Tag Archives: Konnie Lukes

Goodbye, Worcester City Councilor Konnie Lukes!🌺

May 7, 2019 admin

By Rosalie Tirella

I’m ensconced in my new Woo shack, drinking my java AND herbal tea. Simultaneously. I set up my new coffee, tea and cocoa station yesterday, a la my late Mom🌻♥️, Cecelia.:

My K-cup coffee maker is still in storage – it will be hauled out during the last few hauls. (Aurgh! Still “moving in.” A big THANK YOU to my beatific pals!). pics: R.T.

At least I’ve got my lil’ French press to get me though the morning. Good for two cups of coffee in the a.m, and I’m enjoying the esoteric teas, courtesy of a Dorrie👼 Blessing Bag:

🍵🍵🍵

Miss Cece has reclaimed her rightful throne😉 …

👑👑👑♥️

… which makes me think of another Worcester princess, this one (gladly, I think) abdicating her velvet perch:

Worcester City Councilor at Large Konstantina (“Konnie”) Lukes.

What can we say about our former booster/gal pal/city councilor/school committee member/political outsider/West Side matron Konnie Lukes, now in her mid-80s?

A lot!

First, it’s the end, so we’re nostalgic and we’ll write nostalgically. But let’s – quickly – get the ugly stuff out of the way:

👑 1.Konnie was/is, along with ailing hubby Jim (whose illness she blames on me!!), A NOTORIOUS CHEAPSKATE, which has always led her to vote for the lowest residential tax rate (she lives here, don’t forget!)…But the years of penny-pinching have come back to bite her in her perennially pants-suit-clad butt, in very public ways that have destroyed a good chunk of her credibility, soured peeps on her:

👑Konnie and Jim, while Konnie was city councilor running for mayor!/residing in Worcester, registered their cars in the Cape Cod town where they have a summer home, to save a bundle of dough$$ on their car insurance bills. The summer home, which I recall, they visited seldomly, saved them a ton of money over the years. They could order that second drink at the Webster House restaurant, the no-more eatery that catered to seniors and began serving dinner at 4 p.m. For cheap – owner Chris’s yummy Early Bird Specials!

A win for Konnie!

But no!

Konnie’s detractors – when she was running for mayor – got hold of the information and called the daily’s columnists, who wrote their Konnie is a tight wad columns. Everybody found out! The city laughed. And Konnie got a new nickname: CAPE COD KONNIE.🌊 And lost a few votes during the election.

👑 2. For all of Konnie’s I’M FOR THE LITTLE GUY/GAL RHETORIC, she and Jim were two of the biggest slumlords in Worcester – in one of our poorest neighborhoods, Green Island, where Jim’s family owned a bunch of three deckers and a diner. The buildings reeled from the unsafe, sagging porches with popsicle-stick rails spaced two feet apart. There were holes in the walls as big as Volkswagens (never repaired). Non-functioning toilets, too. A single 60-watt light bulb dangling on a cord, hanging from the ceiling in one apartment. Hookers for tenants in another. Yellow garbage bags – non-city – galore.

It’s funny but when reporter Ron O’Clair broke the story in InCity Times and we went down to the Lukes’s Siegel Street property to “save” the 90-year-old lady “trapped” in one of the Lukes’s shitholes, the 90 year old rebuffed us in decidedly un-old-lady like terms!: GET THE FUCK OUT! GET THE HELL OFF MY PORCH! she yelled at us as we knocked on her back door (plywood for windows) pleading for an interview.

Rose: Can we interview you? We want to help you!!

Old Lady: GET THE HELL OFF MY PORCH! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!

Ron and I looked at each other, baffled. And walked away. We wrote the stories, though. And all the other rags followed our lead. Big chunks of Konnie’s armor flew off – her reputation took a big hit. Her husband had a kind of heart attack and ended up in a wheelchair. She blamed me and told me so, tears flowing down her face, when I bumped into her at the grocery store.

Rose: I’m sorry, Konnie. It was a news tip …

Konnie, red-faced, emotional, tired-looking, tears in her eyes: GET AWAY FROM ME! YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND!!

Then it was my turn to cry.

