{"id":777,"date":"2018-04-20T01:16:56","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T05:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/?p=777"},"modified":"2018-04-20T01:16:56","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T05:16:56","slug":"march-2018-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/?p=777","title":{"rendered":"March 2018 Minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LDNA 3\/26\/18<\/p>\n<p>7 PM, LTC<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Present:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jack Moynihan<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Greene<\/p>\n<p>Sam Litvin<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Meeting called to order at: 7:00.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Opening greeting<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Approval of minutes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Approval of January and February minutes; Motion by Stephen, 2<sup>nd<\/sup> by Sam.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Treasurer\u2019s Report<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Approximately $775.25 balance.\u00a0 Everyone is invited to make a voluntary $10 membership contribution.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Police Report<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Capt Crowley \u2013 Sector \u2018A\u2019 Commander.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>2 aggravated assaults related to Club 74.<\/p>\n<p>1 assault related to a tow driver dispute.<\/p>\n<p>Burglary related to someone moving into their apartment; truck left unattended.<\/p>\n<p>Burglary of digital x-ray machine from professional building.\u00a0 ($7k)<\/p>\n<p>Shoplifting (of skin cream) from drug store<\/p>\n<p>Various vandalism (smashed windows, and damaged car at John St. Garage)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Staffing grant money now available for extra downtown patrols during good weather.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q:\u00a0 What to do about needles?\u00a0 A:\u00a0 Call non-emergency number and Trinity will pick them up.\u00a0 If not gone within an hour or so, call again.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q:\u00a0 How can we focus better on cracking down on over-serving?\u00a0 A:\u00a0 LPD works with investigation section and ABCC investigators.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q: What about drunk driving?\u00a0 Thorndike DUI checkpoint is no longer available.\u00a0 A:\u00a0 Encourage increased use of ride-sharing \u2013 working on a way to make this more convenient for patrons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Special Guest:\u00a0 Yovani Baez-Rose and Christine McCall, Lowell Department of Planning &amp; Development<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the process of doing open space plan\n<ul>\n<li>5 year plan<\/li>\n<li>Pre-requisite for state funding of projects<\/li>\n<li>Public comments available on City Website; also online survey available with translations in Spanish and Kamai<\/li>\n<li>Public meeting on 4\/17 at Senior Center.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What\u2019s missing in downtown?\n<ul>\n<li>Non-vehicular access to other parts of the city.\n<ul>\n<li>In particular access to Western Ave Studios, Bruce Freeman Trail.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Picnic \/ BBQ areas with tables<\/li>\n<li>Deteriorating benches in many parks<\/li>\n<li>Spruce up existing parks (e.g. small park in front of Leo Roy Garage.)<\/li>\n<li>Active features such as life-size chess\/checkers set or \u201cwalking labyrinth\u201d\n<ul>\n<li>But security issues have to be a major consideration in design<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Improvement to south common such as artificial turf.<\/li>\n<li>Close streets to vehicular traffic for a Sunday (Maybe each Sunday in a different neighborhood) to encourage pedestrian activity.<\/li>\n<li>Need more bike racks all over.<\/li>\n<li>More concerts\/events in brick courtyard by LNHP visitor center.<\/li>\n<li>Green walls to improve e.g. parking garage walls.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What about in other areas of the city?\n<ul>\n<li>Better utilization of Vandenburg esplanade\n<ul>\n<li>Including improvement to sidewalk access to downtown<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Improved dog-parks<\/li>\n<li>Water access (e.g. for kayaks) downstream of the falls.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What do you leave Lowell to do that we could bring here?\n<ul>\n<li>Cross-country ski trails<\/li>\n<li>Activities for small children<\/li>\n<li>Climbing structure that doubles as public art.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What\u2019s going on with trees?\n<ul>\n<li>Many are in bad shape. Survey of the situation will take place in spring.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>No need to put down quite so much rock salt; it only serves to wreck pavement and plants<\/li>\n<li>Open house meeting at LNHP Headquarters on 4\/4 at 6:30pm.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Special Guest:\u00a0 Nick Navin, City Parking Director<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>City Council Public Hearing on new parking rates on 4\/3 at 7:00pm.<\/li>\n<li>No rate hike in ~14 years.<\/li>\n<li>Initial proposal for rate hike was deemed to aggressive; new proposal is more modest as simply an adjustment to account for inflation over the past 14 years. (36%)<\/li>\n<li>On-street parking rate increases from $1\/hr to $1.50\/hr<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Q:\u00a0 What about a validation to help businesses?\u00a0 A:\u00a0 Willing to look at it?<\/p>\n<p>Q: What about extending meter hours past 6pm?\u00a0 A:\u00a0 I\u2019m in favor, but there\u2019s not widespread support.\u00a0 Also demand-based parking rates and progressive pricing.<\/p>\n<p>Q:\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it outrageous that parking spot reservation on public streets outside of downtown is only $10\/yr?\u00a0 A:\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n<p>Q:\u00a0 What about more electric vehicle charging stations?\u00a0 A:\u00a0 Councilor Cirillo says a motion is in the works to look at expanding access.\u00a0 Nick points out huge backlog of maintenance and notes that as funds become available more chargers will be installed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Meeting Adjourns at 8:31.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LDNA 3\/26\/18 7 PM, LTC &nbsp; Present: Jack Moynihan Stephen Greene Sam Litvin &nbsp; Meeting called to order at: 7:00. &nbsp; Opening greeting &nbsp; Approval of minutes Approval of January and February minutes; Motion by Stephen, 2nd by Sam. &nbsp; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/?p=777\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-minutes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":778,"href":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions\/778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ldna01852.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}