City Manager Mike O’Brien

Now it’s up to the City of Worcester to step up to the plate and do the right thing! (Just pretend you’re a business, City Manager Mike O’Brien, and the citizens of Worcester are your customers!)

Here are a few blasts from the “Pat’s”! – R. Tirella

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From a few years ago …

Give Pat’s the heave ho!

By Rosalie Tirella

Word’s gotten out that Mayor Joe O’Brien is hoping to convince city officials to give the assholes at Pat’s Towing the heave ho when it comes to renewing the city’s towing/impounding contract with Pat’s Towing company of Shrewsbury Street, Worcester. (their contract is winding down) For year’s Pat’s Towing has had a lock on the City of Worcester’s towing – earning hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably millions of dollars, while giving Worcesterties the finger – up the ass, twice.

Mayor O’Brien, like all the other city councilors, wants to give another towing company – one run by HUMAN BEINGS – a chance at the lucrative deal. A chance to pick up Wormtown’s illegally parked cars during snowstorms, etc, summer concerts, etc, or on city streets where there is no/limited parking (or other parking violations).

Anyone who has lived in Worcester for longer than, oh, five minutes, quickly learns what bastards the cretins at Pat’s can be. They have turned a city job into a bold, get-outa-my-way-or-I’ll mow-you-down-AND-I’ll-charge-you-hundreds of dollars to get your car back into a weird kind of civic blood-letting. They have had Worcester in a nasty head-lock for years – for way too long.

Two examples:

Last winter, my old dog, my Nova Scotia Retriever, Bailey, was dying of cancer. Nasal cancer so that despite being on chemo and anti-pain and anti-inflamatory pills (we had the tumor biopsied – it was malignant), my Bailey Boy had a bump on his once elegant long nose (the ever growing tumor) and snot and blood dripping from his left nostril, due to the tumor – which I lovingly wiped away with Kleenix. I loved my Bailey so much and he loved life so much (still running after squirrels – caught a skunk!; barking at skateboarders with abandon) that we hung on to Baily as long as we could – as long as HE wanted to hang on to us. Well, one day I had some business in the Denholm Building. I parked in the adjacent lot for five minutes – with my Baily in the back seat. I come out and POOF! The car was gone!

“Pat’s! Fuckin’ Pat’s” I screamed in the middled of the lot. (I just knew) “They took my dog! They towed my dog who is dying of cancer!!! (They would have towed a car with an infant in it!)

Crazed with tears and fears, I called my guy – and told him everything through choked sobs. He was on a job in the Fitchburg area. It took him about an hour to come down to Denholms.

“Bailey!” I screamed to him when he drove up to Denholms. “My Bailey Boy! He’s going to die! He’s going to die!”

It was as cold out that day as it is today – bitter cold.

I jumped into the truck and we drove to Pat’s. Up Shrewsbury Street we sped – and there in the Pat’s lot was my car with poor old Bailey inside, the snot dripping down his nose. He was sitting up straight and tall in the back seat – waiting for his mommy like a brave little man. Serious looking – as if in the “stay” position. He looked “pale,” if that makes sense. My old dog looked cold.

“A hundred dollars,” the attendant/fiend at Pat’s said. ($100 for 2 hours)

“The dog has cancer. He’s 12 years old. You had to tow?” I cried at him, giving him the $100 bill.

He told me my dog was OK. He didn’t remove my dog and keep him in the warm service center. Nope. Bailey was with the vehicles. But he was OK. This “vet” knew.

Shortly after the Pat’s Towing ordeal my Bailey died. He was dying before Pat’s got their hooks into my car, but the bumpy ride, the two-hour wait in 20-degree weather did my dear old Bailey no good.

Story #2

A friend of mine told me an old man – in his 80s – had his car towed by Pat’s Towing. He went over to Pat’s Shrewbury Street holding-pen and asked for his car back. He didn’t have the bucks needed to get his jalopy out. Well, the lovely “boys” at Pat’s taunted him. They teased and teased the old man, and the old man rushed at them, rushed at their fence, a feisty guy, trying to beat the crap out of these young thugs. And guess what? The octogenarian almost gave himself a heart attack trying to mix it up with Pat’s Towing “boys.” He finally called my friend who went down to Pat’s Towing and paid the money. Blood money. The old man got his car out but he had lost his dignity.

