Category Archives: Community Problems

Man stabbed in downtown Lowell

And more discussion over at Left-in-Lowell
http://www.leftinlowell.com/2012/01/16/what-the-hell-is-going-on-downtown/

Rob Mills has updated his story on-line
http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_19751690

Thankfully the young man who was stabbed has been released from the hospital.
this situation does beg the question why the city continues to ignore repeated reports from Chief Lavallee about the escalating situation in this area.
There are some very simple and cost efficient things that could have been done immediately…enlist business owners to keep lights on at night, specifically in the parking lot of Paige & John where most of these fights occur; place surveillance cameras in the parking dept. office which is directly across from aformentioned parking lot and cameras at the corner of John & Merrimack Streets.

The city has committed considerable resources on surveillance to catch people illegally dumping trash; can we not do at least that much to improve public safety?

Rob Mills tells the very sad story and states the obvious about the neighborhood bickering…

Man stabbed in downtown Lowell
Posted by Police Line on January 15, 2012
The Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association, bar owners, the city administration and the License Commission are battling each other in an epic attempt to decide when to hold a meeting.

Meanwhile, a man was stabbed in downtown Lowell and flown to a Boston trauma center early this morning shortly after last call.

Police have not identified the man. I have no indication whatsoever whether alcohol was involved. Here is what I do know:

At about 2 a.m., a police sergeant called the “downtown portable,” a police unit assigned to patrol around downtown bars, to the area of Middle and Central streets to help deal with a “highly intoxicated” woman.

At the same time, a fight was reported in the area of Paige and Lee streets — a common trouble spot downtown when bars close, which has been discussed at prior public meetings.

Two cars who weren’t dealing with the situation on Middle Street were sent to Lee and Paige. By the time they arrived, they reported the fight was breaking up. There were no more radio transmissions regarding the fight.

At 2:12 a.m., an officer was sent to the emergency room at Lowell General Hospital, because a man had just walked into the ER with a stab wound…

Read the whole blog entry:
http://sunpoliceline.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/man-stabbed-in-downtown-lowell/

Downtown Bars

Spoke too soon…this one is ours.
From Channel 4 Eye Team
A man was arrested for allegedly attempting to punch Celtics guard Rajon Rondo outside a Lowell nightclub early Saturday morning.
Rondo was at Brian’s Ivy Hall on Merrimack Street in Lowell for a promotional appearance.

According to Mr. Hayburst, one of the clubs owners in a SUN article, “Rondo was unpersonable and disrespectful toward patrons.”
http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_19378063

However Mr. Hayhurst told the Globe, “Rondo…didn’t seem aggressive at any point during the night…”
http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/11/haverhill-man-allegedly-tries-punch-celtics-guard-rajon-rondo-lowell-nightclub/MPvga9KineKK5e33ToKe7N/index.html?p1=News_links

On Brian’s Ivy Hall Facebook page, “Get here early! Be prepared for yet ANOTHER CRAZY night!!.’ “ANOTHER CRAZY NIGHT AT Brian’s Ivy Hall!!! BEST CLUB IN LOWELL!!! LAST NIGHT 700 PEOPLE”

Unlike Mayor Menino; I have never seen our Mayor or a city councelor come downtown to see for themselves what is going on at 1:45 AM.

2011 Downtown Summit

Lowell police probing Riverwalk sex assault

If anyone was out on the riverwalk Friday morning…please call LPD if you may have seen this person.

LOWELL — Police are asking for the public’s in tracking down a man suspected of sexually assaulting a woman Friday morning while she was jogging on a walkway near the Aiken Street bridge.

Lowell police Capt. Jack Webb said the woman was jogging along the Lowell Riverwalk at 9:30 a.m. when her alleged attacker dragged her away from the walkway and proceeded to sexually assault her.

Webb said she managed to later run away and sought help from another pedestrian.

The suspect is described as a white man, between 18 and 25 years old, with dark hair and no facial hair. He was possibly wearing dark pants.

Webb said the woman received medical care but added that the case is still under investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to call Lowell police at 978-937-3200 or Crimestoppers at 978-459-TIPS (8477). Information can also be sent to police via Text-a-Tip, by texting TIP411 (847411) with the subject, LPDTIP

SUN story about city proposal to impose security requirements for owners with large cache of firearms.


“Secure storage of the guns should help prevent thefts, and the alarm systems would enable police to respond quickly to potential thefts and keep the guns out of criminals’ hands, said Lavallee”.
http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_18007364

City Survey

A message from Neighborhood Planner Allegra Williams.
The city has hired a consultant to begin conducting randomized telephone surveys with Lowell residents over the next several weeks. The survey will take just 10 minutes of your time and will provide you with a way to share your views on Lowell’s transportation system, public services, job opportunities, housing quality, and so forth. Your feedback will help inform future policy decisions, so we hope you will participate!

