Tag Archives: Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus

Animal Issues

Wall Street Journal praises Worcester for downtown approach

But first …

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By Steven R. Maher

Worcester received high praise from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) this past Tuesday, March 21, 2017. The city’s success in tearing down the old Worcester Center Galleria and replacing it with offices, apartments and a hotel is seen as an example other struggling cities should follow.

The WSJ reported this in a page 3 article, showing a 2008 photograph of Worcester’s downtown which showed a deserted city with rust-colored ground in older industrial parcels. More favorable for the city was a recent photo showing larger patches of bright, white concrete in a city center bustling with activity and development.

“A hotel and an apartment complex are rising on a street here that was buried by a shopping mall for four decades,” began the article. “A new office building also opened nearby, replacing a structure that failed to resuscitate this New England city’s core.” The WSJ quoted City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. of the old Galleria: “We don’t want these big dead walls.”

“You can’t put lipstick on a pig,” former Mayor Tim Murray told the newspaper of the old mall. “It was a design disaster.”

$300 Million Private Investment

The Journal reported that the city spent $90 million to demolish and rebuild city streets. The report stated: “The investment set the table for $300 million in private development, thus far, which the city said would generate higher taxes. The downtown in Worcester’s second largest is enjoying a broader rebound from years of postindustrial malaise. The population is growing, and apartments and restaurants have also popped up in refurbished older buildings around the city core.”

“It’s critical for cities to not just wring their hands about mistakes of an earlier era, but to find solutions,” August was quoted as saying.

The journal went on to review other urban cities which built new malls in their downtowns, while shoppers fled to the suburbs. As the malls lost their tenants, real estate values around the malls plummeted.

“Demolition [of the Galleria] finally started in 2010,” continued the WSJ. “Insurer Unum Group built an office building there, opened in 2013, and a cancer center is also open. What will eventually be 365 apartment units by developer Roseland Residential Trust are rising nearby, as is a 168-room hotel. Trains to Boston are a short walk away on a rebuilt downtown street.”

InCity Voices

Worcester: then and now

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The new Franklin Street photo by Gordon Davis

By Gordon Davis

Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus, Jr., is optimistic about the development of Worcester. Recently, he said: “Worcester has seen close to $3 billion in investment over the past five years. This year, home prices are up 5 to 8 percent. Rental rates are up 8 percent. And how could you miss the new hotels already redefining our skyline? Those hotels are being built for a reason. Our hotels are consistently full.”

Mr. Augustus is right to be happy with the new developments such as hotels and luxury apartments. This type of development has been a long time coming and is part of a historical cycle for the city.

Before this cycle of hotels, apartments and entertainment, there was the Worcester Center Galleria and its remake, Worcester Commons Outlets. Many in the city have the same optimism expressed by Mr. Augustus with his proclamation: “Worcester’s time is now.” Unfortunately, Mr. Augustus still sees downtown Worcester as the Worcester of the 1940s, a time when most people did not own cars. The importance of downtowns to cities in Mass. started to decline with a burgeoning suburbia and the families in them buying cars and driving to malls, like the old Shoppers World in Framingham, to shop. Shoppers World was exciting and cutting edge in 1955. It was the first shopping mall. Today, many shopping malls are abandoned ghost malls. The Greendale Mall in Worcester is near that state.

Development in downtown Worcester is based, to a large extent, on the transfer of the operations of St. Vincent Hospital from Vernon Hill. The transfer was subsidized by city taxes. It is not certain yet if the city will recover this money. The new apartments and condos being built in our downtown is a new phenomenon for Worcester. To some extent, our downtown will become a bedroom community for commuters going by trains to Boston. More important, it will become a neighborhood, like Main South or Vernon Hill. This is new and it seems to have gone unnoticed. Services for this new neighborhood, like a grocery store, will likely be established.

Since the early 1800s Worcester’s industries have been cyclical. With the water power of the Blackstone River, textiles and clothing were manufactured until the factories moved South in search of cheaper labor. In the later 1800s the metal industries developed in our city. Barbed wire was invented and manufactured in Worcester, as well as cables and processed steel. I worked at U.S. Steel as a young man and made oil well cables. As we know, the metal industries moved overseas. For a while, computers, such as minicomputers, were manufactured in the Worcester area. The personal computer signaled the death knell for computer manufacturing in this area. Today it is biotech that is the major industry here.

I hope you can see my point: Industries come and go. The Worcester area is not an exception to this rule. It is worrisome that Mr. Augustus did not mention what is being done regarding the industries of the future. There is a question of whether his vision includes the next cycle of industry. To quote former president Bill Clinton: It’s the economy, stupid.

Therefore, the city manager’s proclamation of “Worcester’s time is now” is not really a vision for the future.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Worcester news for you! … Dickens and (CDBG) demo!

First the fun stuff!

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pic: R.T.

From Doherty High School

Highland Street

December 7 and 8

Next week the Doherty Performing Arts Department will be presenting “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens

The show will be performed by more than 70 Doherty students, 1 Forest Grove student and 3 Midland Street School students!

