entered a ten-year lease for the premises, but like all city leases, it’s “subject to appropriation.” It also sounded like the city has reached an agreement with the 107 Merrimack Street landlord to continue paying rent until the Market Street building is ready for occupancy at which time HHS will move there. This supplemental appropriation is to pay the rent on 107 Merrimack for the current fiscal year.
This all sounded reasonable; however, the council rejected the appropriation. Because it’s a transfer of money, it requires a two-third majority vote, which on this council is eight votes. It only received seven. Voting against the appropriation were Mayor Gitschier and Councilors Liang, McDonough and Robinson. Voting for the appropriation were Councilors Juran, Mercier, Nuon, Rourke, Scott, Chau and Descoteaux.
Besides the executive session obtuseness that cloak some of the circumstances of this vote, there is a political dimension, as well. The property at 107 Merrimack Street is owned by Nicholas Sarris as trustee of 107 Merrimack Street Trust. That’s the same Nicholas Sarris who owns the Lowell Senior Center building as a trustee. While it’s a different trust, it’s the same basic entity. The council’s Senior Center ownership dispute has been silent for several months, but that doesn’t mean it’s been resolved. Consequently, it’s possible that the rejection of this appropriation was a proxy skirmish in the ongoing Senior Center fight.
****
In the legal profession, there’s a general rule that when you’ve made three points in your favor with a witness, sit down, because that one additional question, you’re tempted to ask might be overkill. With that in mind, I’ll quit for now even though there are several other examples of council dysfunction from Tuesday night.
****
Thursday’s U.S. mail brought my Democratic Primary vote-by-mail ballot for the September 1, 2026, state primary. Since this system was implemented during the pandemic, I’ve been a reliable mail in voter and it’s always worked fine. If you want to vote that way or for information about this election and others, visit the webpage of the Lowell Election and Census Office which is packed with useful information.
****
Bob Sullivan is a Chelmsford native with deep roots in Lowell who had a long writing and editing career at Sports Illustrated, Time and LIFE. I only met him recently and then just virtually, but our shared interests and the pleasure we find in writing made a quick connection. He also has a Substack newsletter called “That Reminds Me of a Story” in which Bob writes about “our life today and yesterday in America, cast with humor and hope of engagement.”
Please check out Bob’s Substack Page and subscribe to it. (I don’t want to curtail his revenue stream but thus far it’s all free although Substack offers you the opportunity to chip in.)
In the interest of full-disclosure, I appeared as a character in a recent edition of Bob’s newsletter: “Interluding On: Meet Our Unincorporated Kerouac Klub” which includes sketches of several well-known Lowell figures and a dip into some fascinating Lowell history. Even if you don’t subscribe to the newsletter, please read this piece.
****
In some local literary news, Louise Peloquin, a regular contributor to this site has published her debut novel, Boarding School Blues, a fictionalized account of life at a New England Catholic all girls boarding school in the 1960s that ran in serial form on this site several years ago. The book is available from the print-on-demand company LULU Press and can be ordered at this link.
****
Although I wrote a “Seen & Heard” Column this week, it failed to launch on Wednesday as scheduled so I posted it on richardhowe.com earlier this morning. This week, I wrote about the Lowell Folk Festival; reviewed the book, “Mailman: My Wild ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home”; described a guided tour I took of the Massachusetts State House; commented on an Op-Ed about “shaking up” the national Democratic Party; and summarized an essay about the artist Frederic Church, a member of the Hudson River School of landscape painting.