CENTER CITY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

January 12, 2010

 

The next informal meeting of the Center City Committee 

will be

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

8:30 AM

at

Brew’d Awakening Coffeehaus

 61 Market Street

 

The next meeting of the Stakeholder Representatives

will be

Tuesday, January 26, 2010  

8:30 AM

The MCC Morse Federal Building

East Merrimack Street

 

 

Present:  Suzzanne Cromwell, George DeLuca, Capt. Thomas Kennedy, Ted Lavash, Bill Lipchitz, Steve Syverson, and Terry Williams. Also present was Richard Rourke from Tutto Bene and Ricardo’s.

 

The meeting opened at 8:30 AM.

 

The CCC will not meet next Tuesday January 19th due to the Monday holiday.  The next Stakeholders’ Meeting will be January 26th, and the Annual Stakeholders’ Meeting will take place in March.

 

Bill brought up an email he received from Jamie O’Hearn suggesting that the general cleanliness and appearance of Lowell be one of the action items for the new year.  Jamie suggested targeting a few key spots such as the wall bordering the parking lot on Central Street where the Bank of America ATM is located.  Updates could then be put on the CCC blog.  Steve mentioned that the “junk store” window on Market Street which had been cleaned up by Chris Samaras and others has gotten worse.

 

George talked about the Greater Lowell Chamber’s Downtown Business Committee meeting which took place at the Mayor’ reception room at city hall January 11th.  There were 12 to 14 people in attendance, 10 of which were downtown businesses.  The Winter Fest and Great Plates events were discussed at the meeting with the remainder of the time devoted to issues downtown business owners brought up.  Issues such as parking in the downtown, attracting people from the neighborhoods to the downtown, and having businesses stay open longer were discussed.  Business owners agreed that outreach needed to be done to involve more businesses and agendas needed to be written up for each meeting.  The group decided that the quarterly meetings should be changed to monthly so they could discuss such issues more thoroughly. Bill said he would speak with Jeanne Osborn to see if the business group would be interested in meeting with the CCC on a monthly basis.

We could do that by devoting one of our meetings per month to their issues and concerns.

 

Steve mentioned that visitors to Lowell need more information such as the availability of the green circulator bus, when they come into the City.  Dick Rourke suggested that kiosks be set up at various points in the downtown, coinciding with where buses stop, that display where the businesses and restaurants are located. He cited Providence RI as a city that Lowell could learn from.  The difficulty in using the new parking payment system was also discussed and the fact that the Leo Roy Garage has been charging a flat fee for special events on certain evenings, partly to recoup money for vandalism which has since been stopped. 

 

 

Bill suggested adding a page to George’s blog about all the things one ought to know about when visiting Lowell such as a listing of all the businesses and where they are, which George has actually been working on, and instructions on how to use the parking payment system. Other ideas for drawing people, particularly from the outer neighborhoods, into the downtown were discussed, such as giving away temporary parking placards, having free parking on Thursdays, and reimbursing customers a quarter for their first 30 minutes of parking;  having City Hall stay open that evening to conduct business, and doing a “shop local” campaign partially financed by selling “Shop Local” buttons. 

 

 

Suzz Cromwell announced a film series being presented at Life Alive Café.  The free agricultural film series will be presented on the fourth Sunday of the next three months at 7pm.  This will be a series of documentaries and creative film shorts focusing on good food, sustainability, and community-supported agriculture.  More information is available at www.lowellfilmcollaborative.org.  The April film festival will take place April 8th through 10th and will feature movies of the 1930’s. 

 

The discussion then went to the dedication Friday January 8th by Middlesex Community College of the Rialto Building located at 240 Central Street.  Previously administered by the Lowell National Historic Park, MCC is in the process of purchasing the building through a state capital bond bill.  MCC would like to use the building for the college’s dance and performing arts programs as well as for other humanities programs.  George DeLuca mentioned this would be an optimal opportunity for MCC to partner with other arts and performance entities in Lowell.

 

The Stakeholders meeting on the 26th will focus on the UMass Lowell plans for the Nanotech Center and the impact of the UML students in the downtown.

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:30 AM.