3. 👑Konnie WAS a naysayer while on City Council. Oftentimes she had a point, saw something her councilor colleagues didn’t see. But sometimes she was just pulling “facts” out of her ass, disagreeing to disagree. With the guys. The guys who ran Woo politics and had a stranglehold on city policy, city jobs, the business community, the public schools … everything Worcester. Konnie, the daughter of Albanian immigrants, a daughter who worshipped her Dad♥️ and helped him in his Connecticut diner when she was a young girl, was from a different world. First Generation. A scrappy, self-made outsider. She loathed/and still does despise the Woo BOYS CLUB – men who ran/run Worcester politics. They hated/hate her, too. One day, two or so years into InCity Times, when there was a Democratic convention in the city, she called me, asking me if I had tickets to the political convention. I did. The guys, Murray, McGovern, Rushton, etc had frozen her out. Again. Skipped over Konnie, a Republican in Democratic undies, they believed. And still do. I gave Konnie my tickets. She didn’t really thank me.

👑Who can forget the birthday cake former Worcester City Councilor and Konnie-nemesis Ric Rushton presented to Konnie during a city council meeting, on the council floor? – filmed for the city government TV channel, covered by all the reporters – just so he could announce – to the world – Konnie’s age. Mean. And SEXIST.

And that brings me to the GREAT STUFF ABOUT OUR KONNIE:

👑 She knew she was operating in A SEXIST city – a crooked POLITICAL SPHERE.

A city where the Irish-American guys had always called all the shots – decided, on the council floor, or over drinks at Monihans, who got all the important city jobs, city contracts … controlled who was blessed – who got the $$$, city dpw, teacher jobs, etc. Usually it was their immediate family members or relatives or friends. Or friends of their relatives or friends. Quite the incestuous, closed-off clique. Not healthy for our city.

👑EVERY DAY City Councilor KONNIE LUKES RAILED AGAINST THE UNFAIRNESS, the bull shit. She wanted more people to have a piece of the civic cake:

Worcester's Birthday Cake 168 Years as a City. — Worcester’s Birthday Cake 168 Years as a City. ICT file photo by Ron O.

👑She helped start, years ago, the City of Worcester Advisory Committee on Women. She was director of the local chapter of the ACLU. She was voted on the Worcester School Committee. And she scolded her political colleagues – usually the guys – for being such clubby fatheads. And voted accordingly. Against Mills, for Boone – Woo’s first – and probably only – African American public schools superintendent. She voted against Augustus and for the cool Hispanic city manager candidate from New Mexico. The one who had experience AND the Harvard degree.

👑SHE SAID WHAT WAS ON HER MIND.

ALWAYS.

FEARLESSLY.

WITHOUT CARING WHAT OTHERS THOUGHT OF HER OR HER IDEAS.

Just like a guy.

What a terrific role model!

For me and other Woo women…

👑I believe Kostantina Lukes was/represented the first wave of Woo feminists to come crashing on the shore of the arrogant, parochial, tight-ass, all-male Worcester beach. She had: Political guts. She made: great Political theater. Konnie knew the gold ring she was reaching for. For all of us Worcester gals.

“You’ll never be a handmaiden,” she told me once, when I was visiting her in her Park Ave law office. (she’s a practicing lawyer). I smiled back, beaming. “I’m not either,” she said. “Neither is Barbara (Haller),” she continued. “They hate that. They want you to be a handmaiden.”

She was right.

👑But it wasn’t all battle all the time. Konnie smiled, kidded … and loved being a politician. She loved schmoozing, going to all city, neighborhood meetings and concerts, loved people, loved government. It all made her very happy: the attention, the votes, the power, the hugs, the brawls. SHE, LIKE A GUY, WAS IN IT. A mover and shaker.

👑Konnie IS a people person. ALL PEOPLE. ALL COLORS. ALL GENDERS. ALL BACKGROUNDS. Even if you’re a poor kid from Green Island sailing on a dream called InCity Times/CECELIA. She’s not a phony. She’s real. All the time.

👑So … I thank City Leader Konnie Lukes for her years of city leadership and advocacy and, on a personal level, before our falling out, her friendship, her guidance, her toughness, her smarts, her ads, her wisdom, her spirit … her posing for the cover of the InCity Times swimsuit issue (she wore panty hose under her one-piece – Control Top! No fair, Kon-Kon♥️😉!) …

👑… and for being the first Worcester city councilor/city leader to support us and push for the banning of wild animal acts (Ringling Bros. circus) in the City of Worcester. She spoke to me in her office when I asked her to sponsor the order at the next Council meeting … she spoke compassionately about the lions, tigers, bears and elephants who suffer at the mercy of the whip and bullhook …

Evil, outdated ways – Konnie got it. pic: PETA

… and lead long lives of horrific deprivation!

👑Konnie got it. And sponsored the order. She spoke on the council floor, along with D 4 councilor Sarai Rivera, in favor of it. Of course, we went down. In flames. But we were ON THE ANGELS’S side. Ahead of our time.

