CENTER CITY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
July 22, 2008

Present: Peter Aucella, Ted Lavash, Larry Field, Janet Leggat, Bill Lipchitz, L Z Nunn, Theresa Park, Russ Smith, and Steve Syverson.

The meeting opened at 8:35 A.M.

Bill announced the Center City Committee has partnered with the Downtown Neighborhood Association on a downtown Lowell blog. The original address, a blogspot site set up by the DNA has been changed as of this past weekend to a new domain called www.downtownlowell.org and the blog address is http://downtownlowell.org/blog/. The site will be jointly administered by Bill and Kathleen Marcin of the DNA and members of both organizations are encouraged to write or comment on issues.  CCC members wishing to author posts can send Bill a request with their user name and email address and he will register them as an “author”. They will then be able to log in and submit posts. One does not need to be registered to submit comments on an existing post, but comments will be reviewed by an administrator before being added to the blog. The blog already has several posts including one regarding the Western Avenue Artist Live/Work space project that is currently before the Board of Appeals. This is an example of an issue that should generate a lot of comments and dialogue.

In relation to the Western Avenue issue, Peter summarized the events at the recent Board of Appeals meeting on Monday July 14th and noted it was only yesterday that a story appeared in the Sun about it. There was a lot of support at the meeting for the project but the Board had some reservations, most of which were addressed by the developer. The issues are now boiling down to public safety and a vague concern about having housing next to an industrial area. LZ said she was asked if similar projects were done in industrial areas in other cities and she cited several examples including Providence where they worked quite well. Since the Board of Appeals has put off a final determination until their meeting on August 11, the arts community and others seeing the cultural and economic value to the project will have some time to generate more support including a possible letter to the Sun and more posts on the blog.

Ted  reported that Bose Radio was in town recently for a photo shoot to promote a new product. They used several sites that Ted was happy to show them including the Caffe Paradiso. Ted himself was apparently not included in the shoot with the glamorous models.

Peter said the attendance at the Summer Music Series at Boarding House Park is up by 35% over last year. Of course, everyone is getting ready for the Folk Festival this weekend.

Steve said that the Art Walk program will be in effect for the festival. This year, 35 artists have decorated 37 windows in the downtown and ballot boxes are placed around in various locations (including Olive That & More) so people can vote for best window.

Russ announced that One Lowell will be holding the local version of the world cup soccer tournament at Cawley Stadium as a fund raiser.

Janet Leggat said her business, SeaMaster Cruises, is holding a Pajama Drive to provide new PJ’s for infants through teenagers who are currently living in shelters or are otherwise pajamaless. She is soliciting new PJ’s that will be donated to Community Teamwork, Inc. shelters and the Lowell Wish Project. Call her at 978-804-2839 or email her at JLeggat@SeaMasterCruises.com to help.

Theresa Park sadly announced that Café Aiello has closed due to financial issues. Also, the Kitchen Incubator project is moving along. There was a recent brainstorming session where ideas for advancing the project were discussed. To create and outfit a kitchen could be as much as $.5M not counting the operational expense, so they are doing an inventory of existing commercial kitchens that might be used and also looking for storage space.

There are a couple of businesses working hard to open on Merrimack Street by the Folk Festival including a tappas bar, C’est, and Humanity Clothing.
Theresa is also working on an event in October that will showcase products made in Lowell.

The meeting adjourned at 9:35 AM.