Hello Worcester, It's Me Gabe

Wow,

Let me wipe the dust off of this blog.

I was raised out of retirement today. Last night I attended a discussion on the plan for the Theater District in Worcester. I liked it so much I am even accepting the Theater District as a name for the neighborhood. I think the main reason I am accepting it is because the plan actually calls for a second theater in the neighborhood besides the Hanover.

After the plan was presented the WBDC and the consultants who drew up the master plan opened the floor up to comments, questions, and critiques. Everything was mostly positive. Good points were made, but there was one question that was asked that is the very thing that made me take to the ol My Five Senses again. Someone raised their hand and asked about the age old dirty word, gentrification. This has been bugging me all day. See I am not worried about it. As a matter off fact I usher it in with open arms and give it a fruit cake and say, WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD GENTRIFICATION! I AM GLAD YOU DECIDED TO MOVE IN!

I get it, no one should be priced out of their own neighborhood. Does this neighborhood really have an identity though? Is there a tight nit community here that will be displaced? People who have worked hard to make this neighborhood their own?

Worcester desperately needs an urban neighborhood densely populated with market rate housing. DESPERATELY  This is not an exaggeration here. Every year we lose some of our best and brightest to cities with neighborhoods where dope fiends aren't hangin out by the front doors nightly. Where people aren't pissing in the streets, and were people for the most part, know how to treat one another. And don't give me any of your bullshit. I lived in Main South for almost ten years and I have lived in the “Theater District” for about 5. I have friends that I made who lived in the neighborhood from Detroit who say this is some of the worst they have seen. There is nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy a good standard of living. Nothing at all. All I want is one urban neighborhood with majority market rate housing in this city. Really? That's too much to ask? I hope this plan is successful and that it takes shape at least somewhat close to how it was presented last night. That's all I got for now. We'll see if I have some more soon. Hello blogosphere. It's been a while.

Rollins 2011

My 5 Senses has been silent for close to a year now. The main reason being is some of my readers got very vocal about me putting up or shutting up and shut up I have done since last August. In that time I have done a lot of thinking about how I feel about Worcester Massachusetts, if I want to stay or go, and if I do stay what I want to do to make it the kind of place that I and everyone that lives here can feel proud to call home.

I am hereby announcing my candidacy for an at large seat on the Worcester City Council. For too long people who do not work, live, and play in our urban center have controlled the destiny of our urban center and for the most part have ignored it's quality of life issues.

Join us this Thursday at Jak's Pub at 536 Main Street between 7pm and 9pm for a campaign kick off party/fundraiser. Entertainment will be provided by two of Worcester's finest singer/songwriters, Scott Ricciuti and Michael Thibodeau. We have a great deal of work to do and need your help to do it. This is something that has a serious reality of happening and I am excited at the possibilities. A donation to the campaign of $20 is suggested however any donation is appreciated up to and including your time and presence.

Thanks for reading this blog over the years folks! Your comments both on line and in person are what make me have the energy and confidence to make this happen.

Hope to see you on Thursday.

When You Think You Are Helping But Actually Making the Problem Worse

If you've been around the common over the past couple weeks you may have noticed that the ice skating rink that was finished earlier this year has changed shape a bit. As a matter of fact if you didn't know that was it's main purpose you may not recognize it as a rink at all. The city took down the boards and left the four wrought iron corner fences. They also scattered about 10-12 cafe tables complete with umbrellas around the oval.

While walking through there the other day I noticed that the tables were all locked up but I thought nothing of it as it was past 9pm and I am sure that the park was technically closed.

About an hour ago I took a stroll up to the White Hen and out of curiosity I walked across the street to see if my worst assumptions would be proven true. Sure enough, on a Sunday afternoon at 3pm all of the tables and chairs were still locked up in a manner that would make it impossible for anyone to sit in them.

You have to really wonder whether the City of Worcester is ever going to get it. When you live in an urban apartment or condo with no yard you depend on neighborhood parks for your outdoor recreation. For anyone who lives in Federal Square or Downtown that park is the common. Now granted I am one of probably only a handful of working money making folk living down here who actually want to use the park but that doesn't mean other folks that live here can't discover the park. A year from now the population down here, at least in Bancroft Commons development, will be doubled.

