Catherine McLaughlin

Downtown Concord is has a mix of shops, restaurants, and events, but locals would like to see more restaurants and live music options.

At first, Mark Ciborowski was skeptical of plans to tear up and narrow Concord’s downtown thoroughfare. By the end, he was bringing lunch to the construction crews, and threw them a party when the work was done. When rehabilitation of the Capital Center of the Arts was underway, the initial thought was to just paint […]

Ciborowski, who died of cancer this week at the age of 70, was a businessman and developer with a collection of historic properties in the capital city. But it was his fastidious protection of their history, his generosity of attention and care to both his buildings and the tenants in them, his volunteerism and his indefatigable belief in the potential of downtown Concord that earned him the moniker “Mr. Main Street.”

Discover a well-preserved 250-year-old letter from John Eastman to his son, Richard, in Concord's Liberty and Legacy exhibit. Celebrate history!

Discover how Laconia turned its downtown into a social district, allowing bars and restaurants to sell alcohol to-go for responsible consumption.

As the Concord Board of Education stared down a tight bottom line the past two years, its members saw selling off property as one potential relief. Over the years, the district has largely passed along vacated schools to both public and private entities. The Dame school became the City Wide Community Center. The Walker School […]

Concord City Manager Tom Aspell has requested a three-month sabbatical from work, and and said he’ll use the time to contemplate his retirement. Aspell, who is in his sixties, is wrapping up year three of his five-year contract, set to expire at the end of June 2028. When that contract was negotiated, he signaled to […]

A simmering dispute between the owner of the Steeplegate Mall and one of its three remaining tenants, the Zoo Health Club, is slated for a jury trial this fall. In a series of court filings, Onyx Partners argues that the gym has long been in violation of its lease. The gym’s owner argued Onyx is […]

A simmering dispute between the owner of the Steeplegate Mall and one of its three remaining tenants, the Zoo Health Club, is slated for a jury trial this fall.

Mayor Byron Champlin, left, and City Manager Tom Aspell, right, during budget deliberations in June 2026. Credit: CATHERINE McLAUGHLIN / Monitor