We will also be performing an elementary school matinee December 7 for students from Midland, Tatnuck and May Street schools.

The bulk of the show will be performed by the Theatre 2-3-4 classes, with help from the Madrigal Singers and the Jazz Band.

The show starts promptly at 6:45 p.m. and tickets are a mere $5.

Hope to see you there.

Jim Fay
Theatre Director

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Now the muckety muck …CDBG DEMOLITION GOALS, the process …

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Cece says: Can’t we all just chase string and cuddle?? pic:R.T.

From the City of Worcester …

FYI

(Rose has made some sentences bold.):

TO THE WORCESTER CITY COUNCIL

FROM THE WORCESTER CITY MANAGER

Re: Council Questions Concerning the Recommended Finance Item for Demolition Purposes

In response to the City Council’s questions regarding the recommendation to transfer 126 190 00 from and to various CDBG accounts to provide sufficient funding for anticipated project costs for the demolition of six buildings, please accept this report.

List of [the CDBG-demo] Properties:

11 Dixfield Road —The Estate of Amelia and Lincoln Crozier

15 Uxbridge Street The Estate of Rose Jordan

147 Belmont Street S. Paquette, Trustee of Belmont 147 Realty Trust

20 Alvarado ROLLO The Estate of Rocco and Lame Mercadante

18 Charlton Street Edilson Souza

89 Austin Street Iglesia Cristiana de la Communidad

… The city has a responsibility to maintain safe neighborhoods. The demolition of dilapidated, dangerous or decadent buildings falls under that role.

Demolition of such properties is an eligible expenditure of block grant funds because one of the national objectives of the ONES program is the elimination of spot slum and blighted properties.

The annual block grant allocation includes a sum set aside for demolition of eligible properties.

The City [of Worcester] places a lien in the amount of the demolition expenses on the property by recording a lien in the Registry of Deeds shortly after demolition.

The lien is then included with the annual tax bill, just as any outstanding water, sewer charges and betterment assessments are included in the tax bills).

The city tax lien takes priority over any mortgages on the property.

Therefore, the bank or person taking a mortgage on a property subject to a demolition order, not the city [of Worcester], takes the risk that there will be no surplus value after the city lien is paid.

(In the case of tax exempt property, the demolition lien is committed to the treasurer who treats the property as taxable for purposes of either collection or foreclosure to satisfy the lien).

… The city [of Worcester] uses two avenues to assess fines to property owners who fail to maintain their property in compliance with building, health and safety codes:

The first is the ” clean and lien” process whereby the city causes repairs to be made and then records a lien on the property for the amount expended.

This process is used to address emergency situations (no heat, imminent structural failure, etc.), where the property is in foreclosure, or, where the responsible party fails to appear in court.

This process is also used to clean weeds and trash from properties creating a nuisance to the neighborhood.

Secondly, the city fines property owners for code violations through the code enforcement/housing court process. That process involves a sequence of code inspections and enforcement orders, a referral to the law department for housing court action, the imposition of a preliminary injunction commanding that repairs
be made, and, if necessary, a series of court actions where the court imposes
fines on the owner to secure compliance and, failing that, the court will hold the owner in contempt and commit them to jail until repairs are made.

While properties with debilitating code violations can be condemned to demolition, properties without any pre- existing code violations, but which have
suffered substantial, structural damage due to fires are eligible for demolition.

(In fact, four of the six properties listed above are being demolished because of structural fire damage).

It would be fair to say that, in all cases, the property involved is “made safe” per order of the [City of Worcester] Code Commissioner.

This is typically accomplished by boarding windows and keeping people at a safe distance with fencing.

The policy in this program is to make every effort to save properties from
demolition through private rehabilitation.

There is usually a period of several
years between the recording of a demolition order and the actual demolition of a property.

Cases with extreme deterioration or fire damage move to the top of the list and, to the extent that funding sources allow, are demolished more quickly.

Except to determine the owner for purposes of the issuance and service of
orders, the city [of Worcester] does not perform periodic title examinations of properties condemned to demolition. As noted earlier, the city lien takes first priority over encumbrances recorded both before and after the recording of the demolition
order. The economic risk falls substantially with the private financier.

Respectfully submitted,

Edward M. Augustus, Jr.
City Manager

InCity Voices

Worcester, watered-down

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Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus has been front and center vis-a-vis environmental issues, energy conservation and green building in Worcester.      photo submitted

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Rose’s bathroom sink runneth over.     pic: R.T.

By Gordon Davis

Worcester has experienced a shortfall of rain for four of five years, ending in 2016. It looks like the shortfall will continue. Although this could be an anomaly, it could also be a pattern. It might be the beginning of a new normal where 38 inches of rain per year is all we get.

As Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus has shown us by standing in the dry ground exposed by low water, Worcester reservoirs are less than half-filled after the five-year shortfall. The intakes for the reservoirs are now above the water level and cannot draw in water.

