Tag Archives: party

I am sorry, Brittany

If you’ve checked our website you’ll see we pulled the black face story by Gordon Davis and my paragraphs backing him. I did this yesterday evening. Gordon Davis is one of my favorite people – a Holy Cross college grad, a terrific writer and a leader in the Black community. In person, he’s sweet, articulate and soft-spoken. I am proud to call him my friend.

When Gordon was called out on his piece, I called him and said: Is this true? Is your source a reliable source?

Gordon said yes.

A few hours later I asked Gordon for the name of his source. I wanted to call him or her – and ask the question for myself. Was Brittany in black face at a party?

Gordon said he preferred not to give me his source/the source’s contact information. He was politely adamant about this.

I decided to PULL THE TWO POSTS BECAUSE I COULD NOT CONFIRM THE TRUTH.

This morning I received a call – from a trusted source. The person and I talked. The person said while Brittany Legasey has “her issues,” she did NOT appear at a party in black face. The person asked Brittany point blank and Brittany replied NO.

I’ve been publishing and doing a ton of writing for InCity Times for 15 years: most of our stuff is pretty wonderful, I think. We get so much positive feedback from the person on the street. Loyal readers who love us. But I’ve made a few mistakes during these 15 years. The Brit in black face was one of them. And I am sorry for this mistake, hurting someone.

Peace, Brittany, peace …

– Rosalie Tirella

Christmas party! Come one, come all!

CAM01132

The South Worcester Neighborhood Center Christmas party!!!

Tuesday, December 23

47 Camp St. (off Cambridge Street)

1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

There will be:

Food and refreshments!

Groceries for your family to take home!

Dress for Success career clothing give-away for the ladies!

Loreal Cosmetics cosmetics for success give-away for the ladies!

A bottle of non-alcoholic bubbly for each family!

Toys for the kiddies!

Games!

Friendship!

Fun!

FREE!

Curbing prostitution along Main South’s Main Street corridor: a one-year Community Policing pilot

By Worcester District 4 City Councilor Barbara Haller

Last September, neighbors stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a press conference at the corner of Main and Hitchcock streets to acknowledge that prostitution was embedded along Main Street from Madison to Webster Square: “Our children, our spouses, and ourselves are being victimized every day by prostitution.

It is not just seeing the prostitutes ply their trade or the johns stalking in their cars and trucks. It is not only the ugly and physical domination of pimps, the unwanted solicitations to our youth and young women, the frequent foul language, and the painful addiction behaviors.

Nor is it solely the fear of our apartment buildings being invaded by desperate individuals. It is all of this for sure. But the real cry comes from the sense of hopelessness that is descending on us that says ‘This is how it is and this is how will be.’”

The group was made up of myself, members of the Main South Alliance for Public Safety, the Main South CDC, Clark University, each of the six crime watches in Main South, St. Peter’s Parish, and local business owners.

After a particularly bad summer of constant prostitution activity we were calling for resources to truly end this blight on our present and future. At the community meeting that followed, Bill Breault (Main South Alliance for Public Safety), Casey Starr (Main South CDC), and myself committed ourselves to form a Curbing Prostitution Task Force to develop a strategy to be implemented by April 2011. Various community members, staff from the YWCA’s Daybreak Program, Worcester Police Department, District Attorney’s Office, and Probation Department met throughout the fall and winter where we rolled up our collective sleeves and produced a consensus community policing strategy.

The key parts of the strategy:

1. Make curbing prostitution a city public safety priority.

2. Continue monthly task force meeting or the next year to assess success/failure and to make the strategy more robust.

3. Active reporting of prostitution behaviors by the community.

4. Decrease demand (males buying sex for a fee).

5. Decrease supply (females selling sex for a fee).

6. Collect and evaluate data on where prostitution is happening.

I am pleased to report that the strategy is now being implemented. You may have recently read about or seen some police stings. These will continue, with particular emphasis on arresting the johns. Probation and the District Attorney’s Office will increase their work to have both female and male offenders sent to the DAWN and CARD programs as a condition of their sentences.

Daybreak and Probation will drive these education programs and collect data on the number of people attending and track recidivism.

The City Manager and the task force will work to find resources for an outreach worker and resources to help women exit prostitution. The Main South Alliance, the Main South CDC and I will soon distribute information to Main South neighbors on how to effectively report prostitution activity.

How you can help:

 · OBSERVE prostitution trolling by females and males, · CALL 508 799 8606 and say, “I am reporting prostitution activity,” · REPORT street locations (corner of …, in front of …), activity (female soliciting, male soliciting, etc.), and descriptions (female with white jacket, male in green sedan, etc.), and · JOIN a neighborhood/business association.

Do not expect the police to show up. I repeat, DO NOT EXPECT THE POLICE TO SHOW UP. While this may happen, the purpose of Observe, Call, Report, and Join is to gather data on where and when prostitution is happening. This data will be used to set up stings, increase public safety and community presence in an area, track where the prostitution traffic is moving, and track increases/decreases in prostitution activity along the corridor.

