Category Archives: Minutes

Meeting opened at 7:00 PM on Monday, February 25th

The two-way conversion work is being designed now. We anticipate holding a public meeting at some point in the coming months to discuss it once we have the traffic analysis complete and know what is and isn’t possible. Construction could occur as early as the Fall, provided the Council ultimately approves the funding for the project in the Capital Plan, which will be presented to them in the early Spring.

With respect to the crosswalk, we agree with some of your concerns about it and also agree that the present location is not ideal. I believe it was located there by either the National Park and/or the former State Heritage Park. Nelson Nygaard and TEC, the design engineers working on the two-way conversion project, are looking at improving its location and associated sight lines for drivers in conjunction with the larger project.

Raised crosswalks have in the past been opposed by the Fire Department and DPW because of their impact on emergency response and snow operations. It is not immediately clear the extent of those concerns on Market Street if the overall two-way conversion plan is implemented and includes Merrimack Street. The two-way conversion will however have two significant benefits for pedestrian safety even if raised crosswalks are not ultimately feasible. First, two-way conversions have been proven to slow traffic speeds and in many cases eliminate speeding. Second, two-way traffic on streets with multiple signalized intersections discourages jay walking by eliminating the long gaps in traffic caused by red lights on one-way streets.

LDNA met at LTC on a snowy 28th of January at 7PM to discuss current events.

First up was Assistant City Manager Adam Baacke.

Adam pointed out that the last of the cobra-head traffic lights downtown were being replaced with Victorian models over the next few months. He requests that people that frequent the downtown pay special attention to the lights on Palmer Street: the city has put up a few different types of LED lamps in these fixtures and is looking for input on which ones give the best lights.

The city has also enlisted two traffic-engineering firms to work out the details regarding the plans to continue the conversion of the downtown street system into a two-way system. One of the two firms is nationally known, and the other is based out of Lawrence – they were responsible for the conversion of Essex Street back to two-way a few years back.

Residents had a few questions: if it was necessary to convert the streets to one-way in the past, do the reasons for this conversion still exist? Adam explained that the prevailing mid-century philosophy was to move as many cars through a downtown as quickly as possible. The end-result was a less bike-and-pedestrian-friendly atmosphere, fewer people actually stopping to do business, and people travelling the wrong way at the wrong time of day for businesses on that street. A common example cited is a coffee shop that ends up being on many people’s return trip only. Case-in-point: The Dunkin’ Donuts on Central and Church Streets is on the way home for many downtown residents – and four traffic lights away in the AM. Also asked was if Market Street in particular would be able to handle the queueing for the Roy Garage during the AM without the second lane for through-traffic. Adam said they’d be examining that sort of thing before anything final occurred. Also, exactly how much of Merrimack Street will become two-way is still up in the air.

Next Adam discussed some downtown developments:

• 110 Canal in the Hamilton Canal District (the old Pellon/Freudenburg plant) is nearly complete and a few firms have been interested in occupying it. It is 5500 square feet
• Winn Development is finishing up work in the last section of the Boott Mill – this will include 77 units of housing with 80% of them being market rate. There will also be 43,000 square feet of commercial space.
• ALL (Arts League of Lowell) is progressing nicely with their renovations of the historic Gates Block on Market Street, across from Haffner’s.
• Many of the former Louis Saab properties have been bought up and are being redeveloped.
• New businesses include Sweet Lydia’s, a new bakery, and a new African Market all on Merrimack Street. This fills up the space Giovanni’s Trends contracted out of recently.
• Tremonte Pizzaria, an extension of Tremonte’s out of Woburn, is moving into the former Fortunato’s space at Palmer and Middle.
• Lowell Community Health Center (LCHC) is nearly ready with their 100,000 square foot new facility on Jackson Street. They also own the other 100,000 square feet of that property and are examining who will develop it.
• A nearby building on Jackson Street is being redeveloped by Winn into 80,000 square feet of housing – 52 units.
• A few years out, the final section of the Massachusetts Mills will be developed. After a partial demolition for fire-safety reasons, there will be 125 housing units put in.

LDNA meeting, Monday, October 22, 2012
A few notes…
Guests:
Christine Connolly, RN, BSN, Public Health Nurse for the city of Lowell
Chris presented an overview of materials related to Opiate Overdose Prevention.
Startling is the number of overdose cases annually and the number in Lowell.
I have all of the materials covered which I’m happy to deliver to anyone who needs them and/or I will have them at the next meeting.

Chris also covered the “unwanted Medicine/Needle Disposal” program for city residents. There is a drop-off at Lowell Senior Center, Broadway every Wednesday morning 9:30 – 11:00 AM and there are other options throughout the city to dispose of unwanted/expired medications.

David Stacy, Community Outreach Specialist, Lowell House Inc.
Dave discussed the use of “Narcan” injections to prevent or reverse the side effects of opiate overdose including difficulty breathing; sleepiness, low blood pressure and death. Dave provides training to use Narcan for city residents; it takes less than 15 minutes. You can contact him at Lowell House if you are interested in learning more about Narcan and the training.

Chris and Dave also seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of a variety of support groups, prevention opportunities; both would like to do spend more time educating in the schools as would the police resource officers.

Kirsten Doherty, MA Prevention Alliance
Kirsten provided a brief overview of the reason MA Prevention Alliance does not support Question 3: Medical Use of Marijuana. To summarize Kirsten described the lack of detail contained in the bill to regulate dispensaries. She suggested refining the bill with much more widespread input.
Certainly check out the Secretary of State web sites for the language and basic information for/against:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/ele12/ballot_questions_12/quest_3.htm

I have much of this information electronically from Chris so please send an email and I’ll get it to you. There is also so much material I suggest we have our guests back again.

Last but not least…”Panic in the Park” is not just a cute Halloween event. There have been several assaults, robberies of residents in Kerouac Park, apparently increasing in the past month. We have a group of residents who reside next to the park discuss with police what can be done to prevent this (excluding sending the kids who are doing this back to the Victorian Garden) but including everything from the most obvious…pay attention to your surroundings when you are walking the streets; not with her head down looking at your phone. To changes that might be made to the actual space like trimming trees/bushes and adding more lights. Captain Sullivan  has asked residents to attend the LDNA meeting to let him know how things are going with plans he has put in place. In the meantime when there is an incident or concerns please call the police! The non-emergency number is 978-937-3200.

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