Middlesex Probate Courthouse in Cambridge Closed Temporarily

Last evening the Trial Court closed the Middlesex Probate Courthouse in Cambridge. Because the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds is located in that building, it also will be closed. It's my understanding that Middlesex South will be able to process electronic recordings remotely but the ability to process other recordings and  to perform other tasks may be disrupted during the closure.

As of now, no reopening date has been set.

UPDATE on June 5, 2020: The Middlesex South Registry reopened for limited operations soon after this post was published. The Middlesex South Registry continues to accept documents recorded electronically and those sent to the registry via the United States Postal Service.

For more information on the status of Middlesex South, please consult that registry's website.

Early Voting

Yesterday was the first day of early voting in Massachusetts. Not just the first day this year, but the first day ever, as I understand it. In Lowell, you can vote at the Election Office in City Hall, Monday through Friday this week and next, during normal City Hall hours of operation. Each night this week and next, and on the intervening Saturday and Sunday, the Lowell Election Office will also take to the field, partnering with a different community organization each day to provide an early voting site.

After work yesterday, I went to Temple Emanuel on West Forrest Street to vote. It happens to be in my neighborhood, but any city voter can vote at any one of these early voting sites. The process worked well: upon entering the room, I gave my name to a poll worker who entered it into a tablet device. That pulled up my voter record. I was asked to look at the record and click on a button that acknowledged I was there person shown in the record. That caused an attached label printer to produce a sticky label with my name, ward and precinct printed upon it. The label was affixed to an envelope which I was given along with my ballot. There were several portable but private voting booths available for filling out your ballot. Once that was done, you inserted the ballot into your envelope, sealed the envelope, and handed it to a poll worker who then gave you an "I voted" sticker. That was it. At the end of the evening, all of those sealed envelopes were taken to city hall and locked in the election office's safe. On election day, they will be distributed to the appropriate precinct and will be counted in the same way that absentee ballots are tallied.

Early voting was well-organized. It was also an interesting experience. The knowledge that you've already voted two weeks before election day is both comforting and, because it's a change from the norm, a little discomforting. I do think it's a great idea and hope that it is extended to all elections.

Boston to vote on Community Preservation Act

Besides voting for president, members of congress, members of the state legislature, and some other state and county offices, Massachusetts residents will answer four statewide referendum questions on the November 8, 2016 ballot.

Question 1 will allow the Gaming Commission to issue another slots license;

Question 2 will authorize the creation of up to 12 new charter schools each year;

Question 3 will prohibit “certain methods of farm animal containment;” and

Question 4 will legalize recreational marijuana use.

Voters in Boston will have a fifth question: whether the city should adopt the Community Preservation Act. The CPA requires voters to assent to a property tax surcharge to be used for affordable housing, open space protection, and historic preservation. The amount raised would be increased with money from a state matching fund that consists of money raised through a surcharge on documents recorded at the registry of deeds. The Boston proposal would raise $16mil from property taxes. That amount would be increased by $4mil from the CPA fund for a total of $20mil.

Mayor Walsh and other leaders in Boston have endorsed the proposal. The Boston Globe did that today in an editorial.

The Community Preservation Act was born in 2003. More than 150 communities in Massachusetts have taken advantage of it. Some like Lowell have never even tried, presumably because few leaders are willing to ask people to voluntarily raise their taxes. Still, people who live in communities that don’t use the CPA are subsidizing everyone who does, because everyone contributes to the fund. Since 2008, the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds has collected nearly $10mil in CPA surcharges which are $20 per document in most cases. Perhaps if Boston voters endorse Question 5, other communities in Massachusetts will be inspired to do give the CPA a shot.

Hamilton Canal District Update

Last week was the groundbreaking for the Lowell Justice Center which will be located in the city’s Hamilton Canal District (HCD). The HCD is a collection of 17 parcels adjacent to downtown that have been acquired and cleared by the city of Lowell for redevelopment. The objective is to create a dynamic, mixed-use neighborhood that extends the downtown towards the Gallagher Terminal Transportation Hub and the Lowell Connector highway.

