Category Archives: Election

Posted on November 2, 2010 by | 1 comment

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! Today is election day. Downtown polling location is Masonic Hall (across from police dept.) Arcand Drive.

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Posted in Election

Posted on January 20, 2010 by | 1 comment

What’s a democrat to do? I’ll be inconsolable for few days…

The big issue on my mind today; are we all going to have to buy new clothes? Republicans are all so well-dressed; perfectly coiffed and well let’s face it they all look like Scott Brown and Monica Crowley. What’s a frumpy New England democrat to do?

This could be great for all those downtown nail and hair salons; we’ll all be getting $300. low lights and having our nails done weekly. I bet even Giovanni’s does well; they have a nice selection of stiletto’s…and we’ll all be wearing those while precariously trying to navigate the cobblestone streets while our toes turn blue from the cold. I also think this will be a great opportunity for Marc Caputo to use his outstanding design skills to teach us all how to put together an outfit…not to mention accessorize (I had to spell-check that word). I guess I’ll have to just look at it as a learning experience. Eleni I need help!!!

Now that that’s out of the way…I can get on to thinking about the more important issues like:
Will Marshall’s be replaced with Stein Mart?
Will Lady Antebellum replace Joshua Tree at Winterfest?
Cheers!

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Posted in Downtown, Downtown Economy, Election, Live Music, Voting, Winterfest

CITY COUNCIL ELECTION

Posted on November 13, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Thanks to Dick Howe for posting the election results by ward/precinct; here’s some additional numbers and they show a steady growth-rate.
I do not yet have 2-1 and 2-2 for 2007.
Ward 2, Percent 3 includes most of “downtown”, Appleton to Warren, to Dutton, to Fr. Morrisette

2009 City Council Election
18.5% turn-out (439 voters)
Total number of voters for Ward 2 = 801

2007 City Council Election
17.4% turn-out (336 voters)

2005 City Council Election
15.3% turn-out (261 voters)

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Posted in City Council, Downtown, Election, Elections, Lowell

Let’s all vote for the Duck!

Posted on October 28, 2009 by | 1 comment

If you haven’t watched it yet; check out the UTEC city council forum on LTC. Their time-keeper was wearing a duck costume and “quacked” when the candidate had run out of time on their response to a question. As much as I appreciate Greg volunteering for the time-keeper job; I never realized how much more fun we would have had if we dressed him up as some kind of fowl.

I had the greatest sense of nostalgia watching this because it brought to mind how smart I was when I was a teenager and made me wonder; when I get so stupid? Life was just so much simpler then. I didn’t have to pay a mortgage or wonder how to pay for a child to go to college; if there would be Medicare for me when my day comes…there was just so much time to ponder life and all it had to offer that I hadn’t experienced yet. I really applaud these kids for making their forum all about them and expressed what they see as the “big issues”.

On the other hand there’s us “old folks” whose forum was important and I was thrilled to see so many people come out and show that they are concerned about our neighborhood and the city and how the choices our councilors make effects our lives and our financial well-being. But we are boring compared to these kids and we do have a whole different set of issues that we would like to see addressed by our city councilors. All-in-all I came away from our forum pretty sad because I did not hear a single thing that made me stop and think, “wow, that was a good idea”… yeah, nothing at all, just the same old regurgitation of the nonsense we hear every two years. I’m waiting for the candidate that does not make me feel like a lemming and voting for the lesser evil.

