Downtown – Time for Action
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Politics 7 Comments »
Aftermath of beating on Middle Street in Lowell, MA
A FackBook post caught fire over the assault that took place on Sat. at around 2am on Middle Street leaving one bar patron critically injured and air transported to a hospital in Boston and another to a local hospital. (note: friend LDNA on facebook if you haven’t already).
It’s time for citizens to step up and let Lowell leaders and planners know what they want the Downtown to be. There’s a great infrastucture planned, with improvements progressing for a City of Lowell that can be a leader in the world economy in 10-20 years.
What’s missing is the voice of the people. If you allow blue ribbon panels and City officials to decide what you want your City to be, then that’s exactly what will happen. That’s what’s happening now.
This is the second in a series of blog posts about the future of Downtown Lowell. Hopefully, other bloggers will pick up on the subject and participate. The first addresses the Lowell High School question.
My own sense is that this is an opportunity for the City Council to address the situation on Tuesday as an emergency.
Great photo (aftermath of the assault at top) by Kelly Fox. Perhaps another downtown group will form around good citizens like Kelly and Elaine Wood to bring issues to the appropriate commissions, councilors, sub-committees, etc.
In addition, an emergency meeting for the Public Safety Subcommittee is in order. And the next meeting of the Economic Development Subcommittee should have this issue high on the agenda. So I’m hoping the City Council can add this issue to this Tues. agenda as an emergency item.
Public safety is paramount.
George DeLuca produces ComeToLowell.com
With All Of Todays Tchnology ……….Cameras Downtown………..Why Aren’t They Being IInstalled At The Problem Spots That Are Now Known……….If It’s Not To Cold And It’s Safe….Put The Motor Cycles Out For A Few Hours
It s time, my daghther and her friends , went out back in November 2011, a similar thing happened. A fight broke out, one man knocked out cold laying on the ground. The other man who was in the fight went up to the man who was down,with all his force kick him in the head. These individuals are out of controll. The police are out numbered,The bar owners should stop serving earlier ,something has to CHANGE.
What’s a ‘blue ribbon’ panel. Sounds like code for casting doubt on the good that could come from a series of conversations with UML, downtown neighborhood groups, city officials, elected officials, the police, etc. to figure out how to cope with an alarming situation. Random person-on-the-street discussions won’t work here and whatever has been tried this far isn’t working either.
I believe the police recommended changing ‘last call’ – where was the earnest discussion about the wisdom of doing this?
Slight switch of topic – as for moving the high school – absent the funds to even begin to contemplate building a new school it might make more sense to focus on JAM area and the area in front of the Arena for the kinds of development described elsewhere in this blog. Only so much is going to happen in even the next 8 years to get us to your 2020 benchmark. I worry that disappearing stores along Merrimack and Central Streets point to a serious weakening of the local economy. Potential investors seeing this will wonder where their customers are going to come from.
Bob, you’re straying abit off topic as there’s another post about moving Lowell High School. If you have thoughts about that issue, please feel free to comment on that post.
At any rate the two topics do relate, so here’s a brief response:
“… Sounds like code for casting doubt … ”
Its not … its straight talk in support of a consensus building process inclusive of the views of the good citizens of the City. Not everyone is interested in going to neighborhood group meetings, nor is the public welcome at the many closed door meetings to discuss and plan Lowell’s future, especially downtown. Many residents at large want a consensus building style forum where their questions, concerns and ideas can be heard.
Actually, what you’re suggesting in terms of such consensus building has merit. Unfortunately, when documents which chart a future for downtown (like the Jeff Speck report for example) are compiled and released, there doesn’t seem to be much room for public input or discussion. And then planners, businesses and local “leaders” wonder why people in the neighborhoods don’t come downtown, or, why people outside of the City often shy away.
Yes, UML, MCC, City Council, Executive body, Neighborhood groups, Commissions, the delegation, other bodies and members of the general public need to collaborate to find consensus on many issues that are being decided behind close doors. But there’s often a disconnect with the general public, and even among the leaders noted above.
This is from the editorial section of the Lowell Sun on Jan. 19:
In a report that Chief Lavallee delivered to the City Council he noted ” … that downtown crime activity had skyrocketed 76 percent from 2010 to 2011. The number of arrests rose from 39 to 111 in a year-over-year comparison. The number of complaints filed by residents is probably 3 times the arrest figure. This is troubling, because the tension between bar and restaurant owners and downtown residents is growing.”
And like you said on “Left in Lowell” after Sat. morning’s incident. “Houston we have a problem.” Not only has downtown lost the people that live in our neighborhoods, but also people from outside of the City are becoming more vocal about their concerns about coming to Lowell.
I take issue with your comment “Random person-on-the-street discussions won’t work here and whatever has been tried this far isn’t working either.”
I couldn’t disagree more and frankly find comments of that sort will only exacerbate the problem. The discussion is open to anyone, and especially residents and taxpayers of the City of Lowell.
So where do we as a City go from here?
I agree the discussion should be for everyone and anyone concerned about Lowell. By random I meant if the conversations were not organized in some way, sort of like the Lowell Sun walking around and asking people of they like their mother!
According to the City Council tonight there will be a special meeting of the Public Safety subcommittee on Thurs., Feb. 16 at 6:30pm at City Hall to discuss ongoing late night weekend problems downtown. The License Commission and club/bar owners are also invited to attend the meeting.
City Manager Bernie Lynch said that he will also be meeting with Chief Lavallee to map out a strategy to deal with issues, and particularly the area around Palmer and Middle St.
As previously stated, its hoped that the Economic Development subcommittee will also include a discussion of the matter relative to any potential impact on Lowell’s economic development strategy on the agenda of their next meeting.
I posted this on Captain’s Log this morning:
“It’s promising that the City Council, the City Manager, the Lowell Police Dept., the License Commission, downtown businesses and the general public are all connecting and mobilizing around this issue.
Consensus building is exactly what’s needed in the effort to progress the interests of the City. This approach must continue, and be applied to other important matters that are stagnating.
Its a good start!”
One thing doesn’t add up. If citizens have filed a multitude of complaints to LPD about downtown issues (see above), why haven’t they found their way to the License Commission, who made a point of noting that LPD is their “agent” in issues involving downtown establishments? I’m sure Chief Lavallee picked up on this and will implement an internal policy to address it right away.
This is a key point, and perhaps a weak excuse by the License Commission as to why they’re so cold towards downtown residents.
On the plus side, the License commission did make a poignant point about fines, in that they don’t have the authority to issue them. They did take a positive step by asking for support in working with the State to change this. I hope this was a signal that the Commission wants to be a team player in this matter.