From City Hall: The Snow Emergency Parking Ban will be lifted today, Saturday, February 21, at 12:00PM noon. Drivers will have until 4:00PM today, Saturday, February 21, to remove vehicles from City garages without incurring any costs.

Oops. I totally missed that a parking ban went into effect last night. If you’d like to be helpful to our plow driver and your car’s in the surface lot, please consider moving it to the garage. The Leo Roy is currently free until the ban ends.

I’ve been told that the City will begin a major snow removal project downtown tonight at around 10PM which may go until 7AM (thank you, Brian, for the info!). So if you’re wondering about the noise, or have to navigate around equipment coming home this evening, that’s what’s going on!

The City’s parking ban ends at 7:00am Thursday morning. Any cars remaining in the city garages without a regular monthly pass will begin incurring charges as of 9:00am.

There are, unfortunately, still several surface lot spaces with snow blocking them. Management is working on getting them cleared. 

If you have a purple Canal Place parking sticker and have assigned parking in one of the garages, please DO NOT park in the surface lot for more than a few minutes at any time while we’re so short spaces.

If you are unable to find a space in the surface lot once free city garage parking ends at 9:00am on the 29th, and you have a valid, yellow, surface lot sticker, please save your receipts from the city garage.

Current weather forecasts are predicting 1 to 2 feet of snow between midday Sunday and midday Monday as well as wind chills around 0ºF. The City of Lowell has already declared a Snow Emergency Parking Ban starting Sunday. If you park in the surface lot you MUST move your car from our lot by noon Sunday or you will either be towed or plowed in. The City is offering free parking at both the Hamilton Canal garage and the Leo Roy starting at noon tomorrow; this gives everyone 24 hours to move their car to a garage without incurring charges.

The info below is from the City website at https://www.lowellma.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/995

A Snow Emergency Parking Ban has been declared for Sunday, January 25, 2026 at 6:00am.
The parking ban will go into effect at 12:00 noon. No parking will be permitted on any City streets starting at noon until the ban is lifted. Vehicles parked in violation are subject to ticketing and towing at the owner’s expense.
Free parking for City residents without off-street parking will be available beginning Saturday, January 24 at 12:00 noon at the following locations:
• Leo A. Roy Parking Facility – 100 Market St.
• Lower Locks Garage – 90 Warren St.
• Hamilton Canal (HCID) Garage – 350 Dutton St. at Broadway St.
• Joseph M. Downes, Sr. Garage – 75 John St.
• Edward J. Early Jr. Parking Facility – 135 Middlesex St.
Additional free parking will be available beginning Saturday, January 24 at 8:00 PM at:
• George A. Ayotte Parking Facility, 1 Post Office Square
Once the Snow Emergency Parking Ban is lifted, residents will have two hours to remove vehicles from free parking locations before fees apply.

I just got an email supposedly from our old, longtime property manager. I’ve seen this Amazon scam before and assume someone hacked her email list which would include addresses for a number of us in this building. Don’t fall for it. More info at the link above.

Jack Shanahan’s obituary is now available online. It appeared in today’s Lowell Sun and is available (without the paywall) at the funeral home’s site. Details about his wake and funeral mass appear in his obituary, as well as in the previous post on this site. The obituaries also contain links/information for sending flowers or donating to the LGH Cancer Center in his memory.

For those who aren’t yet aware, Jack Shanahan, a long time resident, passed away this past week. His family would like to thank his friends and neighbors here who have been so kind to him, and they hope to see many of you at his services (info below).

Also, there is an upcoming primary election for State Senator on Tuesday, Feb. 3rd. There will be NO EARLY VOTING, so if you’re afraid bad weather may deter you on Election Day, it’s important to request a mail-in ballot ASAP. Once your ballot’s in hand, you can drop it in the drop box at City Hall to avoid Post Office delays. You can then track your ballot using the same site to see that it was received and processed.

Jack’s wake will be held on January 15th from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the O’Donnell Funeral Home,  276 Pawtucket Street, Lowell. The funeral service will take place on January 16th at 11:00 AM at St. Patrick’s Church, 284 Suffolk Street, Lowell.

One of our residents has kindly set up a community calendar* for the building. It includes a Google form residents can use to add events of interest, and a “padlet” feature to connect with other people who might be going. This could be a great tool for getting to know your neighbors. Please check it out!

I’m a little late with my usual holiday tree cautions, but I’m starting to see a lot of needles around the building so better late than never. Please wrap your natural tree in a drop cloth or old sheet when you remove it from the building so as not to leave a trail of dried needles. And there is NO tree disposal allowed anywhere on Canal Place property. The city, however, does have a number of free Christmas tree drop-off sites. Please remove ALL ornaments, tinsel, etc. before dropping off your tree.

Wishing Everyone a happy and healthy 2026!

(*Those QR codes that appeared around the building a few weeks back were for this same Canal Place Community Calendar.)

The developer planning to rehab the old “Picker & Power House”—aka the “Turbine Building”— attached to the back of our building has been awarded $2.4 million in housing tax credits to create 27 units of market-rate housing. While there are some concerns among our residents about congestion, having that structure repaired, improved, and maintained is a plus for us.

The Lowell Sun has an article on the subject with some history of the building. Inside Lowell also has an article about the project.

 Current photos and the proposed work are available online, as are the design drawings and other relevant information.

More on the history of our complex can be found elsewhere on this site.

Management and board members have met with this developer in the past to discuss the project. He seems both knowledgeable and eager to work with us to minimize disruption and address any concerns.

(And no, they won’t be sharing our mailroom. They have a different street number, thank goodness!)