Making a park have the appearance of a vibrant useful park and then denying neighborhood residents use of a part of it during normal daylight hours is an absolute slap in the face to anyone who has chosen to live down here. I mean why even put the tables out there? What was the point. Can anyone tell me what the point was?

55 Pearl

(Image ganked from Bill Randell over at his blog. He probably ganked it from someone else anyways)

This may very well be the best outdoor dining spot in the whole city. Not a very wordy review here except to say that I had a ridiculously good burger topped with cheese (don't remember the kind of cheese) applewood smoked bacon, and tempura leeks and a Sierra Nevada for $12 and sat outside underneath a big tree and watched downtown go by. I will go back to 55 Pearl many times over.

Dripping With Disdain

So this is almost a month old but I was surfing around the Womag website and came upon this interview with Rajesh Patel, manager of the Newsroom on Front St. Dude seems to really dislike his business.

What strikes me though is two questions at the bottom of the page. One is a follow up of a question where Womag asks if he has had any ideas to turn the store into something else.

Part of his reply is this: "Some people are telling me to turn it into a grocery store, but I can’t do that because people downtown who come by bus won’t bring their groceries from here to home on the bus."

What the hell Rajesh? There are about 600 people living right across the common from you. Do you even know that?

Then the interviewer asks what he likes about doing business on Front St Patel responds: "The foot traffic and the bus stop keeps us going. If there was no bus stop, we would have been closed a long time ago."

The densely populated urban areas of Worcester are coming, maybe not right away but the writing is on the wall and they will be here. Federal Sq, in and of itself will be a very densely populated place most likely by the 2010 census with 11 buildings of dense housing all within a seven block radius that will be mostly filled by then.

The businesses that are going to come out ahead of the curve in that neighborhood and the adjacent neighborhoods are going to be the ones that figure out how to take advantage of the needs of the folks who live in these buildings. It's obvious by this article that even if you know there are people living in these buildings you are already at an advantage over some of your competition because some of them don't even know that. I wonder how many people on Front and Franklin are even factoring in the skating rink into their winter 09/10 plans of attack.

Also, I remember hearing rumors about a year ago that the Newsroom was looking to change formats into a liquor store which was denied by the city. At the time I was glad because my thinking was all they were trying to do was capitalize on the void left by Bancroft Liquors on the 40oz and nip market. Sorry to see I was correct in that assumption.

Place always left a bad taste in my mouth and even though it is right across the common from me as a citizen of the neighborhood I don't find much reason to go in there. I would like to hope that in the future this might change, but after reading this interview it's hard to keep the faith.

Neighborhoods

So if Worcester had a strong mayor, and I was that guy, the first thing I would do would be to meet with the people in charge of this website. What we would talk about is the direction of this part of the website and try to figure out how we could make it more comprehensive. My first order of business would be to get rid of the 7 links under the "More Information" heading (and the heading all together) and then add 30 links which would be:

Airport Hill
Ararat
Beacon
Burncoat
Canal District
Chadwick
Chandler (Or Peidmont Village)
College Hill
Downtown
East Side
Federal Square
Gateway Park
Grafton Hill
Greendale
Green Island
Hadwen Park
Highland/Elm
Lower Lincoln
North Main
North Worcester
Quinsigamond Village
Shrewsbury Street (or Bell Hill)
South Worcester
Tatnuck
University Park
Upper Grafton
Upper Lincoln
Vernon Hill
Webster Square
West Side

Each neighborhoods page would have a map of the neighborhood, pictures of the neighborhood, and information divided into four sections.

1. About The Neighborhood- A clear and concise yet brief history of the neighborhood and explanation as to the shaping of the neighborhood and how it got to be the way it is today including demographics, cultures, ethinicities, and crime stats. This section should sell the neighborhood but should do so in an honest and straightforward fashion and should not be sugar coated unless merited. In Shrewsbury Streets section for example it would be perfectly acceptable to talk about the abundance of restaurants. Negatives should not be talked about but for example if the neighborhood has a crime problem it shouldn't be called a good place to raise a family.