And this is the towing company that the City of Worcester wants to rehire? This is the towing company city leaders want to represent Worcester? The people of Pat’s are pond scum – speeding down resdential streets at 50 miles an hour, blasting through urban centers as they race, absolutely RACE to make their next killing, their next Tow Job, while the city of Worcester gives it a Blow Job!

Mayor O’Brien is right! We’ve had enought of the sadism! We want a towing company -not a gang of thugs!

So let’s get rid of these demons – a huge tow truck going 50 miles an hour down neighbrohood streets to pick up a car with a dying dog in it is not what we need. Lots of other blue-collar guys in other blue collar businesses know and HATE Pat’s Towing. They won’t do business with these wolverines because they are so rotten. These blue collar guys and their businesses use other towing companies – a lot of them like Boulevard Towing.

Nice guys, is what they say when they talk about Boulevard Towing.

So why not, City manager Mike O’Brien? Why not follow the lead of Mayor Joe O’Brien and ditch Pat’s Towing – NOT RENEW THEIR CONTRACT? Try Boulevard Towing. Hell, try anybody BUT Pat’s.

The citizens of Worcester – and guests to our community – deserve to be treated with a bit more respect. That is tow, if necessary, but use your heart, have some common sense and SLOW DOWN and stop ripping folks/the city off!

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Another Pat’s Towing Service Horror Story

By Terry Bradley

First: I love InCity Times. The price is right and it is 100% better than the local newspaper that some people pay outrageously for. It’s not sugar coated and you tell it like it is. You cover local news that is pertinent to our city and its residents. You are not afraid or intimidated.

I really enjoyed your piece on Pat’s Towing. And I am very dismayed that they got the towing contract from the city again. You are 110% correct when you say, “get-outa-my-way-or-I’ll-mow-you-down”; “cretins”; “blood money”; “pond scum”; and “demons”.They have no hearts and they do speed through the narrow city streets with their enormous beast trucks. I work downtown and see them daily circling like vultures looking for victims. I’ve come close to being hit by a truck barreling down the street.

My story is about the night I went to see “A Christmas Carol” on the 18th of December at the Hanover. (When we arrived we actually saw Pat’s tow trucks circling the block looking for victims.) After having an enjoyable evening, I came out to find my car gone. Like you, right away I screamed “PAT’S”.

The irony is, I was legally parked in the parking lot for which I pay monthly, with the tag hanging from the rearview mirror. I walked back to the Hanover to speak with the security person on duty. He directed me to the police officers outside directing traffic and crossing pedestrians. They were not surprised at my story and told me what the police think of Pat’s Towing and they told me there was nothing they could do because the city continues to give Pat’s the contract. When I got to Pat’s the dispatcher was very rude. Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

A few years ago we alerted you to the horrific men of Pat’s Towing on Shrewsbury Street. We told you how Pat’s towed my car with my beloved dog Bailey – who was dying of nasal cancer, his sweet, wet nose dripping with the puss/cancer – to their hell-hole holding center. $100 in cash (money off the books, of course) got me my dog and my car back.

A few days later, InCity Times got tons of phone calls and notes/stories about Pat’s and the abuse old and young suffered at the hands of this Worcester “business.” We remember a pal telling us how Pat’s almost gave a 70-year-old guy a heart attack – taunting him after they towed his vehicle. Another person wrote us and told us how they tried to steal her credit card. They were appallingly rude TO EVERYONE.

Now these creeps are in Worcester court – for beating the heck out of people – for almost killing another person!

Why doesn’t the City of Worcester stop doing business with these thugs?

Why doesn’t City Manager Mike O’Brien revoke their contract with the city? Hire another towing company for the area Pat’s “covers” like a bunch of Good Fellas? There are so many start-ups that need a leg up! Why not hire a few, new fledgling towing companies to take the place of Pat’s Towing “Service”? Why have Pat’s Towing continue to abuse the good people of Worcester – with the City of Worcester’s blessing?

Finally: What does this say about our city government and the people who run it and being connected in Worcester? Pat’s being awarded the city contract year after year – even if they are felons – is wrong. Everyone knows it happens because they are “connected.”

No one in town needs to get beaten up by a City of Worcester-sponsored company.

Next Worcester City Council meeting (they are off this school vacation week), the first order of the day should be: REVOKE PAT’S TOWING COMPANY/SERVICE CENTER contract with the City of Worcester.