The City of Worcester has taken some emergency measures, such as buying water from the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) that runs the Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs. It pays the MWRA $1.7 million per month for the water. The money comes from the City’s general funds. This expenditure will be made for the foreseeable future.

This money is needed elsewhere, such as the public schools.

The City of Worcester has also instituted water use restrictions that have helped to mitigate the shortfall. However, even with the restrictions, the level of water in the reservoirs have not risen above 50 percent.

First of all, let me say that water is a human right. We deserve clean drinking water for no other reason than we are people. The people in Flint, Michigan, are the victims of human rights violations. Throughout the world denial of water could be used as a weapon or a means of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Secondarily, water is an asset for a region. Like affordable energy, water is vital for a prosperous community. There have been examples of civilizations that cease to exist due to the drought conditions brought on by climate change. The Akkadian Empire, Khmer Empire and the Puebloan Culture are historical examples.

Of course, I am not saying that New England or even Worcester is facing imminent demise. I am suggesting some thought should go into the possibility that 38 inches of rain a year is the new average for the region.

The Worcester City Council has wasted its time and resources on nice but less vital issues such as dog parks and mounted patrols. There should a report from the City Manager on the short-term and long-term effects of the drought on Worcester and how the City plans to respond to it.

As we have seen, the reservoirs of the City will have to be redesigned. This is because 38 inches of rain will not keep them filled. Water use will have to be increasingly recycled. Roof water and runoff should be increasingly harvested …

This issue is actually a state or regional and federal issue.

The redesign and improvements to reservoirs is beyond the budgets of all cities and towns in Massachusetts.

As the federal government has become involved in the improvement of infrastructure like roads and bridges, it will likely have to become involved in the infrastructure of dams and reservoirs of water-short areas.

With the Trump presidency, water infrastructure improvement is unlikely to occur. This is especially true, as both the state voters and our Republican governor voted against the president-elect.

Animal Issues, Rosalie's Blog

The two-faced city councilor – Michael Gaffney

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Worcester City Councilor Michael Gaffney is suing InCity Times for a million bucks! He says he’ll drop his court case if ICT editor/publisher Rosalie (pictured above) NEVER writes about him again (during his stint as city councilor/and running his political campaigns!!) AND if she suspends ICT writer Gordon Davis for one year!!! Hey, Hypocritical Gaffney! What about OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS?!

By Rosalie Tirella

I just edited and posted Edith’s  Donald Trump piece; her sage words made me think of Worcester’s own Donald Trump – dangerous dissembler Worcester City Councilor Michael Gaffney.  The latest Gaffer: How Gaffney used a very prosaic moment in Worcester government – the City Council’s annual review of the City Manager – and turned it into a three ring circus during which he professed to be a guardian of everything that he, in the depths of his mangled little soul, absolutely is NOT! Just like Donald Trump!

The depths of Gaffney’s fucked-up-edness cannot be plumbed in a mere blog post. To do that we would need to enlist the professional expertise of Freud, Jung, Erikson, a host of other developmental psychologists, Shirley MacLaine and quite possibly Jesus Christ.

We haven’t got the time – we must forge ahead! So to sum up: Gaffney came up with an evaluation of Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus that used the C word and other “dirty” words, included a blown up pic of Brenda Jenkins from the Mosaic Complex, was more than 150 pages long … . In short, it was a public document on the verge of a nervous breakdown!

This is OK with us because a. Gaffney’s got the First Amendment on his side and we LOVE the First Amendment, and b. The document, by Gaffney, shows voters just how deeply fucked up City Councilor Michael Gaffney really is! People will read his oompa loompa opus on the city website and say to themselves: How – WHY –  did we elect this nut job? NEVER AGAIN!!!!

But at Tuesday’s city council meeting Gaffney took the First Amendment and made himself her brave and true defender! MY GOD! Is this America?? he bellowed to his cowed colleagues! My God! Read the First Amendment! I have it right here – printed out on this HUGE POSTER! Where are the photographers to capture this made for the camera moment? I want pictures of me defending America all over the papers tomorrow! Lights, cameras, demagoguery!!

And, of course, just like the publicity savvy Donald Trump, Gaffney’s photo WAS all over the papers’ websites yesterday and today. Commenters thought him so brave and strong – swimming against the sniveling Worcester City Council current, the people AGAINST America, the Woo elected officials who would flush the First Amendment down the toilet!

Gaffney wins! Worcester City Council loses! Again!

This is such nonsense!

Is this any way to run a city without a downtown?!!

Why does Gaffney NEVER EVER SHED LIGHT ON THE ISSUES??? ONLY USES THEM TO TRY TO ADVANCE HIS POLITICAL CAREER?

He, like Trump, is a piece of shit.

He, like Trump, has taken racial issues that the city is grappling with  – Black Lives Matter, safety in our public schools – and used them to reinforce racial/ethnic prejudices of lots of Worcester folks. For their votes! Just like Donald Trump is doing nationally, with millions of Americans. Pathetic!!!

