By Rosalie Tirella
More trees, if you please!
Last week we blogged about the brutalist look to the Green island Street on which we were born and raised – Lafayette Street. We drive down it/past it every day and nothing seems to have changed all that much: UGLY. DOWNTRODDEN. ROUGH. NO TREES to soften the blow of inner-city life! We saw these kids walking down Lafayette yesterday – and we thought to ourselves: They deserve better. They were so nice! They were good kids! A diverse bunch – kids who were transcending race/creed/color to … hang out, have fun!
Last week we made some calls for the kids. We called Peggy M. of the Worcester Tree Initiative. We told her how things looked in our old stomping grounds. She is all for planting trees on Lafayette Street, but she said she needs to plant them in spots where they can grow. There IS a lot of concrete on Lafayette Street! Still, Peg told me she was gonna take a drive through and check things out.
I bumped into Bobby Largesse of the Canal Distict biz alliance. I told him about Lafayette Street. I asked him to ask his posse to do for Lafayette Street what they did for Millbury and Water streets: make it look pretty with benches and trees and flowers. Bobby told me that the two streets’ benches, trees, side walks and brick crosswalks were all paid for by federal stimulus money. Now all gone. He said businesses on Lafayette Street could buy a big planter and get flowers that way.
Not good enough, Bobby.
Can Bob Moylan of the DPW help out? What about Woo Chief Economic Development Officer Tim McGourthy? We are talking the simplest, easiest way to make an urban environment prettier, softer, more welcoming. Plus trees put out oxygen and pull out CO2. Woo’s asthma rate is one of the highest in the state! For our kids, guys and gals! Let’s do this for our kids!
We hope Peg comes through with the trees – on the sidewalk or in yards. We know a cool family on Lafayette Street – my late mom’s old pals – who would love to beautify the street they have lived on for decades.
Let’s do it for the kids, Worcester.
Lafayette Street pals!