By ICT website intern Wonderpoop

It’s no wonder that locals have ignored the call to apply to city boards and commissions. Or maybe not. Many are rejected for political reasons. Thanks to the city manager.

But it’s really apathy that hinders citizen participation, caused by decades of frustration and disappointment with a bureaucracy that places its interest before the citizen’s. But hey, that’s what governments do.

But there are still a handful of locals who believe that good citizenship is important to a functioning democracy. I do. I pay taxes, I vote, I shovel the sidewalks in my neighborhood.

That apathy comes from citizens who are peeved (understated of course) at City Hall, that bastion of democracy that doesn’t care an iota what you think. Although they do at times feign interest in your issue, but any response is purely lip service.

The problem: the City Manager’s office is the bottleneck that causes many of the positions to remain unfilled. And there’s a reason for that – politics.

The vetting process at City Hall is a highly political game with the City Manager’s office as the final arbiter – probing your background to determine your political correctness. So how many have unsuccessfully ran the gauntlet? Of course there are no statistics available from the city.

Several years ago an acquaintance undertook the process of getting on a city board. The result was, he gave up after 10 months of waiting. The City Manager’s office confirmed his application. But that was it. He never heard from them again.

The moral of the story, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. And the City Manager wants you to know that.

Welcome to Wormtown!

By Sue Moynagh

Recently, there has been increased gun violence in the Oak Hill neighborhood of Worcester, especially this past summer. Two shots were fired at a car on Harrison Street early in July. Soon after this, shots were fired at the Coral and Waverly Street intersection. There was a shooting on Mendon Street on August 24, and within a week, approximately six shots were fired at a house near the corner of Providence and Harrison Streets.

A woman was shot and killed on Fairfax Road.

I have also heard two gun shots on Saturday, October 9, at 10:40 p.m., and four shots the following Friday at approximately the same time. A small local market had the door window smashed and was robbed at gun point soon afterwards. Most or all of these incidents are tied in with drug activity in the area. Two long-time residents have had bullets shot through their windows.

Recently a man was attacked and hit over the head with a hammer on Mott Street. Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

Word’s gotten out that Mayor Joe O’Brien is hoping to convince city officials to give the assholes at Pat’s Towing the heave ho when it comes to renewing the city’s towing/impounding contract with Pat’s Towing company of Shrewsbury Street, Worcester. (their contract is winding down) For year’s Pat’s Towing has had a lock on the City of Worcester’s towing – earning hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably millions of dollars, while giving Worcesterties the finger – up the ass, twice. Mayor O’Brien, like all the other city councilors, wants to give another towing company – one run by HUMAN BEINGS – a chance at the lucrative deal. A chance to pick up Wormtown’s illegally parked cars during snowstorms, etc, summer concerts, etc, or on city streets where there is no/limited parking (or other parking violations).

Anyone who has lived in Worcester for longer than, oh, five minutes, quickly learns what bastards the cretins at Pat’s can be. They have turned a city job into a bold, get-outa-my-way-or-I’ll mow-you-down-AND-I’ll-charge-you-hundreds of dollars to get your car back into a weird kind of civic blood-letting. They have had Worcester in a nasty head-lock for years – for way too long.

Two examples:

Last winter, my old dog, my Nova Scotia Retriever, Bailey, was dying of cancer. Nasal cancer so that despite being on chemo and anti-pain and anti-inflamatory pills (we had the tumor biopsied – it was malignant), my Bailey Boy had a bump on his once elegant long nose (the ever growing tumor) and snot and blood dripping from his left nostril, due to the tumor – which I lovingly wiped away with Kleenix. I loved my Bailey so much and he loved life so much (still running after squirrels – caught a skunk!; barking at skateboarders with abandon) that we hung on to Baily as long as we could – as long as HE wanted to hang on to us. Well, one day I had some business in the Denholm Building. I parked in the adjacent lot for five minutes – with my Baily in the back seat. I come out and POOF! The car was gone!

“Pat’s! Fuckin’ Pat’s” I screamed in the middled of the lot. (I just knew) “They took my dog! They towed my dog who is dying of cancer!!! (They would have towed a car with an infant in it!)

Crazed with tears and fears, I called my guy – and told him everything through choked sobs. He was on a job in the Fitchburg area. It took him about an hour to come down to Denholms.

“Bailey!” I screamed to him when he drove up to Denholms. “My Bailey Boy! He’s going to die! He’s going to die!”

It was as cold out that day as it is today – bitter cold.