The Turtle Boy brigade is a microcosm of the racial hatred out there, and racist Aidan Kearney-Turtle Boy blogger ostensibly writing about the issues is really spreading hatred. Gaffney is a Turtle Boy supporter and vice versa. They use each other to get votes and clicks, respectively. But they’re both so smart, like Trump, that their fans don’t see their pretzel bending of the truth! Their truth is contorted! They, like Trump, are community-destroyers!

What brings it all home: Gaffney is suing InCity Times for a million bucks! He says we’ve said he’s a racist. He’s mad we’re being mean to him – causing him thousands upon thousands of dollars of psychic pain. What bull shit. This from a guy who two days ago, on the City Council floor boomed that: PUBLIC OFFICIALS HAVE TO TAKE IT ALL! PUBLIC OFFICIALS HAVE TO BE THICK SKINNED AND  TAKE THE INSULTS AND CRITICISM HURLED AT THEM BY THE VOTERS! It’s America! It’s the First Amendment!

How creepy is the serpentine Gaffney that behind the scenes, away from the cameras, he tells me that he’ll drop his court case if I, editor/publisher of InCity Times and this website, NEVER write about him again (during his stint as city councilor/and running his political campaigns!!) AND if I suspend ICT contributing writer Gordon Davis for one year!!!

So Gaffney wants to muzzle InCity Times – shut me and Gordy up – and he thinks he can because he’s an aggressive asshole and where would ICT get a lawyer from? (He would never dream of going after Clive M. or other publications with a legal TEAM!)

Well, ICT has got herself a kick ass lawyer!

We’ve got to protect OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS … from Worcester City Councilor Michael Gaffney.

InCity Voices

Worcester missed an opportunity by dismissing Juan Gomez’s vision!

By Rosalie Tirella

Some Worcester projects just drag on and on and on.
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For example: The Wyman Gordon site, at Green Island’s Lamartine Street. Now a brown field, it was once a thriving factory and serious economic booster for Green Islanders. Today it lies empty, ugly and toxic.

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… or Piedmont’s Chandler Elementary School. The families there need a larger school building to accommodate the hundereds of kids that the city educates there. A good chunk of the student body is being bussed daily to other learning sites in the city. On a smaller scale, up until very recently, its trashed back doors and side windows needed replacing … (pics:R.T.)

These projects in our urban core just never seem to get off the ground. Like the perennial lead balloon, these inner-city sites – a reflection of Worcester political leaders’ lack of commitment to poorer/minority neighborhoods and poor/minority folks (usually people with little political clout ) –  just keep rolling along Lamartine Street, Murray Ave or Chandler Street. Every election cycle our politicians ever so elegantly dance over these lead balloons: Yes! they say, we feel your pain! (they absolutely do NOT!). Yes! we know half of Chandler Elementary school’s student body is being bussed out to other city buildings to learn because the building is so over populated! (How many West Side parents would put up with that kind of  school-day disruption for their precious kiddies?!) Yes! We know the school’s back doors are wooden and rotten and look like some one’s trying to kick them in and the wood windows are damaged badly, but, hey, we’re working on it! (finally – yes –  the school’s doors were recently replaced with heavy green metal ones and the damaged heavy wooden windows replaced with new ones – see photo, above)

Here is our latest urban core lead balloon over which the city is self-flagellating but not moving on – even though a BEAUTIFUL USE for it was recently presented to the City Manager and Co. by former Worcester City Councilor Juan Gomez :

It’s the old PIP building in Main South – and the LATINO ARTS/PERFORMANCE CENTER  it could have become!

Formerly one of the state’s  two or three only “wet” shelters (drunk,  high, stoned homeless welcome here!) residents and  small businesses in Main South and city leaders (most notably former District 4 City Councilor Barbara Haller) clamored for years for the PIP to be shut down. The drug users were shooting up heroin a few streets outside the PIP’s doors and then staggering into the social service agency for supper, medical care and a cot to sleep in for the night . Morning came and they walked out into the Main South neighborhood, some on their way to getting clean and sober, but most looking to get high all over again and repeat the brutal cycle. Usually just yards away from the PIP’s back doors! Nearby Main South small biz folks were outraged, lower Main South residents fearful and without hope. 

Then a few years ago, the unimaginable happened: Thanks mostly to Haller and Main South community activist Billy Breault, the PIP was FINALLY shut down. Homeless addicts and hardcore alcoholics are now being helped in other places in the city – social service agencies that refuse them if they are high and transport them to hospitals for detoxification; places/half way homes with more security; social service agencies with impressive, structured programs.

So now the old PIP building has become another Woo lead balloon!

For their/your information: the  PIP building ITSELF is STILL attracting junkies, staggering alcoholics and high homeless folks!  Scrawny, weather beaten women are STILL TODAY walking the walk outside its doors, along Charlton Street, looking to sell their bodies to buy a bag of cheap smack from the heroin dearler who himself is usually just a few yards away. The tired and high but hopeless STILL sit on the curb stones by the PIP nodding off, heads in their hands, rocking to and fro, murmuring to themselves. So sad…They are still breaking into nearby vehicles to “sleep it off” or look for money in glove compartments to buy drugs. Guns are still being fired.