I have discovered one way that the city council is good for our economy. Somewhere towards the end of tonight’s council meeting when I noticed I had been banging my head against the wall for about five minutes; I realized I needed a drink. So I walked down the street to Centro and opted for the “triple chocolate” dessert instead; but I spent some money in the neighborhood. And I would like all of the candidates to know that if it had cost me an extra $0.20 because of the meals tax, I would have bought it anyway…although I’m on a very strict budget… as my niece once told me, “Auntie, sometimes you just have to have the chocolate”.

update: turns out the SUN was there:
http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_13649942?IADID=Search-www.lowellsun.com-www.lowellsun.com

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Posted in City Council, Election, Elections

CITY COUNCIL ELECTION

Posted on October 19, 2009 by | Leave a comment

CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE FORUM

MONDAY NIGHT
October 26th
at The Senior Center
Broadway St.
6:30 PM – Informal Meet & Greet
7:00 PM – Candidate Forum

Sponsored by:
Jackson Appleton Middlesex Business & Residents Association
ww.jambra.org
Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association
http://lowelldna.blogspot.com
Lowell Downtown Business Association (Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce)

Please submit your questions for the candidates to:
ldna01852@yahoo.com

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Posted in City Council, Community Issues, Election

FAIR VOTE LOWELL

Posted on August 28, 2009 by | Leave a comment

The SUN is reporting that Fair vote Lowell turned in enough signatures yesterday to put this question on the November ballot! Great work!
‘Choice-voting’ question going on Lowell ballot
By Jennifer Myers, jmyers@lowellsun.com

LOWELL — A question will appear on this November’s city election ballot asking voters to change the city’s current voting system to a proportional system.
Elections Office manager Gail Cenik reported that Victoria Fahlberg, the executive director of ONE Lowell who is spearheading the Fair Vote Lowell initiative, turned in 5,126 valid signatures yesterday, more than 900 above what was required for ballot placement.
Under “proportional” or “choice” voting, voters rank their candidates by preference, filling in the “1” oval next to the name of their top choice, “2” for their second, etc.
In counting the votes, a formula is used to determine the number of votes a candidate needs to reach to win. The most common formula divides the number of votes cast by the number of available seats plus one. One is then added to that figure.
For instance, if 12,000 voters cast ballots, a candidate would win a seat by earning 1,201 first-choice picks. Once a candidate reaches the magic number, the remaining ballots on which she was the first choice would be doled out to the second-choice candidates on each. Any candidate who reaches the threshold is automatically elected.
http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_13222165

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Posted in Election, Elections, ONE Lowell, Voting

Franky for Lowell

Posted on August 12, 2009 by | Leave a comment

From the Patrick Murphy campaign…

Patrick Murphy, candidate for the Lowell City Council, is hosting a Meet and Greet event at Hookslide Kelly’s on 19 Merrimack Street this Friday, August 14th from 7:30 – 9:30pm.

As he is not fundraising for his own campaign, we are asking that those of you whom may be interested in supporting our campaign, instead donate to one of the five local organizations for which Patrick has chosen to raise money. Particularly in these times, as funding for various programs dries up while the hardships that burden many of our city’s families only worsen, we ask those who are able to help financially to help these groups continue in their worthy efforts. Some of these groups will have representatives present on Friday. To help with participation, anyone who donates five dollars or more to one of these organizations will be entered to win a pair of box tickets to see the Lowell Spinners, Single-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. We hope, above all, that this will serve as an opportunity for people to learn about Patrick and what he values most in his community.

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Posted in City Council, Election, Lowell, Political Fundraiser

City Council Election

Posted on July 22, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Update: 7/30/09
In a SUN story headlined…Move to change charter for elections under way
is this quote by City Councilor Kazanjian “Let the people decide. It is their primary.” http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_12936636

I prefer not to call anyone a hypocrite because on any given day depending on the circumstances…there’s a chance I could become one myself (if that happens I hope someone calls me out on it). Just in case… I will say good for him for “seeing the light”. It is the people’s primary and those are the people who should decide.

Also, this just in from Greg’s blog:
http://anewenglanderinlowell.blogspot.com/2009/07/quick-5w-fair-vote-lowell-organization.html
What: Fair Vote Lowell Organization Meeting
Who: ANYONE interested, regardless of past or current involvement level with this initiative
When: Friday, 31 JUL, at 6:00 p.m.
Where: Saint Ann’s Church, 8 Kirk Street
Why: To discuss strategies for gathering enough valid signatures to get the petition on the ballot
Best Point of Contact on this, or any other upcoming related events, would be Dr. Victoria Fahlberg — vfalhberg@onelowell.net

The saga continued last night… there will be no primary election!