I jumped into the truck and we drove to Pat’s. Up Shrewsbury Street we sped – and there in the Pat’s lot was my car with poor old Bailey inside, the snot dripping down his nose. He was sitting up straight and tall in the back seat – waiting for his mommy like a brave little man. Serious looking – as if in the “stay” position. He looked “pale,” if that makes sense. My old dog looked cold.

“A hundred dollars,” the attendant/fiend at Pat’s said. ($100 for 2 hours)

“The dog has cancer. He’s 12 years old. You had to tow?” I cried at him, giving him the $100 bill.

He told me my dog was OK. He didn’t remove my dog and keep him in the warm service center. Nope. Bailey was with the vehicles. But he was OK. This “vet” knew.

Shortly after the Pat’s Towing ordeal my Bailey died. He was dying before Pat’s got their hooks into my car, but the bumpy ride, the two-hour wait in 20-degree weather did my dear old Bailey no good.

Story #2

A friend of mine told me an old man – in his 80s – had his car towed by Pat’s Towing. He went over to Pat’s Shrewbury Street holding-pen and asked for his car back. He didn’t have the bucks needed to get his jalopy out. Well, the lovely “boys” at Pat’s taunted him. They teased and teased the old man, and the old man rushed at them, rushed at their fence, a feisty guy, trying to beat the crap out of these young thugs. And guess what? The octogenarian almost gave himself a heart attack trying to mix it up with Pat’s Towing “boys.” He finally called my friend who went down to Pat’s Towing and paid the money. Blood money. The old man got his car out but he had lost his dignity.

And this is the towing company that the City of Worcester wants to rehire? This is the towing company city leaders want to represent Worcester? The people of Pat’s are pond scum – speeding down resdential streets at 50 miles an hour, blasting through urban centers as they race, absolutely RACE to make their next killing, their next Tow Job, while the city of Worcester gives it a Blow Job!

Mayor O’Brien is right! We’ve had enought of the sadism! We want a towing company -not a gang of thugs!

So let’s get rid of these demons – a huge tow truck going 50 miles an hour down neighbrohood streets to pick up a car with a dying dog in it is not what we need. Lots of other blue-collar guys in other blue collar businesses know and HATE Pat’s Towing. They won’t do business with these wolverines because they are so rotten. These blue collar guys and their businesses use other towing companies – a lot of them like Boulevard Towing.

Nice guys, is what they say when they talk about Boulevard Towing.

So why not, City manager Mike O’Brien? Why not follow the lead of Mayor Joe O’Brien and ditch Pat’s Towing – NOT RENEW THEIR CONTRACT? Try Boulevard Towing. Hell, try anybody BUT Pat’s.

The citizens of Worcester – and guests to our community – deserve to be treated with a bit more respect. That is tow, if necessary, but use your heart, have some common sense and SLOW DOWN and stop ripping folks/the city off!

By Rosalie Tirella

… and they, of course, are making asses of themsleves – totally out of touch with America’s 14% poverty rate, and almost 10% unemployment rate, totally oblivous to the fact that few AVERAGE American workers (professional or blue/collar) bring down $100,000 a year salaries – the way many of our Worcester Public School teachers do. Our school principals make around $130,000. Other professionals in our public school system make more than/around $100,000, too!

This is INSANITY!!!!!! THIS MADNESS MUST STOP!!!

Which is why Mayor Joe O’Brien this week called for an “objective” court-appointed mediator to step in and save the City of Worcester from these hogs.

I had lunch with one of my former Worcester Public School teachers a few months ago – a wonderful human being. A person who, like many teachers in the good ol’ days of WPS, went into teaching because she was absolutely passionate about kids and learning. “To be with you kids – oh, it was so special – … ” (How many WPS teachers would say that about their former pupils?)

Anyways, this former WPS teacher, a person who worked overtime many a day in our city schools (FOR FREE) and did wonderful things for students (FOR FREE) like rescue hundreds of used WPS text books out of WPS dumpsters to drive them to a boys’ residential school, was amazed – absolutely amazed! – that today the City of Worcester has a boat-load of teachers who make around/more than $100,000 a year! Click to continue »

Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

We talk about keeping Worcester jobs local and strengthening our local economy. I have written about our DPW’s toxic nepotism problem.