The PIP building is STILL an affront to the hardwordking small business folks who are trying to make a living and create jobs! It’s STILL a late night, cacophony-filled nightmare for Main South residents trying to hold down jobs and raise their families right!

Enter the adorable, strong-willled, smart-as-the-bow-ties-he-wears  Juan Gomez, executive director of Centro on nearby Sycamore Street – just two streets down. Gomez, a former Worcester City Councilor and a recent city councilor candidate, has been head of the city’s premier Latino social sevice agency for several years now. And he’s run with it! Programs for the Hispanic elderly, hungry and displaced have expanded! Their outreach to the Worcester Hispanic population grows stronger by the day. Education, art, small biz … Juan is trying to support it all! Do it all!  The  yearly summertime and terrific Latino Music Festival, put on in large part through support from Centro, is another jewel in Worcester’s cultural crown. In other words, Centro, which has been around for years, is UP AND COMING !, thanks in no small part to the little power house and biz-savvy, Republican, feet-on-the-ground-but-not-afraid-to-dream Juan Gomez, himself a second generation American and a profile in courage as a cancer survivor.

So I cheered when Centro purchased a few pieces of tired property, really a good bit of Sycamore Street, next to and across the street from Centro. For additional office space and parking, Juan says. Needed because their expanded services and mission needs more space in a very densely populated inner city neighborhood.

Here’s the most intriguing/best part…Centro, through Juan, planned on buying the PIP building to create a Latino Arts Center/Community Space open to ALL. It would have showcased the arts/culture and artists of Puerto Rico and Central America.  Worcester folks with roots from those countries and territory would be able to enjoy a beautiful slice of their or their parents/grandparents homelands. THEIR ROOTS. THEIR HERITAGE. A POSITIVE PICTURE. There were plans for  a performance space with a stage for dancers, musicians, singers, poets. There would have been classrooms for artist workshops and community art or music classes. All with an eye on nurturing and promoting Latino art and artists!

TERRIFIC! I thought to myself. What a wonderful addition to the Worcester Family! To a CITY that SAYS it embraces racial and economic DIVERSITY as manifested through its population!

Juan applied to the City of Worcester for a $100,000+  community block grant to help buy the PIP building. The City Manager’s office said NO, NOPE, no thanks. Not interested in supporting this arts center. The grant money went to other Worcester social service agencies – all doing fine work but nothing as WONDERFUL and INSPIRED/INSPIRING as what this Latino Arts building would have meant to our Latino/ minority community, ALL WORCESTERITES and DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION.

The PIP is a big, multi-storied building that is in EXCELLENT shape (I toured it a few years ago). It would have made a great arts center. It has a big commercial kitchen, many bathrooms, meeting rooms and a big open first floor space. Perfect!

Yet city leaders, who claim to be urban visionaries, couldn’t “see” the brilliance and beauty of Juan Gomez’s vision. For his people. For downtown. For all of Worcester County, really.

So often the Latinos that make the news – and shape our collective vision of their culture – are in the stories about Latinos in Worcester riding illegal dirt bikes, getting arrested for drug dealing, getting stabbed over that, shot over this. THE FEW BAD SEEDS. (I’ve always been amazed that grinding poverty and prejudice haven’t made more people angry killers!) Wouldn’t it be great to read, daily, about the good and amazing in Latino culture? The famous Latino guitarist visiting the CENTRO ARTS CENTRE or those wonderful Salsa dancers who performed over in Main South at the CENTRO ARTS CENTRE … or the city kids who are discovering a famous Hispanic painter in the summer art class they’re taking at the CENTRO ARTS CENTRE?

That is how you cure white people of racial prejudice!

Present a different – the TRUE –  PICTURE of a culture to them!

Keep doing this every day…and prejudices will begin to melt away. Work to have people, white, brown, black, poor, rich interact with each other every day – meet in celebratory, educational places to see WHO THEY REALLY ARE.

That is how we break down barriers and make society more equitable, freer…

The CENTRO ARTS center would have been a BOON for all of us! Instead the city manager and city staff and city political leaders shut their eyes and missed an opportunity with the PIP building! Which is really nutty and pathetic, besides being horribly short-sighted, because they often talk about  how there is little racism in Worcester or how seriously they take racial inequity. That’s a lie. They don’t know any better. Yet they need to!