2. Living In The Neighborhood- What does the average house cost and what is the housing stock in this neighborhood? What about the average rent for one, two and three bedrooms? What schools will kids attend if they live in the neighborhood? What does the neighborhood offer for places of worship? What is the parking situation? What highways are close? What bus lines run through? How walkable is the neighborhood? What is here for grocery stores and markets?

3. Playing In The Neighborhood- What does the neighborhood offer for restaurants, cafes, bars, galleries, shopping, museums, theaters, parks, sports, classes, and other indoor and outdoor leisure and cultural activities.

4. Working In The Neighborhood- Does the neighborhood have any large employer or dominant industry?

Worcester is not just one community. In this city of almost 180,000 people there are many communities and many different priorities, but before we start to really tackle any of them we need to organize as best we can these communities so that we can come up with good master plans for all of them and try the best we can so as to not just create desirable spaces to live, work, and play but also do so in a way that not only raises our tax base so that we can keep doing it but also do it wisely so that the neighborhood becomes self sustaining.

I feel that once this happens, once our neighborhoods are defined and master plans are drawn up then we can go through them one at a time, much like you would do with the rooms in a house and do them up and do them up right. Of the 30 neighborhoods listed above 14 of them have something major going on in them either right now or drawn up and being looked at. We are spreading ourselves too thin. I say put enough in to all the neighborhoods to keep them as they are right now without letting get any worse and starting with the ones that are closest to being turned around put everything we can into executing that neighborhoods master plan to the fullest extent we can and then move onto the next one.

We do all this, and when the next real estate boom hits, here we will be, waiting with open arms, organized, saying Welcome to Worcester, here is what we have to offer, take off your coat and stay a while.

Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years?

This the first of a two part question I would want an answer to from anyone interested in being on our city council. The second part being, what do you plan on doing to get there?

I would hope the answer to the first part at least would be living in a vibrant urban center in Worcester Massachusetts. It's the only answer I want to hear at least.

If you care about the urban core of Worcester I urge you to run for city council, if you think you have the capacity. If you don't I urge you to try and convince people you know who you think would do a good job to run, and start working with other folks to get some bodies on that council that care about turning our urban center into a good looking, fun, interesting, safe, vibrant, and welcoming place to be.

The urban core has been left twisting in the wind for too long by our elected officials who talk a good game but when push comes to shove do not look at the rejuvenation of our inner city as a priority, and why should they when their constituency says they don't need to?

As a city we need 3 or 4 nice, welcoming inner city neighborhoods that draw folks from outside the city not only just to work and play but to live also. Without this we will always be not only a second class city, but a third class city.

If we were a town we could get away with bragging about how nice the West Side is or how much we have to offer as far as hiking and parks and outdoor pursuits in general but we aren't, we are a city and as a city we will be judged. As a city we are a shit hole. This is not negativity, this is the reality of the perception of most people who have visited, all who have abandoned, and too large of a percentage who still live here.

This needs to be changed and it is time we start working right now to make this change next November. Starting with Phil Palmieri as our biggest priority, we need new blood on that council. To me it seems like all it will take to send the gentrification of Federal Sq, Downtown, North Main, The Canal District, and Shrewsbury St into high gear is a change in perception. A feeling that living here and investing here is the right thing to do. Phil is the councilor for what I feel is the single most important district in the city, District 2. District 2 is home to the neighborhoods that I listed above. Those five neighborhoods are standing right at the peak of a roller coaster they have slowly been fighting their way up for years now. At the bottom on the other side are the great urban neighborhoods we know these 5 neighborhoods can become. Let's find someone to give that roller coaster that little extra push it needs, because Phil ain't the guy.

Judging by some of the things I have heard him say I am not even so sure he is on the same ride as most of us. Let's get someone else in there Worcester.

Sky Mark Tower

Wow!

If you know what I am talking about then you know exactly what I am talking about. If not you need yo get yourself into Downtown at night at some point over the next couple days. I really hope this is a permanent part of the landscape of the Worcester skyline.

Montreal very much has a signature thing with it's skyline with the rotating spotlight on it's tallest building. Worcester now has something like that. Go and check it out. It is very cool.