It seems that when the City of Worcester isn’t giving municpal jobs to the same 200 or so connected families, they don’t care WHERE the city’s subcontractors come from. I saw these disconcerting sights last week:

At the Crompton Park pool in Green Island, with all the rebuilding etc, going on, a truck with a Connecticut license plate! Doing work at a Worcester job site! Then:Driving down Dewey Street – where the potholes are mini-craters (of course they are -they are in one of our poorest neighborhoods) – I see a LUDLOW (Mass.) company doing all the street repaving/repair work. LUDLOW! Next: Outside an Institute Road house, I see a Maine truck doing the asphalt repair.

All City of Worcester jobs that Mike O’Brien and DPW BobMoylan could have outsourced to Worcester companies! Believe me – they need the dough!!

Connecticut, Maine, Ludlow … . Why all these out of town companies doing good blue collar work for the City of Worcester? The City of Worcester must stop giving lip service to supporting local small companies and actually start using them!

Even if it means paying a teensy bit more money!

To City Manager Mike O’Brien and DPW and Parks head honcho Robert Moylan: START HIRING WORCESTER BUSINESSESS!

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2. Nepostism and hiring problems in the WPS system

The WPSchools Stacey Dubois Luster, head of human resources for our public schools and an African American woman, must start hiring people of color as teachers in the Worcester Public Schools. Let’s send down recruiters to Spellman College, Howard College and Temple and all those great African American colleges.Let’s have our recruiters talk to young, bright, gifted and Black young men and women about teaching in our public schools. Several years ago the City of Worcester created a little part-time job – $15,000 a year – for a WPS teacher recruiter to help hire more minorities in our schools. After only a year (or less) the WorcesterCity Council, claiming poverty, killed the position. Then, several months later, the city council voted to double their paychecks. Now all these folks (except for MikeGermain, hwo has refused the raise – good job, Mike!) make almost $30,000 a year (each city councilor!).

Pathetic.

This is why folks don’t bother voting any more.

By Rosalie Tirella

… all our kiddies sign up for the city’s Wheels to Water program. The City of Worcester and the Friendly House, as well as some great social service agencies, have come up with a great schedule. Convenient – and kids can even take swimming lessons!

It is important to note that, once again, our colleges have disappointed us. WPI was the only city college to offer their facilities/swimming pool to the kids of Worcester (most of them inner city). Kudos to WPI! Shame on: Assumption College, Becker, Clark University, Holy Cross and Qunisigamond Community College.

Holy Cross is smack dab in the middle of South Worcester! Becker is in the heart of the Elm Park/Piedmont neighborhood. Clark U is in Main South. And state school, Quinsig, well, it gets a ton of taxpayer money – it’s the PEOPLE’S college. QCC should have been obligated to open its heart/swimming pool.

Next year, life will get better (aquatically speaking): The new super duper Crompton Park municipal swimming pool will be open and  CSX is bribing the hell out of the city – which includes earmarking/donating $2 million to repair/reopen two East Side municipal swimming pools (Holmes Field and East Park).  Plus: City Manager Mike O’Brien is hoping to make the Wheels to Water program year ’round. So next summer, with the two state pools open and a spray park here and there, plus our great city beaches, our kids will be … ready for the Olympics. 

Hooray for all the great folks who “pooled” their resources to create Wheels to Water!

“Your comment feature never really was legitimate given the tendency to censor. But the gloves off approach regarding O’Brien appears like you’ve been bought off by Haller.”
- “Worcester Guy”

Rosalie responds:

Not so, Worcester Guy. I am still livid about all the SKY-HIGH salaries that our municipal workers make. My newspaper (ICTimes) has been running all the City of Worcester wage earners. You see line after line of cops, fireman, lawyers making over $140,000. Our WPS grammer school principals make $120,000! Freakin’ crazy!

In the old days, Worcester’s cops actually lived in our blue collar neighborhoods because they were paid blue collar wages! And they were great! My mom still remembers this Irish cop in Green Island (in the 1930s) who used to chat with the kids and give them airplane rides. Everyone knew him and trusted him! (and loved him) Now that was real community policing!

Working for the city or state used to mean two things: lifetime security and good benefits (heath insurance, etc). It did not mean a $120,000 paycheck! It usually meant a slightly below average paycheck. Something is so wrong with the system. O’Brien raises taxes and the money seems to go to pay for … city worker paychecks or the cops’ rising heath insurance costs or more (now that the state has opted out) freaking Quinn Bill payments to the WPD officers. Click to continue »