If you want to join the task force, learn when and where a neighborhood association is meeting, need more info, or have some ideas about how we can make a difference, call/email me.

Stay in touch.

Ring in the New Year at HOPE party at YMCA, Central Branch, Jan. 1!

By Domingo Guyton

On Saturday, January 1, HOPE Recordz is sponsoring HOPE In The Community at the Central Branch YMCA, 766 Main, Street, Worcester, MA. After the death of our beloved sister Michelle Diaz on August 31, we began planning an event that can bring the young people together in unity, which also allowed them to have fun. With all of the violence and negativity surrounding our community, we want to bring HOPE to everyone through this event. We want to start 2011 in a positive direction, encouraging people to have hope, even when things seem hopeless.

The event is an all age event and the admission fee is $10 per person. Half of the proceeds will go to members of Michelle’s family, who are still trying to put their lives together after this horrific incident. The night will consist of a 5 on 5 Basketball Tournament, which the winning team will win $200 and an Open mic/Spoken Word competition, in which one winner will win $200. Continue reading Ring in the New Year at HOPE party at YMCA, Central Branch, Jan. 1!

A change of tone! Father McFarland’s complete/unedited letter (of remorse) to Worcester City Council re: Holy Cross college partiers

November 16, 2010

Dear City Councilors,

On behalf of the entire Holy Cross Community of faculty, staff, and students, I thank you for recognizing the progress made over the past year in improving communication and addressing neighborhood concerns about the off-campus behavior of some Holy Cross students.

I want to assure you that concerns have been heard and the College takes them very seriously. There have been some setbacks, but we are addressing them with both immediate actions and sustainable change.

In cooperation with Worcester Police, the College has already taken steps to control student behavior in the neighborhood and we have begun work on a more comprehensive plan to advance relationships of consistent and mutual respect in the College Hill neighborhood. We remain committed to following up on every incident of off-campus misbehavior and applying appropriate sanctions.

Our goal is to implement additional practical and enforceable changes to how we respond to behavior that disrupts the College Hill neighborhood.

While these changes will take some time to develop and implement, we look forward to sharing the results of our collective efforts with you.

As President of the College of the Holy Cross, I take responsibility for and will lead these efforts; but the enforceablility and good working relationships required for real progress is dependent on the continued involvement of the reliable and accountable expertise of leaders throughout the College. To that end, I am joined by Timothy R. Austin, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean; Michael Lochhead, Vice President for Administration and Finance; Jacqueline D. Peterson, Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students; Paul Irish, Assistant to the Dean of Students and Director of the Office of Student Conduct; Robert Hart, Director of Public Safety; Ketherine Robertson, Special Assistant for Community Relations; and others throughout my administration.

The success of this effort relies on the College, City officials, Worcester Police, neighbors and students working together in mutually respectful and collaborative ways. We have indeed made progress in addresssing quality-of-life issues for our closest neighbors, and we look forward to building on what has been accomplished.

Very truly yours,

Michael C. McFarland, S.J.
President [College of the Holy Cross]

One Holy Cross college grad writes …

Dear Ms. Tirella,

I agree with you wholeheartedly that the off-campus behavior of Holy Cross students can get out of control. It saddens me to hear about these things, especially the violence towards police officers and the disturbing of families, as it surely does to most members of the Holy Cross community. This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the college and stricter enforcement is needed.

Where this gets tricky, however, is that oftentimes these parties and gatherings are not done on Holy Cross property. Thus, they are out of the jurisdiction of the college. To solve this, there needs to be a cooperative relationship between the college, the community, and the government of Worcester. Insulting each other, claiming the other as incompetent, and other such negative behavior only lead to more resentment. Continue reading One Holy Cross college grad writes …

Holy Cross college’s Father McFarland: Enabler extraordinaire

By Rosalie Tirella

This is why the College of the Holy Cross has so many problems with underage drinking/partying: Father McFarland, president of Holy Cross, is an enabler extraordinaire. When it comes to his young charges on College Hill, there is no limit to the bull he will throw at HC critics, no end to the denial of a reality that Worcesterites and even most Holy Cross students have acknowledged for years: HOLY CROSS COLLEGE IS A PARTY SCHOOL.

During a TV newscast last night, which pretty much recapped the point we made about the rowdy/booze-fueled parties HC students hold on Caro Street, the TV reporter tried to get a quote from a Holy Cross official – most likely the school’s president, Father McFarland. On our tv screens we saw pictures of trash on Caro Street, a huge banner hanging from a three decker front porch on Caro Street advertising a party. You would think the school president would do the mature thing … .

But how did Father McFarland react to these TV shots – Worcesterites’ reality?

Neither McFarland nor any HC p.r. flak, for that matter, would show his/her face on TV. How sad when you compared McFarland’s silence and the TV shots featuring Worcester City Manager Mike O’Brien looking exasperated and telling the camera that for the past three weeks Holy Crss students have been out of control on Caro Street – doing things like “urinating in bushes.”