At last night’s city council meeting, the master developer of the project, Winn Development, provided an update to councilors. Regarding the residential component planned for HCD, Winn representatives stressed that the high cost of development of housing in Massachusetts Gateway Cities and the lease and rental rate realities of this area, limit what is feasible on this site. Because it is ground-up construction on vacant lots, historic tax credits (which have financed much of the recent development in Lowell) are not available. There is a new state program that subsidizes new residential construction that is a mix of 80% market rate and 20% “work force” housing, so they expect to compete for that.

Regarding commercial development, Winn would like to construct a 40,000 square foot building adjacent to the courthouse site, possible for use as law offices or other functions complementary to the judicial presence. But the Winn rep said “you don’t build something like that on spec and hope for tenants; you must first secure a tenant and then build to suit.” They are pursuing potential tenants now.

Winn also complemented the city on all the infrastructure work that has already been done and is in the process of being done. This includes new roads, a new bridge, extended utility lines, and a planned 900 space parking garage. City Manager Kevin Murphy added that notwithstanding that garage, which will be at the far end of the HCD from the courthouse, that the city also hopes to build a second garage adjacent to the courthouse to provide parking to the employees and users of that building.

The courthouse groundbreaking created a sense of optimism about the HCD. Last night’s presentation tempered that optimism a bit, but seemed to be a realistic assessment of what is feasible for this area.

Lowell Justice Center Groundbreaking

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Lowell Justice Center was held yesterday, September 22, 2016, at the site of the building. Under a large white tent that shielded the crowd of more than 200 from the afternoon sun, the ceremony opened with the Trial Court Honor Guard posting the national and state colors and the Lowell High School Show Choir singing the National Anthem.

Massachusetts Trial Court Chief Justice Paula Carey offered welcoming remarks and Trial Court Administrator Harry Spence served as master of ceremonies. Speakers included Governor Charlie Baker, Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants, Secretary of Administration and Finance Kristen Lepore, State Senator Eileen Donoghue, State Representatives Tom Golden, Dave Nangle, and Rady Mom, and Lowell Mayor Edward Kennedy. After the speaking program, the dignitaries moved to a nearby pile of gravel, grabbed gold-colored shovels (while foregoing the white hardhats), and tossed a few shovelfuls of dirt to mark the occasion.

The Lowell Justice Center (formerly referred to as the Lowell Judicial Center) will be a 267,000 square foot, seven story structure in a prime location in the city's Hamilton Canal District. It will feature 17 courtrooms, office space for court personnel and the District Attorney, the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds, and a Court Service Center. Construction is expected to take 30 months.

Lowell Judicial Center ground breaking today

The ground breaking ceremony for the new Lowell Judicial Center will take place today at 2 pm. The seven-story building will contain courtrooms for Superior, District, Housing, Probate, and Juvenile Courts, facilities for other judicial-related functions, and the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds.

Here's the text of the press release from the Supreme Judicial Court's Public Information Office:

Judiciary Announces Groundbreaking Ceremony for Lowell Justice Center  

WHAT:
On Thursday, September 22,  Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants, Trial Court Chief Justice Paula M. Carey, and Trial Court Administrator Harry Spence, together with Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, Secretary for Administration and Finance Kristin Lepore, and Commissioner of the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance Carole Gladstone, will participate in a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Lowell Justice Center, which will be located on Jackson Street in Lowell. Lowell officials in attendance will include Mayor Edward Kennedy, State Senator Eileen Donoghue, and State Representatives Rady Mom and David Nangle.
The new courthouse will be located in the historic Hamilton Canal District, and house the Lowell District Court, the Superior, Probate & Family and Juvenile Courts of Middlesex County, and the Northeast Division of the Housing Court. The courthouse will have 17 state-of-the-art courtrooms, a Court Service Center and office spaces for the District Attorney's Office and Registry of Deeds. The new Justice Center will replace a leased facility and two outdated state-owned courthouses, allowing greater access and efficiency for court users. Construction is due to begin in the fall.
WHEN:
Thursday, September 22, 2016
2 p.m.
WHERE:
370 Jackson Street
Lowell, MA 01852