Allegra Williams Neighborhood Planner
Department of Planning and Development
The City of Lowell
375 Merrimack Street Lowell, MA 01852
t: 978.446.7200 x1473 f: 978.446.7103

Substance Abuse Meeting Thursday

Public Safety SubCommittee Meeting Tonight 5PM

I do try not to use this blog as a forum for editorializing but every now and then I am either so annoyed or outraged that I have to expel a few thoughts (which btw…anyone is welcome to add their own voice here). Today I am a combination of sad due to the loss of another young woman and a bit annoyed (maybe mostly at myself) for it to take me almost 10 days to understand that this issue is almost impossible to solve at the moment and knowing why (I have had a seriously limited amount of “pondering” time of late). After I left Amory Park I made the mistake of telling a person who knows me better than I know myself that when standing there I did not have any place in my mind to figure out how such a thing could happen. I immediately got the look that says “you’re so stupid” and was reminded of a similar but at a much lower speed (if what happened on Grant St. was going 100 mph the incident I was involved in was only going 5mph and I had something Corrina et al did not have; someone just a little older and a lot wiser to take me by the hand and pull me away in time) situation in my life. My friend starting asking me absurd questions like “think back; do you remember being afraid? Do you remember why you went there in the first place? Did you ever for one minute think someone would actually shoot you?” It took quite a few days digging through memories long buried before I could answer yes to the first two questions and certainly not to the last. No one EVER thinks someone is really going to shoot and kill them…you just don’t ever believe it.



Which brings me to my point (yeah there’s a point)…I anticipate a large number of people from all city neighborhoods attending the public safety sub-committee meeting tonight. There will be a wide array of ideas battered about on how to solve the problem of gun violence. I am pleased the city council is willing to “throw everything but the kitchen sink” at this problem. Not everything will work but if you try a lot of things some of them will work. However all the good intentions in world will not get us where we want to go is because on the issue of guns…”we” can not agree.

Back 30 or so years ago we started taking lovely little third grade kids and teaching them to “JUST SAY NO” to drugs. Wow! That is miraculous. Parents, educators, legislators’, police all pretty much agreed that drugs aren’t good for you so let’s tell the kids. What made the program even better (I know this because my daughter would come home and teach me) was that it spoke in a very direct manner with facts about medical, physiological, psychological, etc. effects that certain drugs had on the body…it’s not a “preachy” program just honest. I’m not saying this was a panacea but it worked pretty well.

So what took me so long to realize (did I mention my lack of pondering time lately) is why we haven’t been able to apply this simple idea to teaching kids about guns. Why don’t we take our wee little darlings at age 10 and explain what guns look like; different types; how they work; what to do and how to say “no” to someone who offers you a gun and other important things like what the potential for destruction is if we use them in anger; what the potential for destruction if they are used in recreation (Mr. Cheney); and most importantly if you are shot/shoot and killed you will be dead forever. Just the basic information for a child to use in evaluating guns as a part of their life.

So I go to the meeting in hopes there will be enough good ideas to save some children…but the thing that would save many more is no where in sight because “we-the-people” do not agree about guns; Who can have one? Who can not? Do you really need a permit? What about my rights? According to a BBC article “The United States has the largest number of guns in private hands of any country in the world with 60 million people owning a combined arsenal of over 200 million firearms”. 200 million guns…there are about 310 million Americans at last count. So do the math…I do not foresee anytime soon a youngster telling me about what he learned in “Just Say No” about guns.

Update: Thanks to all of the downtown residents who took the time to attend the meeting tonight (there were a lot of you). I really think you all showed your committment to the neighborhood and to the city. Now let’s see if we can’t find a way to get some more police officers.

City Council Public Safety Subcommittee

Message from Taya Dixon Mullane, President, Lower Highlands Neighborhood Group Urging you to attend – City Council Public Safety Subcommittee – Tuesday 1/11/11 – 5.00 – 6.30PM in the City Council Chamber at City Hall.

Lower Highlands Friends,

We continue to mourn the loss of Corinna Ouer, a young woman who called the Lower Highlands home, after the heinous act of violence early on New Year’s Day. Our thoughts and prayers remain with her family and friends, for the speedy recovery of the other seven victims from that night, and for the safety of all the residents of our neighborhood and the City of Lowell.

I am unable to make sense of what happened last weekend, and I know from hearing from so many of you, that you feel the same way. In an effort to get some perspective on the violence that has affected our neighborhood and what can be done to address it, the City Council Public Safety Subcommittee will be meeting on Tuesday, January 11 from 5.00 – 6.30PM in the City Council Chamber at City Hall. The Lowell Police Superintendent and the Middlesex District Attorney have been requested to attend.

Although the Police are on the front lines of responding to crime, we as residents of the City of Lowell are all its victims. We must send a message to our City leaders that we want our neighborhoods to be safer, that we do not want to loose another young person like this, that any efforts taken by the City must include the community – and most importantly, that those efforts not wane until another senseless act of violence claims an innocent life or leaves our community in fear.

I am urging you to attend the City Council Public Safety Subcommittee Meeting on Tuesday, January 11 and to encourage your members to do that same. The meeting is scheduled for 5.00PM and will likely continue until 6.30PM. If you can attend all or even some portion of this meeting, please consider attending. By filling the City Council Chamber, we will demonstrate our unity as a community to urge our leaders to take extraordinary measures to help our City’s neighborhoods be safer by engaging all members of our community in that goal. You are welcome to address the Council, but you are not required to do so – your presence means just as much.

Thank you, and as always, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please get in touch.

Taya Dixon Mullane
President, Lower Highlands Neighborhood Group
lowerhighlands01851@gmail.com