Fast forward about 10 years: No more Ringling! No more sad elephant marches down Southbridge Street, with the elephants’s tired old feet on city concrete! Donning those obscene, garish rhinestone saddles and head gear! … And fewer wild animal acts world-wide!

👑And … no more Konnie! And fewer swings at the yellow moon …👑👑👑!

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Three-decker porches (or: The Green Island slumlord, Worcester City Councilor Konnie Lukes)

June 24, 2017 admin

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Text and photos by Rosalie Tirella

Below: Check out this ol’ photo from the Worcester Historical Museum! Embrace the glorious porches! When so many of our city neighborhoods had sturdy, even beautiful, decorative, back and front porches … You could park 4 or 5 of your old kitchen chairs on them, invite family and socialize … Or you could just amble over to a city park.

photo: Worcester Historical Museum

Below: Worcester’s Green Island – my neighborhood – today! Very few front porches – most of them have been torn down.😥😥😥 The ‘hood loses some of its social spiciness! I remember as a kid standing on our back porch chatting with my next door neighbor who was standing on her back porch. You could also stand on your porch and yell up or down to your upstairs or downstairs neighbors who were hanging out on their porches!

Ward Street

Siegel Street

Harding/Endicott streets …

… Streets most likely named after, like all the streets in my ‘hood – some of the oldest streets in the city💙 – Revolutionary War poo-bahs or Worcester industrialist hoo-hahs. I was born on (French general) Lafayette Street, my kid sisters had friends on nearby (General) Lodi Street. Was Harding Street the namesake of some military dynamo-killer, too?

Ahhhh, but I digress! Check out the new beautiful porches in my neck of the ‘hood! Take note of what the NEW landlord has done to Worcester City Councilor Konnie Lukes’s old (as in former) slum building on Harding Street: he’s torn down Lukes’s former, God-awful, rickety, dangerous, paint-peeling-and-faded, OUT OF CODE, eye-sore slum porches! He is putting new beautiful ones up! Ones that aren’t baby/toddler death traps! Yay!💗💗💗

The new landlord has actually HIRED capable contractors – a move the cheapskate Lukes would abhor – who expertly REBUILT AND REPLACED Konnie’s old crap last week. Just a few months after buying Konnie’s urban mess…the one she and hubby Jim turned a blind eye toward FOR YEARS as she, on the City Council floor, preached urban core revitalization, tidiness and brightness yet owned the shittiest rental property. Of course, she and Jim lived on the swanky Woo West Side and vacationed at their Cape Cod home – far away from us hoi polloi!!!

Hah! Konnie, Ms. Crusading City Councilor … at Worcester City Hall railing against the disrespect shown inner-city Worcester at every turn, but shitting all over her in “real life”! The hypocrite!

When I saw the new porches being built the other day, I shouted: “GREAT JOB, GUYS!” to the crew working so hard in the summer heat wave. I gave them a thumbs up! They grinned and shouted back to me! The new porches: so safe and in compliance – a definite lift to the Harding Street/lower Endicott Street area, these pressure-treated, sturdy back porches!

Here’s what the porches used to look like (for years, up until a few months ago), when City Councilor Konstantina Lukes owned them/the building:

Pathetic.

Jim and Konnie’s other rental property, a few streets away in Green Island, made the newspapers as photogs rushed in to take pictures of her apartments with their gurgling, non-functioning toilets and a single light bulb hanging from a cord in a kitchen – the only “light fixture.” Like in a 1940s prison movie.

Why did Konnie even pretend to care about Worcester’s urban core when she so blatantly hurts us?

Why is she still on the Worcester City Council?

Aside from Lukes’s voter-catnip always lowest residential tax rate stance, what does Konnie Lukes really stand for?

At this point in her overly long Woo political career, nothing. Lukes is simply a REACTIONARY who adds zippo to the urban conversation. She was always the City Council naysayer: now she’s morphed into someone dangerous. Some one, like Turtle Boy-Aidan Kearney and his brigade, who shouts NO! to the new Worcester and the challenges she faces: refugees from the Mid East, Africa and other war-ripped regions; poorer people; hungry children – 1 in 4 Worcester kids goes to bed hungry; folks with no entry into the working class; heartless, absentee, do-nothing landlords in place of the old non-greedy, pretty nice, property-loving Worcester three decker landlords of just 10 years ago … a city core unable to right herself because the new global economy is just not there for the regular folks who live here.

For City Councilor Konnie Lukes – on the heels of the tragic deaths of the 2 Woo babies this past week, for her to intimate on the City Council floor that their deaths were a “refugee” problem is pure evil. A la the Turtle Boy brigade.