Missing out on the Community Preservation Act

The Community Preservation Act was signed into law in Massachusetts about 15 years ago. The purpose of the law was to encourage and to assist communities in preserving open space, creating affordable housing, and conducting historic preservation. To utilize the CPA, residents of a community would have to impose a surcharge of up to 3% on their property taxes. As an incentive to do this, the state would match the funds raised by the surcharge. To fund the matching amounts, the state imposed a surcharge on recording fees at the registry of deeds. Almost all documents carry a $20 surcharge (municipal lien certificates have a $10 surcharge and homesteads and state and federal tax liens are surcharge-free).

In today’s Boston Globe, op-ed columnist Renee Loth urges the city of Boston to adopt a CPA proposal filed by two city councilors (“Boston is losing out bynot adopting the Community Preservation Act”). Here’s how the column begins:

Those lucky folks in Acton. Over the past several years, they have purchased more than 30 acres of farmland and open space, created a wildflower garden and accessible boardwalk at the Acton Arboretum, and started work on their section of a 22-mile rail trail from Lowell to Framingham. In Gloucester, residents have leveraged funding for 80 units of affordable elderly housing in an old grammar school, replaced historic lead glass windows at the Cape Ann museum, and restored Depression-era WPA murals at City Hall. In Cambridge, they have preserved hundreds of affordable rental units that were about to expire, stabilized an eroding slope at Fresh Pond to protect drinking water, and transferred millions of dollars into a housing trust fund. All these communities – and 157 others – recognize the value of protecting their economic, environmental, and cultural assets through the state’s Community Preservation Act.

She spends the rest of the column arguing that it is short-sighted for Boston to continue to ignore the CPA.

You could say the same thing about Lowell. Because even the slightest property tax increase creates much angst in Lowell, it seems unlikely that the voters—especially the small percentage who actually vote in city elections—would volunteer to increase their property taxes, even if the amount of the increase was matched by the state.

What makes it even more short-sighted for Lowell to forego the CPA is that it’s not really the state that’s providing the matching funds; it’s the property owners of Lowell. From 2008 through 2015 here at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds, we have collected $9,328,900 in Community Preservation Act surcharges for an average of $1,166,112 per year. Although the district consists of ten communities (Billerica, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Lowell, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford, and Wilmington), Lowell accounts for 22% of all documents recorded.

Given those numbers, property owners in Lowell have contributed $2,052,358 to the Community Preservation Fund, all of which has benefitted communities like Acton, Gloucester, and Cambridge. Maybe it’s time for the property owners of Lowell to get some return on their CPA investment.

Super Bowl XLIX

Since we began writing this blog back in 2003, we've made a point of doing at least one post devoted to each professional sports championship won by a Boston team.  On this past Sunday, February 1, 2015, the Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX beating the Seattle Seahawk 28-24 in a dramatic come-from-behind victory with a wild finish.  The game was tied 14-14 at halftime with Seattle scoring after getting the ball back with just 29 seconds to go in the half.  Seattle got the ball to start the second half and scored a field goal and a touchdown to go up by 10 points in the third quarter.  But in the fourth quarter, the Patriots scored twice on Tom Brady passes.  Seattle got the ball back with just over 2 minutes to play.  With one pass they were at midfield.  The next pass went down near the goal line.  The Patriot’s cornerback seemed to tip the ball but when the receiver fell to the ground on his back, the ball bounced off his leg, then his stomach and while lying flat, he grabbed it.  A miracle catch, just like the one made by the New York Giants in an earlier Super Bowl against the Patriots.  On the next play, with just over a minute left, Seattle ran the ball from the five to the one yard line.  After the clock ticked down and a timeout, it was second down with just 29 seconds to go and Seattle tried a slant pass but Malcolm Butler, the same Patriot who was the victim of the miracle catch just moments earlier and a rookie undrafted free agent, stepped in front of the receiver and intercepted the ball with just 22 seconds to go.  The Patriots won and Seattle’s coach Pete Carroll is being blamed for making the most egregious mistake in football history for passing instead of running.  The Patriots flew back to Boston from Phoenix on Monday night and had a "rolling rally" victory parade of Duck Boats today in Boston. 