If anything, out of self interest:

Main South is only a block or two away from our planned BRIGHT NEW SHINY DOWNTOWN! City Manager Ed Augustus wants a BEAUTIFUL and BUSTLING downtown Worcester to be his legacy. He’s got an urban renewal game plan and making it happen. It’s a shame he can’t walk just two blocks up from his beloved downtown and his office in City Hall to see all the horrible shit STILL GOING DOWN IN FRONT OF AND ON THE SIDE of the PIP building . The junkies STILL passed out in front of the PIP are just the beginning…

Now, I ask you,  how can we create a downtown Worcester that WILL DRAW MILLENIALS AND THE UPWARDLY MOBILE AND THE MIDDLE CLASS EMPTY NESTERS if, on their way to a show at the Hanover or a road race that starts at City Hall  or a visit to a cool, urbane downtown restaurant for martinis and sushi, they see some guy pretend butt fucking some gal outside the PIP building, like I have? Or several more lost souls sitting on the curb or overturned gray plastic milk crates picked out of Dumpsters waiting for their man so they can shoot up and get high?

What will this little gritty scene say about  the new and trendy Worcester to people who will, in some cases, be driving by the PIP?!

Can you dig it?!

We can!

The City  of Worcester movers and shakers can’t.

Why?

No need to plumb city leaders’ psyches for a deep answer…But let’s just say the city is run by a bunch of unforgiving vindictive shit heads who never forget a slight or a misstatement or a move that was not in sync with their political plans and have no trouble turning the lone riders  the lone visionaries into PERSON NON GRATA.   Crap. Juan Gomez, as a Worcester city councilor, was always his own man. But in a very nice, respectful way. Sometimes he’s been passionate about what he truly believes in. Nothing wrong, everything right, about that! But his passion for the Hispanic livery drivers and their customers during his last few months as a  Worcester City Councilor (that’s why they were his last few months!) turned lots of political movers and shakers off. They whispered amongst themselves: Juan’s gone rogue! When he lead a group of clapping chanting livery drivers out of City Hall as a show of solidarity during a city council meeting when he was city councilor, well, that didn’t do at all! His political demise was written on the City Council chambers wall…

We loved it! Juan was right! Juan was real and cool and INSPIRING! The city shitheads renounced him, in their heads, right then and there! Here was the Juan who used to eat lunch with former City Manager Tom Hoover over at the MID TOWN MALL, across from City Hall, over at the Latino lunch hot spot SABANA’s being  mentally blacklisted! He used to tell Tom Hoover: Come! Enjoy the spicey treats of my culture! Hoover did! Along with the scores of other cool folks! The line for lunch at Sabana’s used to go our the door! The old cool Worcester vibe! Back then it wasn’t all smug and phoney and boutiquey. Just urban. A white Polish guy from Toledo breaking bread with a little Puerto Rican guy from Worcester! Enormous!

Can you imagine Ed Augustus eating lunch in the MID TOWN MALL (a place on his urban renewal hit list) with Juan Gomez, a political outcast? Especially after Juan felt cheated after this election and held a press conference or two about it and almost pushed for a ballot recount?!

Of course the City of Worcester wasn’t going to give Juan his Latino arts center, give him the $$$hundred-plus grand he needed to begin his project.

It’s the Worcester way!

So the PIP continues to languish and be an unsightly magnet for drugs and crime EVERY DAY. And Worcester’s Hispanic community and Downtown Worcester don’t get a cool, racial barrier busting Latino Arts Center!

Another lead balloon rolls down Worcester!

InCity Yum Yums

Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus and the “minority” community

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Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus

Let us start with City Manager Ed Augustus’ great plus: the development of downtown Worcester. He certainly has taken credit for it, and yet the evaluation of its success for Worcester has not been made. Many others had the foresight to see that the Galleria would be a failure when the Wrentham Outlets opened. Other city leaders wanted to reopen Front Street.

The issue of the development of our downtown and other areas of Worcester has led to the city’s Affirmative Action goals for construction jobs for city projects. No one in the public really knows how successful this effort has been. The City Manager’s office is not releasing significant or timely data. Also missing is: Where do people apply and what types of jobs are available?

The City Manager has taken credit for Affirmative Action through the hiring of Chief Diversity Officer, Dr. Carter. The success of this office and the number of jobs going to unemployed Worcester residents has yet to be evaluated.

The City Manager, unlike some other officials in the state, has maliciously prosecuted Worcester’s Black Lives Matter protestors. The judge in the case said that the very premise of the complaint filed by Augustus was wrong. The judge ruled that there was NO criminal action. At least one of the protesters was found not responsible of even the civil complaint. The City Manager failed in this area of race relations. He also failed by immediately selling the Mosaic Center building,  which has a long history in the Black community. This action was perceived as racist, as other unused and essentially abandoned City properties, such as the corner lot at Sunderland Road and Lake Ave. which are a hazard and an eyesore, lie fallow.

City Manager Augustus gets failing grades for snow removal. As a pedestrian in the city I ask: How is it possible that anyone can give Augustus an “exceeds expectations” when he cannot keep Worcester streets open and safe during a snow storm? Any competent executive can do this.

The issue of lack of transparency has been around for decades in Worcester city government.  Augustus has again failed the City and its residents when he refused to release the report on the racist hate speech by a high ranking City of Worcester employee, Mr. Traynor. This is a reflection of the institutional racism in City of Worcester government. Traynor is one of the people who is supposed to accomplish the City’s Affirmative Action goals.