Konnie Lukes needs to go – not run for City Council and win office for the umpteenth time. Several years ago she told me she would not run for public office if there were new candidates she liked to replace her (read: reactionary, like Konnie…Calling Michael Gaffney and his tool, Coreen!!) I was pleased with Konnie’s decision. She was in her early 70s back then and had almost a half century of public “service” under her girdle belt. But Lukes can’t let go of the spot light – and all the free perks$$$ and the almost $30,000 per year Worcester City Councilor “stipend.”

This city has left Konnie Lukes and the Turtle Boy creepos way behind. And they cannot adjust to the new reality … . Konnie, like Aidan Kearney, no longer “gets” her city, cannot embrace her new people/cultures/challenges. Her ignorance, her anger, her belief that to solve our social problems all we need to do is lock folks out of/turn folks away from Worcester, an IMMIGRANT CITY, is a REACTIONARY move. Dangerous.

This city’s evolution is about way more than Konnie’s old porches …

… but Konnie’s old porches are a good place to start.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

After the Thanksgiving feast, a few thoughts on Worcester’s turkeys

November 26, 2016 admin

The future. pic:R.T.

By Rosalie Tirella

The family Thanksgiving Day dinner I attended with two friends was divine! Near the New Hampshire border in a farm house we gathered, seated ’round a long, dark wood table, the one my friend’s grandad had built for his farmhouse years ago. He set his big table under the sunniest window. … There were so many veggie dishes and desserts at this Thanksgiving feast! Many cooked from scratch. The wealth and comfort of my host, hostess and their kids, brothers and cousins made me think of – and talk to them about – my beloved Worcester ‘hood: its kids, our inability to get the public library book mobile to visit our neighborhood … so many struggles.

A few days later, a few pounds heavier, I am thinking about the people in my city who are destroying my city, my neighborhoods. Sure, the family in New Hampshire with whom I spent my holiday will do nothing for my people – there really are two Americas!! – but here in Worcester there are public officials who go beyond my dinner hosts’ indifference, detachment and cluelessness. These Woo leaders actively engage in destroying the city they were elected to serve, raise up …

For example:

The in-appropriateness of CDBG funds going to the church co-owned and run by D 4 Worcester City Councilor Sarai Rivera, who is also a pastor there, was trumpeted by At Large Worcester City Councilor Mike Gaffney in the most toxic terms on his most toxic YouTube show and on the city council floor where Gaffney sees himself as a modern day Douglas (ha!). His stupidity was aided and abetted by Aidan Kearney on his (formerly) pornographic, racist, classist and sexist Turtle Boy sports blog. These two Man-Boys are arguably the most racist public figures we have in Worcester today. They are leading this city down such a dangerous path!

Together, under the guise of “crusaders for justice” – an excuse for them to whip up racial hatred in Worcester in the same way Donald Trump has incited racial violence in Anerica – Gaffney and Kearney have destroyed several key progressive Black leaders/groups in Worcester. Groups and people who work to make Worcester’s inner city BETTER. Safer. Healthier. Smarter. Even happier. Gaffney and Kearney will have none of it! Since Day 1. Together. Working as Woo’s evil tag team. They have destroyed: Black (now former) Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Melinda Boone, the Black Lives Matter protesters at Kelley Square and the Mosaic Complex, a tiny Black social welfare agency run by Brenda Jenkins. They have destroyed Brenda, too, a Black woman, a true community activist, known for her fearlessness when it came to speaking out against racial inequality in Worcester and her years of work with our inner-city Black men/youth around mental and physical health issues.

Poof! Gone!

Thanks to the fiery lies and hatred fanned by Gaffney and Turtle Boy Aidan. In the Worcester blogosphere and in Worcester City Hall every Tuesday night. Then oozing into our community life …

Instead of trying to foster thoughtful discussions, open dialogues about important issues – many racial because of the city’s evolving demographics – these two man-boys fan the flames of hatred. They confused Worcesterites, lied to people. Played to folks’ prejudices. Racist Kearney posted unflattering photos of Brenda Jenkins on his Turtle Boy blog – the community roared!!! – then there was his photo of Boone’s head pasted on top of a grave stone – the community roared again!!!!