Holy Cross release a “statement,” a blurb thrown up on the TV screen with no name attached. The statement pretty much sounded like a spoiled kid. It said Holy Cross college was pissed that City (Worcester) officials would talk so critically of their students! And if they continued to do so, HC’s and Worceter’s relationship would not move “forward.” Meaning they would pull the plug on whatever good they are doing in town.

No apologies. No, reaching out to the community. No promise of educating HC students. Nothing. Just blasting the city – and then threatening the city.

Jesus would be ashamed of these Jesuits.

Holy Cross does not pay PILOT! WPI, MCPHS and now Clark University pay PILOT!

Holy Cross has the largest endowment of any Worcester College – millions, upon millions, upon millions of dollars! Yet Holy Cross does not offer full scholarships to poor South Worcester kids who ace their reportcards and are good enough (all A’s) to attend Holy Cross but cannot afford to pay the steep tuition. Clark University has a great program that does just this – gives full scholarships to high achieving Main South kids – ultimately lifting poor Main South families out of poverty and creating a lot of good will in the ‘hood (and city). Truth be told, Holy Cross is the biggest cheap skate college in town! HC has even closed all worker holiday parties (like cafeteria workers) to Worcester kids. They used to invite our inner-city young ones!

Who does Father McFarland think he is? When his puss is plastered on the cover of the Telegram and Gazette and the paper’s website, when his school is featured on the TV news and other websites (like ours) and more – with EVERYONE TELLING HIM TO GET HIS STUDENTS UNDER CONTROL AND STOP THEIR PUKING, PISSING AND PRANKS – he shuts down. Just like the wizzened, dried up, loveless, arrogant man he is. What was the name of the priest in The Scarlet Letter?

Father McFarland needs to listen to the community and react appropriately.

“A hundred fannies in the cell”!!!

By Rosalie Tirella

We have never been a huge fan of Worcester City Councilor at Large Ric Rushton, but we’ve always liked the way he puts things. From “exploding heads” to imploding downtowns, Ric never fails to amuse/bemuse when it comes to syntax, American history, etc. Last night was no different! During yet another heated City Council debate re: the boozers/students of Holy Cross College and their inability to respect the blue collar neighborghood in which their school is located, Rushton threw this line out to his fellow councilors: “A hundred fannies in the cell.”

A HUNDRED FANNIES IN THE CELL! A HUNDRED FANNIES IN THE CELL!

Right on, Ric! This must be Worcester’s new rallying cry!

This is what all Worcersterites must think when it comes to boozing Holy Cross students! This is what we must all say and do to the Holy Cross alcoholics/play boys/play girls who recently held a big kegger on Caro Street, which culminated in their PAINTING it! Painting it!!! City Councilors were given photos and they were all dismayed/enraged.

What is it with Holy Cross? I can drive down Dewey Street, Florence Street, Claremont Street, alll sorts of Main South/Park Ave streets where Clark University students live – and you never see these problems. The streets are busy, people go about their business. The Clarkies blend in – go about their lives: being students, eating in the nearby restaurants or coffee shops. They are hip and cool, these Clark kids. They respect the people of Main South – the urban village in which they live 3/4 of the year. Maybe it’s because lots of them come from New York City and are just hip to the street scene.

Holy Cross slobs, on the other hand, come from the suburbs of Jersey, Pennsyvania and Connecticut. Daddy and Mom have spoiled them – left them more immature than the little kids who attend the nearby Quinsig Community School – and have probably taught them that it’s OK to unwind with booze after work/school. I mean what else is there to do in the suburbs of New Jersey except drink martinis and cheat on your wife with the hottie two streets down?

So when Holy Cross students get to Worcester, they have no idea how to relax after school work. So it’s: Let’s trash this ugly city! Let’s paint these losers’ streets! They look funny! They wear polyester! They are not what we see in our hometowns!

We’ve fuckin’ had it, too, Ric! We are on your side – for once! For once we feel you, as you would say, have nailed the head on this hammer!

Yes! Let the WPD hammer some of these kids! Oak Hill residents get hammered by thugs (see our cover story in this week’s ICT)! Let HC students get to know the REAL Worcester!

Rushton intimated that an arrest by Worcester Police, a very bumpy ride in one of Wormtown’s paddy wagons and a night in jail would make the party-hearty students of Holy Cross stop breaking the law, stop making noise at all hours on Caro Street, stop pissing in public, stop having parties that spill out into the street and keep Worcesterites up all hours of the night, stop have sex in hallways of local apartment buildings (ICT got a letter re: that little nugget a few years ago). The kids, if Ric’s advice is to be followed, would have “a record.” Their moms and dads would have to go to court and hire lawyers. These families, Rushton said, need a “crisis” in thier kiddies’ lives before they take Worceter seriously.

City Councilor Phil Palmeiri was also incensed, telling his colleagues that Worcester has not received “blessings” from HC president Father McFarland, that the head honcho/Jesuit has always dismissed Worcesterites’ complaints re: the trashing of Caro Street and other off-campus hell-holes. He said the “coddling” must stop.

100 Fannies in the cell, Phil! 100 Fannies in the cell! This is our call to arms!!!

That must be our rallying cry, if anything is going to improve in Worcester’s south end neighborhood.