If you were not able to attend or watch on television…please take the time to watch your current city government in action before they start asking for your vote this November.

Simply stated by Bob Forrant comment on www.RichardHowe.com
I’ve said elsewhere and I will say it here too, using my real name, that it is a perversion of democracy to have individuals in power vote to change the rules of the game while the game is in progress.

I was happy to see that Dick Howe has video posted of each councilors reasons for/against holding the primary
http://richardhowe.com/category/2009-election/
…except for CC Lenzi, he was absent; as he has stated in the past, it is only convenient for him to attend two CC meetings per month.

If you want to see more of CC R. Mercier’s reasons for “NOT” holding a primary, hop on over to www.leftinlowell.com
In addition there is the statement by CC candidate Partick Murphy…he sounds like a reasonable guy…we should get to know him better.

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Posted in City Council, Election, Elections, ONE Lowell, Voting

CITY COUNCIL ELECTION TIME IS NEAR…

Posted on July 2, 2009 by | Leave a comment

FAIR VOTE LOWELL
Fair Vote Lowell is an initiative to increase voter participation, open up opportunities for new candidates, and create local elective bodies that are representative of all residents in Lowell, Massachusetts.Our mission is simple: We’re here to transform Lowell’s voting system for local elections of city councilors and school committee from the current “Winner take All” system to “Choice Voting”, a system that is fair and promotes greater representation for all.We invite you to explore our site and join us in transforming our voting system in Lowell. http://www.fairvotelowell.org/

What is Choice Voting? Choice voting is a type of proportional representation that works on the principle that all voters have a right to someone they support. With Choice voting, the majority still receives a majority of the representation, but some seats are available to other voters, so that all voters can be fairly represented. To vote, voters rank the candidates in order of preference. If your top choice loses, your vote goes to your next preferred candidate. After a choice voting election, each elected candidate represents a distinct and equal-sized group of like-minded voters.

I have the petition…please let me know if you have not had an opportunity to sign one.
KMM

Dick Howe takes a historical look at Lowell’s previous use of “Choice Voting” http://richardhowe.com/2009/06/17/is-choice-voting-right-for-lowell/

Candidate web sites to date:
Ryan Berard http://www.ryanberard.com/
Franky Descoteaux http://www.frankyforlowell.com/
Joe Mendonca http://www.mendonca.org/
James Milinazzo http://jimmilinazzo.homestead.com/
Patrick Murphy http://thinkmurphy.com/

Update: I received an email from Ryan Berard;
The First Campaign Fundraiser is scheduled for July 16th at the East End Club from 6-10PM.

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Posted in City Council, Election, Elections, Lowell, Massachusetts

LDNA

Posted on February 19, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Links to topics from our meeting

The presentation is on line at the Green Building Commission’s Web Site.
Visit: http://greenbuilding.lowellma.gov/ It is on the Home page under Updates.
http://greenbuilding.lowellma.gov/resources/Lowell%20Healthy%20Homes%20Presentation%2020091.pdf

The talk hand out information is available at TURI
For more information on toxics and TURI:
Visit: www.turi.org/community

The other information –

Pamela Howland’s knitting group
http://www.meetup.com/The-Lowell-Knitting-Meetup-Group/

For more information on the Downtown Entrepreneurs Group send an email to me, greenesh@comcast.net and I will put you in contact with the organizers.

Green Drinks meets every second Tuesday of the month at 5:30 at Lowell Beer Works.

Sign up for the list serve. Instructions are posted here (scroll down a little):
http://www.greendrinks.org/index.php?country=USA&city=Lowell,%20MA

Or they can just send an email to:
green-drinks-join@lists.thecsl.org

The story of “Stuff”!
http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Correction: The Stitch & Bitch is tentatively on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. Details are usually posted on https://www.ravelry.com/

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Posted in conservation, Downtown Lowell, Election, Green Building, Lowell, Massachusetts, Recycling