City Councilor Gaffney has called City Councilor Rivera a soldier in THE “MCGOVERN CRIME FAMILY.” Is this any way to lead a Gateway City in the 21st century? What kind of city councilor talks the way Gaffney does – especially about one of the country’s most progressive congressmen, Jim McGovern? A man who has spent his entire political life fighting for the hungry, the poor, the disenfranchised?… Many in our city.. . Gaffney’s fact finding missions on behalf of the community are sick and twisted. He uses them as an excuse to publicly mock, denigrate and destroy leading people of color in Worcester. In this way racist Gaffney keeps people of color down – in city government, in city politics, in city life, in Worcesterites’ heads.

Lately, City Councilor Konnie Luke’s has joined Gaffney and blindly jumped into the racist fray – calling for lists, names and addresses of Worcester’s refugees and immigrants. She’s stupidly supported many of Turtle Boy and Gaffney’s hate-inspired crusades. I believe Lukes hasn’t thought things out – she is not a racist but she is getting there. She is paranoid and can be sucked into Gaffney’s – or any fear-monger’s – tsunami.

The Rivera church-CDBG issue WAS a valid issue – city officials shouldn’t look like they’re getting city sweet heart deals. But if we take the longview, sweetheart deals have been going on in Worcester city government for decades. DECADES!!!! From hiring, to firing, to job contracts, to neighborhood beautification – the only difference being that, up until recently, the “winners” (or should we say “sinners”?) were white, male and Irish Catholic. So, naturally, everyone looked the other way.

It’s a new world, kids! – and many in Worcester are unwilling to accept the fact. Gaffney and Kearney keep the blinders on.

It’s called Burning the Future.

Fashion

Gordy parked in fashion … Worcester City Councilor Konnie Lukes backs Billy Breault’s proposed racist dragnet

November 20, 2016 admin

People against Billy Breault’s petition picketed his meeting. photo: Gordon Davis

By Gordon Davis

Worcester City Councilor Konstantina (Konnie) Lukes has been a Worcester politician (serving on the Worcester school committee and city council) for almost 40 years. Lately, she has been scapegoating refugees and immigrants. In September 2016, at a Worcester City Council meeting, Lukes said, “We see signs here basically accusing us of being racist. I have yet to hear anybody tell me what I have done that is racist… Give me names, dates, times.”

Two months later, on November 15, 2016, Councilor Lukes voted to harass and terrorize immigrants and refugees. She targeted Muslims and Hispanic people. Lukes voted in favor of a petition before the Worcester City Council regarding the “financial” and “criminal” impact of newcomers to Worcester. The petition was drawn up by and is being pushed hard by William Breault. Here is a small part of Breault’s petition – he wants the following from the city manager: “… information from the City Administration on the financial impact incurred by the city for processing refugees or asylum seekers during the past five years, including the location of housing provided for them and the source of funding for that housing.”

Worcester city councilors Michael Gaffney, Moe Bergman and Lukes signed onto this financial petition – how much money it costs the city to house and process newcomers and refugees.

Lukes was the sole Worcester city councilor who signed on to the criminal section of Breault’s petition. She voted to seek the records of immigrants arrested by the Worcester police.

Lukes could have acknowledged the positive impact that immigrants and refugees have on Worcester/America. She could have sought the number of hate crimes committed against refugees and immigrants in Worcester. Instead, she sought the opposite.

Billy Breault, a longtime Main South resident, is known for many of his controversial, sometimes racist stances, such as trying to stop a funeral home from conducting the preparation of a Muslim man’s body for burial. On November 17, 2016, Breault tried to get support for his anti-refugee petition at a neighborhood meeting, which Lukes attended. Incredibly, instead of Councilor Lukes disowning Breault’s overtly racist petitions, she doubled down in her support of them. (Some folks have called Breault’s petitions Nazi policies.)

There was a protest outside Breault’s meeting – pushback by many people in the community, including the groups Show Up Against Racism, the Progressive Labor Party and Catholic Worker. These groups and others held signs. One sign read: “Stop Nazis’ Hate and Lies”; another sign said “No Racist Immigration Laws.” Inside the meeting some people engaged Breault and Councilor Lukes in heated discussion.

Councilor Lukes’ stance reminds me of the recent racist rants made by the Governor of Maine, Paul LePage. Governor LePage has stated that Maine’s opioid crisis is caused by Black and Hispanic people moving to Maine from Massachusetts. He has used the word “niggers” and “cunts” in his racist and sexist rants.

Like Lukes, Governor LePage has asserted that he is not a racist and that the people who are calling him a racist are themselves racist.

A reporter in Maine, Gattine, said the following:

“LePage floated the remarkable notion that calling out racism is equivalent to using racist and sexist slurs during his radio interview Tuesday, saying that being called racist is ‘like calling a black man the ‘N’ word or a woman the ‘C’ word. It just absolutely knocked me off my feet.”