Flood Insurance Premium Relief

Governor Patrick signed a new law yesterday that provides some potential relief to people who own homes in flood zones.  Previously, lenders could and often did require homeowners to obtain flood insurance for the entire value of the property.  This new law, however, gives the homeowner the option of obtaining flood insurance only in the outstanding amount of the mortgage.  For example, if someone owns a home that's worth $200,000 but only owes $100,000, that person can opt to obtain only $100,000 in flood insurance.  Of course, if the house is destroyed by flood, the homeowner's equity would vanish, but when the alternative is flood insurance premiums so high that people are driven to foreclosure, many will be willing to take that risk.  More information about this new law is available in this story from the Patriot Ledger. 

Two way traffic coming to downtown Lowell

This August the traffic pattern in downtown Lowell will undergo a big change.  The web of one way streets that have been in place for a half century will become two way.  The streets involved in this transition are as follows:

Central Street from Market to Merrimack which is currently one way heading towards Merrimack will become two way;

Merrimack Street from Prescott to Dutton which is currently one way heading towards City Hall will be two way;

Shattuck Street which runs from Merrimack to Market and is one way heading towards Market will be two way;

Market Street from Shattuck to Central which is one way heading towards Central will be two way. 

Dutton Street will remain two way and Middle and Palmer Street will remain one way as will Prescott Street. 

There will be new lane markings, cross walks, "no left/right turn" signs, and new parking regulations.  It will take a while for those who have known only the current system to get used to these changes and their consequences.  There are several reasons the change is being made.  One is to make navigating downtown Lowell easier and more direct; two is to calm traffic and thereby promote pedestrian activity; and three is that research has shown that retail districts do better with two way traffic.

Grand opening of Richard P Howe Bridge

Richard P. Howe Sr. is my dad.  Yesterday the city of Lowell and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (by Mass Highway) dedicated a new bridge across the Merrimack River in his name.  The Richard P. Howe Bridge connects Merrimack Street on the south side of the river with University Ave on the north side.  It replaces the bridge commonly called the University Ave bridge which has stood for many decades.  The older bridge which has also been known as the Textile or Textile Memorial Bridge has suffered severe structural damage from the elements and was deemed to be beyond repair.  It will be torn down during the winter and should be entirely gone by spring. Richard P. Howe Sr., who was able to attend the ceremony yesterday, was elected to the Lowell City Council in 1965 and served forty consecutive years including four terms as mayor. 

World Champion Boston Red Sox

For the third time during my tenure as register of deeds I've been able to say "World Champion Boston Red Sox."  That's a privilege that only one of my predecessors has had.  William Purcell was elected Register of Deeds of the Middlesex North District in 1909 and served until 1934 during which time the Red Sox won the World Series four times - in 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918.  (They won their first in 1903). 

For the record, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series at 11:23 last night with the final out of game six in which the Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 6 to 1.  That was the fourth victory against two defeats in this series for the Red Sox so now they are world champions who will be honored by a Duck Boat parade this Saturday. 

While those living a century ago may have experienced an extra World Series victory, there can be no argument that we are living in the golden age of Boston sports.  Consider this:

1. February 3, 2002: Patriots beat St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI
2. February 1, 2004: Patriots beat Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII
3. October 27, 2004: Red Sox beat St. Louis Cardinals to win World Series
4. February 6, 2005: Patriots beat Philadelphia Eagles to win Super Bowl XXXIX
5. October 28, 2007: Red Sox beat Colorado Rockies to win World Series
6. June 17, 2008: Celtics beat Los Angeles Lakers to win NBA title
7. June 15, 2011: Bruins beat Vancouver Canucks to win Stanley Cup
8. October 30, 2013: Red Sox beat St. Louis Cardinals to win World Series

Add to these accomplishments these near-misses:

1.  February 3, 2008: Patriots lose to New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII
2. April 14, 2010: Celtics lose to Los Angeles Lakers in NBA finals
3. February 5, 2012: Patriots lose to New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI

 And you have a pretty good run.