The lack of transparency continues into the Worcester Police Department where Chief Sargent has indicated that he has a policy for the City based on the “Broken Windows” theory. This policy used in other cities has resulted in racist practices such as “Stop, Question  and Frisk” in New York City. When will our Police Chief and City Manager make known the details of this policy?

City Manager Augustus is quite ordinary in his bending to disparate impacts on Worcester’s “minority” community.

InCity Yum Yums

What does the police policy of Broken Windows mean for Worcester?

lily
A civilian review board for the Worcester Police Department!

By Gordon Davis

What does the police policy of Broken Windows mean for Worcester?

We will certainly soon find out.

Recently the new Worcester Chief of Police, Steven Sargent, and Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus were interviewed by a local paper. During the interview, Chief Sargent revealed that he will police Worcester based on the Broken Window Theory. This was somewhat of a surprise.

The Chief had not, to my knowledge, revealed to the public his thinking on criminology, race or body cameras on police officers.

The Broken Window Theory has several parts: one component is the cleaning up of the physical environment, which lets people see that an area is cared for and surveilled. Another part of the Broken Windows Theory has been called Zero Tolerance. A third part has been the removal of “undesirables.”

The removing of “undesirables” has been in effect in Worcester for more than a decade. The so called “aggressive” panhandling ordinances of the City of Worcester are examples of this. The Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled that Worcester’s ordinances on panhandlers are unconstitutional. In some instances, this practice has been the intentional precursor of gentrification.

One can only wonder what Chief Sargent and his boss, City Manager Ed Augustus have planned for these people. Whatever it is, the public should know.

City Manager Augustus, after being ruled against by the Supreme Court, spoke from his bully pulpit demanding that the residents of Worcester give money to charity and not to panhandlers.

Zero Tolerance is the practice of arresting people for minor or non-existent violations such as “disorderly.” Many statutes regarding “disorderly” or disturbing the peace are vague and give the police arbitrary and discretionary powers. This practice eventually evolved into New York City’s infamous Stop, Question and Frisk policy.

There is evidence that the Stop, Question and Frisk practices of the New York Police Department were racial profiling and violated the Fourth Amendment. The police stopped hundreds of thousands of law abiding New Yorkers annually – the vast majority Black and Latino.

I would like Chief Sargent to say there will be no Stop, Question and Frisk policy in Worcester.

I actually agree with the first part of the Broken Windows Theory. Property owners should be made to maintain their properties. In a 2005 Harvard University Study conducted in the “hot spots” of Lowell, Mass, it was determined that improving the physical environment, such as the better enforcement of building codes, is the most effective part of the Broken Windows Theory. It was also the least unlawful.

Almost all of what the Worcester Police Department does in the city is secretive: statistics, reports and records of police misconduct are impossible to get. Police Chief Sargent and City Manager Augustus have a duty to meet with the residents of this city to explain what is in their Broken Windows Policy. A discussion of how Broken Windows will affect the Black and Latino communities and other residents of Worcester is needed.

This should be a REAL discussion: It would be helpful (but unlikely) if the gang of three Worcester City Councilors – Michael Gaffney, Konnie Lukes and Gary Rosen – were excluded.

InCity Voices

In Worcester government, Discrimination = Disparate Impact

carter
Dr. Carter – Worcester’s Chief Diversity Officer

By Gordon Davis

Disparate Impact discrimination is the legal term that describes discrimination without animus.

It usually is found as a policy that results in an adversely negative impact on a protected class based on a so called neutral or nondiscriminatory policy.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has ruled that criminal records disclosures can be considered disparate impacts.

It and other organization have created new policies to ensure that people who have been formerly incarcerated or arrested will get at least a chance for an interview when applying for work.

Another example of disparate impact is the so called School to Jail Pipeline which many people consider racist because it affects a disproportional number of Black Latino and poor students. The institutional mechanism and policies of the School to Jail Pipeline negatively affects all students.

The School to Jail Pipeline’s policies are racist, not because it is based on any negative animus but because it has a disproportional negative impact on Black, Latino and other students.

The solution to the disproportionally negative impact is a rewrite of policies. For Massachusetts the change has seemingly come in M.G.L. Chapter 222.

The opponents of the efforts to reform the policies leading to disparately negative impacts sometimes use the pretext of colorblindness.

We have seen this use by a local columnist to defend a lack of effective programs, the Worcester Police Department and people working in the Worcester Public Schools. In her recent column she said that white teachers are the victims.

A good teacher is a good teacher regardless of protected class or race. We should instead look at the policies that have the negative impact on our children.

It has been pointed out to me that the recent promotions of City of Worcester and Worcester Public School officials could be an example of Disparate Impact:

The present Commissioner of the Worcester Department of Public Works, Mr. Moosey, was, before he was appointed, the next in line to replace then DPW and P Commissioner Mr. Moylan.

Ms. Ledoux, the present Worcester City Clerk, was next in line when she was promoted and replaced her boss, David Rushford who recently retired.