After 40 years of political life during which time she showed much paranoia and wallowed in sensationalism, it is time for City Councilor Konnie Lukes to retire. In response to Lukes’ stance on this latest issue, many of her opponents are preparing to resist her – and President Elect Donald Trump’s fascist policies of mass deportations and a Muslim registry.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

The Worcester Way: The apples before the cart before the horse

January 29, 2016 admin

Lots of Worcester Public Elementary Schools have all-white teaching staffs while the schools’ students are predominantly minority kids. We hope new WPS Superintendent Maureen Binienda rights this wrong! Ha!

By Rosalie Tirella

Why attend any one of the Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Search “community,” “open,” “forums” that the City of Worcester is hosting next week and urging us Worcesterites to attend when we all know Maureen Binienda, principal of South High School and a lady at the tail end of her education career, will be crowned prom queen? The brandy new superintendent of the Worcester Public Schools!!!

For the City of Worcester to hold these two community “listening sessions” insults our collective intelligence. We Worcesterites should call ’em out and shout: LUDICROUS!!!

The move is almost as big a joke as the not so long ago hiring of Worcester boy and political insider Ed Augustus as new Woo City Manager AFTER Augustus swore up and down on his granny’s grave that he wasn’t interested in the CM job and would not take it even if it were offered to him as the big prize in a really cool gum ball machine from Unique Finds Antiques and Vintage Gift Store at Webster Square, the neighborhood where Augustus grew up …

… AFTER the City of Worcester hired The Three Stooges Professional Search Firm to conduct a national city manager search to bring in some great job applicants outside the Worcester (cess)pool to be interviewed by supposedly unbiased city leaders …

… who decided AFTER those poor chumps (I mean job candidates) jumped through a billion quirky Worcester hoops to only learn that this screwy city was gonna hire the insider Augustus, but THANK YOU FOR LETTING US WASTE YOUR PRECIOUS TIME … You must have loved spending time HERE IN WORCESTER, spending a few weeks glad handing and schmoozing and answering a million questions posed by sometimes dense city leaders and honest regular folks, some of the questions very personal (remember the WPS Superintendent candidate who had declared bankruptcy or the most EXCELLENT, HARVARD-educated WPS Superintendent candidate who came in all the way from New Mexico?). … THANKS FOR BEING IN THE WORCESTER DOG AND PONY SHOW, folks! We’re certain you’ll speak highly of our city to friends, family and colleagues wherever you go!

If any serious candidate for any serious, seriously important City of Worcester job Googles Worcester, job search and hiring practices the search will yield: MORONS! BE VERY AFRAID! STAY AWAY!! Maybe the prospective job applicants will take the time they had planned to use to write their letters of interest, polish up their resumes, meet with headhunters and instead book a trip to Disneyland – the experience will be just as Goofy and surreal and mind-numbing! But at least you get cotton candy and pink lemonade and rides in the sky!

Most Worcesterites know our city government is dysfunctional and, like the little kid who’s seen mom and dad fuck each other over left and right, feels 1. This is normal behavior and 2. Is deeply depressed. Why just look at our city!

Garbage strewn everywhere – some of it hanging from the tree branches. Stabbings galore, used syringes all over our backyards, people brandishing guns, entering homes with babies and mothers in them, mothers corralled into bedrooms, ever watchful babies scarred for life.

The insanity of Worcester city government (and America’s messed up economy) is reflected in the governed. And most Worcester peeps are saying: FUCK YOU! We know we’re zero in your eyes, Worcester city leaders; we know we’ve got to slog through our days while your relatives and cronies get $90,000 a year city jobs and other perks just because they know you. So here’s your shit sandwich, City Councilor Lukes!!! (BTW, Konnie Lukes is one hell of a slumlord!) Screw your combs and yellow city trash bags, City Councilor Gary Rosen!!!

Is it any wonder that after the City of Worcester has decided to CLOSE the WPS Superintendent Search and just interview LOCAL (read WORCESTER pal) candidates and AFTER city bigwigs have made Maureen Binienda Mayor of our politically important Worcester St. Patrick’s Day and after the muckety-mucks have all gone on record in one way or another to tell the world: MAUREEN BINIENDA WALKS ON WATER. SHE IS A WORCESTER IRISH CATHOLIC GAL. SHE KNOWS WHAT LIES IN THE HEART OF EACH AND EVERY ONE OF OUR STUDENTS IN OUR MAJORITY MINORITY SCHOOL SYSTEM, A SCHOOL SYSTEM FILLED WITH POOR AND DISENFRANCHISED STUDENTS. … Those students are about to learn Woo lesson #1: In Worcester it’s WHOM you know, not WHAT you know.