Northern Middlesex Council of Governments celebrates 50 years

Last night the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments (NMCOG) celebrated its 50th anniversary at the Westford Regency Hotel.  Consisting of the city of Lowell and the towns of Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Pepperell, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, and Westford, NMCOG is one of thirteen regional planning agencies in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  These agencies were an outgrowth of the move towards centralized government planning in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  In many parts of the country where county government was (and is) more far-reaching in its bureaucratic responsibilities, regional planning was a more natural fit.  In Massachusetts, however, almost all bureaucratic authority resides with the individual communities so making regional operations a success required more innovation and negotiation.  Through the years, NMCOG has been successful in doing that, especially since adding local elected officials such as city councilors and town selectmen to the council along with local planners.  One added benefit of this evolution was that it provided a forum for town-to-town communications at the elected official level that would not otherwise exist.  Since the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds nearly overlaps the NMCOG region (they have Pepperell; we have Carlisle and Wilmington), the registry has worked very closely with NMCOG on a number of projects particularly in the GIS area.  So congratulations to NMCOG for 50 years of outstanding service.

News about planned Lowell Judicial Center

Yesterday afternoon Harry Spence, the Court Administrator of the Massachusetts Trial Court, visited Lowell tour the Superior and District Court.  He was accompanied by State Senator Eileen Donoghue and State Representatives Tom Golden, Kevin Murphy and Dave Nangle.  I joined them during the visit to Superior Court which also houses the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds.

While Spence lamented the relative state of disrepair of the entire building (while acknowledging its stunning interior architecture), he seemed mostly concerned with the day-to-day safety of the Probation Office which is located on the third floor of the front part of the building.  The office has only one means of egress, a narrow iron stairway, and is not accessible to people with mobility limitations.  In case of a fire that blocked that stairway, the Probation Department has a chain-link emergency ladder that can be tossed over the balcony, but such a method of escape is filled with its own risks.

Spence and the city's state house delegation hope to convince Governor Patrick to include money in the next capital plan for the new judicial center which is to be constructed on a vacant site alongside the Lord Overpass.  The city has long hoped that the judicial center would serve as an anchor of the Hamilton Canal redevelopment project.  Fortunately, other aspects of that project are proceeding at their own pace.

Initially the judicial center was to be built by 2012 but its timetable has been continuously slid back so that now the earliest it could be operational would be in 2017.  

Development in downtown Worcester

Today's Globe has a story about the challenges facing the city of Worcester as it tries to revive its downtown.  Much of the activity in Worcester involves large scale commercial developments but the city's downtown still seems lacking.  One city planner quoted in the article says that Worcester needs "the interesting and eclectic mix that will draw people downtown, interest office workers, and eventually get full-time residences there."

It's interesting to compare Worcester as described in the article to Lowell.  It seems that Lowell has taken a different approach by converting downtown buildings to residences and shaping many policy decisions to attract artists and other participants in the "creative economy."  What Lowell seems to lack is a major employer in the downtown.  The presence of office workers during the day would provide additional support to restaurants and retailers who have a tough time making it when relying solely on downtown residents, many of whom depart the city or at least the downtown during the day since their work brings them elsewhere.

We're having a heat wave

The Middlesex Superior Couthouse in Lowell is an old building (1848 and 1894) but there are ample window air conditioners to keep the temperature tolerable inside on days that are especially warm which is exactly what we have today.  In fact, with the outside temperature now above 90 degrees, we are officially in the middle of a heat wave (three or more consecutive days with temperatures above 90 degrees).  Since the forecast for the weekend calls for like temperatures through Sunday, we should have at least a five-day heat wave. 