The new City of Worcester Chief of Police, Mr. Sargent, was next in line when he was promoted to replace the retired Chief Gary Gemme.

All the people mentioned above are white and they were all well qualified for their experience and promoted to the top positions with in their respective departments.

There was one exception to this apparent policy of promoting the employee next in line: The Assistant Superintendent of our Worcester Public Schools was passed over in favor of a less qualified candidate. In this particular case the Assistant Superintendent is Latino and the less qualified candidate – now School Superintendent – is white.

In terms of unlawfulness this might not be disparate impact. The hiring process of department heads was not the same or similarly done, as was the hiring of the Worcester School Superintendent. The Worcester School Committee made the decision regarding the Superintendent. The aforementioned city department heads were appointed by either Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus or elected by the Worcester City Council.

Our School Suprintendent is hired by the Worcester School Committee.

However, the hiring of Maureen Benienda as School Superintendent certainly was not in compliance with Affirmative Action policies of the City of Worcester or their intent.

The policies were written to ensure that when a person in a protected class has the same or better qualifications as a candidate not in the protected class, the person in the protected class would be hired.

This Affirmative Action policy has worked very well for the Worcester Police Department for the protected class of armed forces veterans. One hundred percent of police cadets are veterans.

Is there animus in Worcester’s hiring practices?

Maybe there is.

Is there an adversely negative impact in Worcester’s hiring policies?

Yes, there is, as seen in the statistics.

All of the promotions to department heads have been white. The better qualified Latino candidate for School Superintendent is Latino and he was passed over.

Dr. Carter, the recent hire for the newly created Worcester Chief Diversity Officer position, does not seem to have any power to do anything significant.

I believe she is a good person in a position requiring moral courage.

Unfortunately, this was predicted during last summer Department of Justice “dialogues on race.”bThis writer said those “dialogues“ are a joke and that the position of Chief Diversity Officer would be just a token or crumb for “minorities” to fight over.

InCity Yum Yums

Gordon is parked in yum yums … Worcester discussions on race still a joke  

By Gordon Davis

Bait and switch came to mind as I sat listening last night to the speakers at the City of Worcester’s race dialogue sponsored by the City Manager’s Committee against Bias and Hate. Although billed as a discussion of race and a summary of the notes collected during Worcester’s summertime hearings on race, which were conducted by the Department of Justice, it was only a rah-rah session for Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus. He spoke for a long time about the things he has done. Neither the City Manager nor any of the scheduled speakers said a single word about or used the phrase “BlackLives Matter.”

Many in the City are either afraid of or disagree with BlackLives Matters. This is sad, as even the Presidential candidates have spoken to the issues.

City Manager Augustus spoke of the Chief Diversity Officer he has hired, Dr. Malika Carter. She was in the audience and, curiously, not at the speakers’ table.

This is not a good sign, as many Black women in City government have been marginalized and forced out. I wish her good fortune and success.

The City Manager then spoke of the sensitivity training that Worcester police officers have undergone. He did not say anything about transparency of Worcester police policies and misconduct. These remain secret and unavailable for public scrutiny.

The other speakers were from private agencies and non-profit organizations. They all said the right things, and I have to also say that they do good work, given their limited resources and mission statements.

The most interesting and, I think, useful of the non-profits is Community Legal Aid (CLA). It helps people with their civil cases such as housing, unemployment and discrimination. Valerie Zolezzi-Wynham, managing attorney, spoke how CLA diversified its staff and hired an outreach attorney specifically for the Asian community which has not much used CLA’s services. It also hired an Educational Attorney to help students with their cases and “level the playing field.”

Mabel Milner is the chair of the City Manager’s Committee against Bias and Hate. This Committee organized the meeting. Ms. Milner facilitated the meeting.  According to the City Manager, her Committee has been enlarged to be more inclusive.

Ms. Milner indicated that Reverend Tally, the minister at the AME ZION Church, heads a subcommittee that reviewed the notes from last summer DOJ hearings.

Rev. Tally apologized for the lateness of the summary and said that the review of the notes was not complete. He pointed out that the raw information could be found on the City of Worcester’s website.

The speaker for the NAACP, Pat Yancy, indicated that it had held a demonstration when a hangman’s noose was seen at the Post Office in the Denholm Building and that it held a support service for the Black church goers killed in South Carolina.

Members of the Progressive Labor Party had passed out flyers with five demands to fight racism in Worcester:

Transparency of Worcester Police policies and misconduct

Stop arresting students at schools

Fully funded Public Schools

Jobs for Worcester residents

End City of Worcester use of police force against BlackLives Matter and the poor

Reverend Tally promised the audience that there will be more discussions like the one last night.

I hope he is wrong.

The meeting was a joke on the people of Worcester. 

Like the DOJ hearings during the summer, people who should have attended the meeting boycotted it.

The words that needed to be said were not said.

Leadership is needed in this city. Many people in leadership positions are just misguided or pretending.