I mean, the fix is in.

Mo is in.

As usual, when it comes to hiring people for the City’s most prestigious (read politically powerful and connected), highest paying, bestest, coolest, most freakin’ PLUM jobs, the City of Worcester has shit all over itself.

Again.

It’s put the apples before the cart before the horse and made Worcester, the second largest city in New England, seem provincial, totally closed off, myopic, fearful of the future …

There will never be any NEW VISION in Worcester because city leaders are waiting at our half-empty airport with hot pokers in their fists ready to pounce on the next Melinda Boone – to stab his or her eyes out.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Drove by Worcester City Councilor Konnie Lukes’ …

May 27, 2015 admin

… rental property on Millbury Street. What the hell is going on over at her dump now?!

– R.T.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Worcester City Councilor Konnie Lukes’ slummy back porches

May 6, 2015 admin

I was driving around Crompton Park a few days ago when I stopped at a red light and was able to take a good long look at Worcester City Councilor Konstantina (aka Konnie) Lukes’ Millbury Street property – specifically the back porches of the three decker. Pathetic.

I went out with a contractor for several years who knew all about buildings and building codes. I learned that little kids and babies are important, and they can fall off a poorly constructed three decker back or front porch. One IMPORTANT construction reg: the railings on your back porches should be sturdy – not made of shit wood – and they should be be spaced so many inches apart SO THAT A BABY OR LITTLE KID CAN’T STICK HER HEAD THROUGH THE SPACE OR HER BODY THROUGH THE GAP AND FALL TO HER DEATH. There are building code regs, LAWS, that address this. A construction worker would be doing his job illegally if he/she failed to build the porches correctly, make them “up to code.” It goes beyond doing a “Mickey Mouse” job.

Look at Worcester City Councilor Konnie Lukes’ back porches: See the huge spaces between the cheapo sticks of wood? Dangerous and illegal.

Where is the City of Worcester Building Code Department?

Is everyone asleep at the wheel on Meade Street? ! Or are they just looking the other way because Lukes is a city councilor? Is it OK to slap some particle board across the mess on the third floor and call it a day?

The Lukes must have known they were endangering little kids’ lives because they slapped big, ugly brown particle board planks ACROSS the railings to reinforce things. Make the back porches “safe.” What a joke. You’ve still got ugly, ugly unsafe back porches. I’d like to meet their “licensed” contractor – ha ha.

THANK YOU, Worcester City Councilor Konstantina Lukes for stooping so low! Your HYPOCRITICAL, slumlord heart knows no boundaries as you talk the talk about making Worcester a world-class city and then pull THIS SHIT in our urban neighborhoods.

I will be down to Meade Street, this afternoon, with these photos, Konnie.

– Rosalie Tirella

InCity Voices

A few surprises at the January 13 Worcester City Council meeting

January 17, 2015 admin

Walking out singing …

By Gordon T. Davis

There were a few surprises at the Worcester City Council meeting on January 13, 2015.

Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus spoke a few words about the good things being done by the City of Worcester to resolve issues. He said these efforts were not well known. He said the next class of City of Worcester police officers was half “minority.”

The surprise is not that what the City is doing is unknown to residents, but that City Manager Augustus spoke at all. He has been an absent voice.

When, during the city council meeting, the Black Lives Matter people rose up singing and walked out after the passage of Worcester City Councillor Konstantina Luke’s community-splitting resolution, that moment was a surprise.

As the Black Lives Matter folks were leaving the city council chambers, Worcester Mayor Joe Petty thanked them for their input. This was an interesting surprise, as it showed that there are people in the City who do not see themselves as interlocutors between the people and the powers that be.

Indirectly related to the events in Worcester: the blockade of I-93.

It is a surprise to many how much energy this issue of police accountability is generating. It should not be a surprise if this actually becomes a new American Civil Rights Movement. And Worcester is 20 paces behind.

It was not a surprise that the Worcester City Council voted for Councillor Lukes’ resolution to support the police unconditionally and at the same time bash the Black Lives Matter protesters.

It was something of a surprise that two City Councillors voted against it. This might have been a Profile in Courage moment in their political lives. Their votes might affect their political careers. I think City Councillor Rivera is fairly safe and will get reelected. She is a District Councillor in a district that likely supports better police accountability. The same cannot be said for At Large City Councillor Rushton. He may pay a price at the polls for his political courage.

Before the Worcester City Council meeting it was reported that the Mayor sought some compromise either from Councillor Lukes or from the so called minority communities, or both.