WBZ-TV weather person Barry Burbank shared some historical information about Boston heat waves:

Boston’s longest heat wave of 9 days lasted from July 3-11 in 1912. The next 3 on the list are all 8 days long. August 11-18, 2002 was the most recent followed by July 19-26, 1994 then August 10-17, 1944. August 1988 was also brutal with a 4-day heat wave from the 3rd through the 6th followed by a 7-day heat wave on the 9th through the 15th.  It was the hottest August in 118 years featuring 11 days over 90 degrees bringing the 1988 total to 25 days which is double the average number.  More recently, July 2011 was the 2nd hottest July on record but, surprisingly, there was only 1 heat wave lasting 4 days. During that spell, there was a new record set on the 22nd of the month at 103 degrees! July 2010 was the third hottest July on record with two-3 day heat waves.  The longer the heat lingers, the greater the impact because it is accumulative and increasingly stressful to the human body.

New housing coming to Gorham St

The long talked-about sale of 305 Gorham Street, a portion of the lot where St. Peter's Church formerly stood, by Cooney Development LLC to the Coalition for a Better Acre was recorded today.  The former rectory of St. Peter's parish will remain as home to Cooney Insurance and several law offices, but the northerly portion of that parcel which is bounded by Father Ronan Terrace and Gorham, Elm and South Streets, will soon be home to a six-story mulifamily building that will contain 24 residential units.  According to a special permit from the Lowell Planning Board, phase two of the development will consist of a second building, this one of 5 stories, with an additional 24 units for a total of 48.  The recorded documents give no indication of when construction will start.

Tax Takings

The city of Lowell dropped off a big pile of tax takings to be recorded today - 227 in all, 218 on recorded land (document type TAKE) and 9 on registered land (TAX TAKING).  They are all for FY2012 real estate taxes and most seem to be in the $2000 to $4000 range.

In past years, these documents were treated mostly as ongoing liens on the property to be settled the next time the premises was sold or refinanced.  Last year, however, the city bundled these tax takings up and auctioned them off.  Presumably the same thing will happen again this summer so anyone whose name appears on one of these documents would be wise to contact the city tax collector and try to bring some resolution to the proceedings sooner rather than later.

The FBI and accuate indexing

Lurking in the background since the two Boston Marathon terrorists were identified late last week was the news that a "foreign government" had requested in 2010 that the FBI check out Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Suspect #1, who died early Friday morning). Soon we learned that the foreign government interested in Tsarnaev was Russia and so it was very strange that he actually traveled to Russia in 2012 and sent six month there. How did the FBI and all our country's intelligence services fail to make the connection between the subject of the Russian intelligence query and a subsequent long visit to Russia? It turns out that the missed connection may have been caused by a database indexing error. Here's a report in today's Globe:

Tamerlan Tsarnaev had traveled to Russia early last year because of a clerical error: His name was misspelled. “He went over to Russia, but apparently, when he got on the Aeroflot plane, they misspelled his name,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican said on Fox television this morning. “So it never went into the system that he actually went to Russia.”

That might explain why the computer missed him and it would be a reasonable explanation if you were talking about a typo at a typical government office such as the registry of deeds, but you'd like to think that the computers employed by our national security apparatus would factor in the possibility of a typo - Google certainly can handle it but apparently not Homeland Security. Still, this is an area where information is leaked selectively, so the available information is insufficient to base any judgments upon.

Boston Marathon bombing

While this site focuses on real estate and related subjects, we also write about significant events in the world around us. Sometimes they are joyful events as when the Red Sox or Patriots become world champions but other times they are tragic as is the case today. Our Patriot's Day holiday was shattered yesterday shortly before 3 pm when two bombs exploded almost simultaneously at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Current reports state that three people were killed and more than 150 wounded, many seriously. Information about the victims is slowly being made public as is information about the progress of the investigation. If the past is any guide, the search for those responsible seems to move slowly at first, but it inevitably ends with a full explanation of what happened.