Coffey, Dennis 03.09 - University of Massachusetts Lowell Libraries

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A: And tell me about the industrial development crew. D: Well actually it wasn’t very big. When I got there, I’m trying to remember who, who was there before Tom Markham. Maybe Tom Markham was already there. I can’t recall now those times. A: There was, do you remember a guy name Dan Cullinan? D: I remember the name. I think he was kind of on the way out at the time, or something. Yah. A: Yah. D: Yah, I remember that name now. Yah. A: Because he was (--) There was that independent Industrial Development Commission. D: Right. That’s right. Yah. A: And I think he was either the last, or the penultimate (D: Right) director of that. D: Of that, yah, that’s right, and probably kind of resisted the consolidation and so forth. I remember the name. Never had much to do with them. I don’t really know him, but then I remember Tom Markham coming in. And Tom Markham [unclear] and the coverage of course was that he was fired by Nixon. A: Oh really? Oh I didn’t know that. D: Yah, he worked for the USEDA, Economic Development Administration. (A: Okay) Of course he got that from Kennedy. (A: Okay) And so Nixon came in and said you know, “Who can we get rid of?” This guy’s got Kennedy next to his name. You know he’s gone. A: I see. D: So Tom always [wore that as his badge of courage] and he was fired by Nixon. A: That wasn’t like a permanent civil servant exit? Position? D: You mean his federal job? (A: Yah) Probably not, it was an appointed job I’m sure. They were all political appointed jobs, and he was, he was able to be fired. And then he came and worked in the city. Tom and I did a lot of work together. (A: Okay) Not in the early days, but later on. (A: Okay) Because first I was in the Planning Department. And then I had a brief tenure up at the National Regional Planning Agency. (A: Oh 4
eally) I went out there for about six months. And that was when, and this is where we start to get to some of the issues that you were talking about a few minutes ago. Paul Cronin was the Congressman. (A: Okay) And out of the blue I get a call from Paul Cronin’s office asking me to come down and see him on a Saturday morning. [Unclear] this was all about. So I went in and saw him. I’d never known him, you know. And he asked me if I’d be willing to come back to Lowell. I said well you know, “Doing what?” You know. He had secured some funding for the Central City Committee. (A: Okay) And so that was my return to Lowell from my brief stint up in Nashua. And Paul wanted to make sure that the Center City Committee follow through on some of the things that you know, we had worked on, I had worked on when I was in the Planning Department with the National Park stuff. And you know, we wanted to use that as a tool, or someone who was familiar with CDA, you know working to that group, and also had a sensitivity to the Park, because he was very dedicated to it. And so you know, I went home and I told my wife. And she said, “What are you nuts? You just started a job. You’re going to come back. You know what the politics is like here and everything.” And I said, “Ah, well you know.” And I did of course. (A: Yah) But in those early planning days, I started in ’69 you know, and I think I went to Nashua, I don’t even remember the years anymore. I think I went to Nashua around ’72, ’73, something like that, but it was for like six months. So, but in those early days you know, like I said, there was this tension between Redevelopment who wanted to tear everything down, fill in the canals, and run the Connector right into downtown. And then there was the Planning Group that said, “Well gee you know, we have these rather historical buildings, architecturally pleasing buildings. We have neighborhoods that have potential to be kind of developed from the ground up rather than them tearing them down.” And you know that was the benefit of bringing in these outside planners, professional planners. And then the young kids like Bob and myself you know, Bob was a planner with architectural background, and me with my kind of urban planning, urban development background, you know we saw the value in looking at what was here rather than looking elsewhere to say, “What can we bring in?” And you know, and I think it was Brad Morse, Paul Cronin and Paul Tsongas who ultimately saw the value in that approach as opposed to the old-fashioned urban renewal approach. So those tensions existed. And yah I remember it wasn’t too long after I started working in city hall that Jack Kerouac died. (A: Okay, yah) And so a couple of the guys, this Maurice that I can’t remember his last name now, walked up the street and went to the funeral, because it was up at ah (--) A: St. Jean Baptist. D: Yah. And you know, some of the Redevelopment Authority guys said, “Nah, he was a drunken bum, he was no good.” He was this, he was that you know, and of course now we have a Park you know. [Laughs] A: Yah, right, right. D: And indeed some of the people who was telling, who were telling me what a drunken bum he was, they remember as a kid and all that kind of stuff, because my mother remembered him as a kid, later on became, became tour guides for Kerouac tours. 5
Page 1 and 2: UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL
Page 3: the world of work you know, it was
Page 7 and 8: grant, [unclear] planning and study
Page 9 and 10: D: Right, yah, yah, really sketchy
Page 11 and 12: the National Park Service has been
Page 13 and 14: There was one fellow in the Governo
Page 15 and 16: D: Yah, because Bob [unclear], A: N
Page 17 and 18: A: Okay, yah. D: Bourgeois and so f
Page 19 and 20: community turned around, and why th
Page 21 and 22: going to get killed,” you know. (
Page 23 and 24: D: Yah, right. That’s right. I th
Page 25 and 26: D: Eldred Field. Eldred Field. Eldr
Page 27 and 28: D: Yah, yah there was, there was so
Page 29 and 30: A: Did he ever pull you into the ba
Page 31 and 32: A: I mean would you say Yankees? (D
Page 33 and 34: D: Well Sue, Susan (A: Sue Leggat)
Page 35 and 36: of Kiely. He did a spectacular job
Page 37 and 38: cozying up to him, but we felt you
Page 39 and 40: D: [I wasn’t the brightest bulb o
Page 41: live. We raised our daughter here.

Coffey, Dennis 03.09 - University of Massachusetts Lowell Libraries

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