Councillor Lukes was at one time a reasonable person and would have compromised, but her personality has changed within the last few years. She refused to change one single word of her resolution. This was not a surprise.

In a meeting with the so called minority communities Councillor Rivera came up with wording that softened Councillor Lukes’ resolution and a decision was made to make the new wording a friendly amendment. This was surprising, as Councillor actually went out on a limb for previously marginalized communities.

A group of protesters and residents spoke against Councillor Lukes’ resolution. This was not a surprise, given the numerous protests that have continued since the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Councillor Luke’s reactions to the Black Lives Matter protesters were a surprise. She became very emotional and said police could not help her drive out trouble makers who live near her property in the Canal District. She never made clear the connection between her resolution and the trouble in her Canal District property.

Councillor Lukes sounded distraught when Mayor Petty came to her rescue by telling the audience that she deserved respect.

It was not surprising that Councillor Gaffney – some people say he is a member of the Tea Party – gave a “I am not a racist “ apology for voting with Councillor Lukes. Gaffney spoke on how he had to work hard to get where he is. He went to school at Worcester State College and worked a full-time job at the same time. Like Councillor Lukes getting distraught over crime in the Canal District, the connection between Gaffney’s hard work and the black experience – and Lukes’ resolution – was unclear.

It was not a surprise when Mayor Petty would not allow the friendly amendment written by Councillor Rivera to come to a vote.

Instead, he bowed to the wishes of Councilor Lukes.

The Mayor allowed Councillor Rivera’s amendment to be voted on as a separate resolution. It was not a surprise that City Councillors seeking political cover voted for this separate resolution.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Worcester City Councilor Konnie Lukes getting her shit together …

March 18, 2014 admin Leave a comment

… at her shit-hole! Aka her 21 Sigel St. property in Green Island. Hooray!!! Finally!!!

I drove by Konnie’s Green Island two-family “house” yesterday! Looking better! Front windows (once broken) – now replaced. Side yard – once garbage-choked – now home to just one toilet!!! One toilet! Yipee!!!

Did the miracle happen cuz Konnie and Jim were dragged into Worcester Housing Court by City of Worcester inspection and code depts?

Or was it due to the fact that Wendy Diaz, sloppy first-floor tenant, has permanently decamped to Florida and Konnie kicked out her remaining loser relatives – her son and nephew? So … no one home on first floor! New, non-slob tenants coming soon??!

Meanwhile, Maryann, second floor tenant, is still incommunicado. She has never made trouble. She is 79 years old and needs help! Her place is a dump. Hope Konnie and hubby Jim do right by frail senior citizen Maryann and replace her toilet, fix her water faucets and install a heating system ASAP!

But this is a step in the right direction!

– R. Tirella

InCity Letters, InCity Voices, Uncategorized

ICT letter to editor: Addicted to InCity Times!

January 15, 2014 admin Leave a comment

Hi, Rosalie!

Well, I have an addiction myself to InCity Times!! You stand up for things most people would be afraid to speak of, let alone put in print. Kudos to you!!!!

I myself have a lot to say about many things. Unfortunately, I don’t have a paper to print my thoughts about healthcare, welfare, food stamps, social security … I could go on for days.

The system is so backwards. People who need help not getting it, people taking advantage that do get them selling food stamps for things other than food – abusing the system in every way !!!

I believe this stems from alcohol and drug abuse – period!!!!! Stores accepting food stamps in return for half the money … Let’s say a person has $200 in food stamps – store owners will give $100 to an addicted person and keep the other $100 for profit.

Without a doubt that same store owner would want to press charges if that homeless addicted person stole a sandwich. A thief is a thief is a thief. Just like your article … a slumlord is a slumlord is a slumlord !!!

The drug problem to not only illegal drugs but worse with the legal ones – people getting prescriptions for 280 oxycodone a month is crazy !! Don’t get me wrong. There are people with terminal illnesses who need medication, but when you have a 20 year old with back pain, that’s just insane!!

People should be held accountable for the over-prescribing [of prescription drugs]. Mark my words – the economy would be much better off. Let’s face it – usually a drug addict does not hold a job. So they get Mass Health, food stamps, free cell phones etc… Which in turn robs the single working moms or families that work but still can’t make ends meet from getting help!!!!!

Get the drug problem under control! That’s that! If you get benefits, be required to get drug tested!!!

Just a thought …

Also, again, kudos for the slumlord article. Shame on them [Worcester City Councilor Konstantina Lukes and Jim Lukes]!!!!!

Robin Generelli
via the Internet