Stoop Conversations

Saturday night around 9pm I took a walk in the neighborhood and when I got back I decided to sit on the stoop for a little while and watch Franklin St go by.

What made me sit down and pay attention in the first place was police activity inside the common. Not sure what was going on but for some reason the officers decided to drive their cruiser right up inside the common. There was a guy on a bench and two officers were talking to him and shining their flashlights in his face. A couple times one of the officers walked away and shined his flashlight on the ground over by the cemetary so I am thinking it was most likely something to do with drugs. Eventually they picked him up and brought him out to the Franklin St side of the Common where a van came to haul him away.

Now what made all of this interesting was as this was all happening a young Asian couple pulled up in front of the building, probablty in their late 20's driving some sort of newer mid sized Japanese car. They park their car and walk up to the front steps. They look at the building, look at their car, look at the dude getting arrested, look at the building, look at their car, look at the dude getting arrested. I ask if they are possibly looking to move into an apartment, prepared to tell them how wonderful of a time I have had living there. They say no they are just visiting a friend. They are still looking around and the woman asks if I live there, to which I reply that I do. Then the man asks, "Is the area safe?"

Along with the man who got arrested there was another man pushing a shopping cart who also got kicked out of the park. When the couple asked if the area was safe they were both staring straight at this man with very concerned looks on their faces. I said that the neighborhood was completely safe and that the man with the cart, while not very pleasant to look at was just homeless and completely harmless. As the paddy wagon raced off, blue lights flashing, they did not seem to believe me. By this time their friends had come down stairs to let them in and we bid each other a good night.

So the question I would have for the officers who took part in this arrest would be:

1. Did you really need to drive the cruiser right up into the common and have your lights going so that anyone driving by the common and just glancing in would think that Downtown is crime ridden?

2. Did the police van really need to be sitting there with it's lights going? Again, do we really need to call attention to the crime? If it's minor things like public disturbances can't we just discreetly deal with it instead of putting on a show in the middle of Downtown?

The impact of this is that our young couple goes back to wherever they came from and tells their family, friends and coworkers about the awful, scary experience they had in Worcester over the weekend. They also probably give their friends shit for living in such a place which makes them doubt whether they want to renew the lease when the time comes.

Part of the Worcester Frustration

Part of it, for me at least, is the lack of choices that do not allow you to live your life as you would in a real city. Businesses and establishments are inconsistent the world over for sure, but when you walk out your door at 11:30am on a Saturday morning and your choices for something quick Downtown are Subway, Woosta Pizza, and Spoodles and only one of them is open when all three claim to have regular Saturday hours you can't help but walk back to your apartment with your head down muttering obscenities about Worcester under your breath.

Latin American Festival 2008

Living in Main South for almost 8 years there was nothing I wanted to go to less than the Latin American Festival. Mostly because of years of encountering things like this:



I have to say though that all those years I was really missing out. What a good time this is!

Really this is all I have to say about it. Very very very good music and very very very good food being enjoyed by very very very good people having a very very very good time.

Musical highlights for me were Murga La de Todos (Uraguay), Franroy Figuero & Carlos Boys Band (Cuba), Grupo Boriken (Puerto Rico), Gregorio Uribe Big Band (Columbia) and Yomo Toro and the Frankie Morales Orchestra.

Just incredible. I am already looking forward to next year. Take advanage in 2009 folks. This is world class pro music that could be commanding quite a heavy admission charge and it is totally free and happening right here in your city. Do not sleep on this next year.

Strange Fruit comes to Worcester

If you didn't get to see one of the six performances this Australian performance troupe did over the past couple of days you really missed out on something special. I shot some video of it but these three videos do a much better job and capture almost the entire performance. I still can't really describe it in words so check out the videos yourself.







It was great to see something like this happening downtown. I saw Mike O'Brien watching and made sure to tell him that it's things like this that make city living great. He said there is lot's more to come. Let's hope I can take the man at his word.

Worcester Block by Block #2.1: Franklin, Salem, Myrtle, Portland

Although the main property in Bancroft Commons, the downtown development by the Mayo Group, is the old Bancroft Hotel at 50 Franklin Street, most of the land and buildings in the development exist on this block which neighbors the Bancroft.

The block consists of 4 residential buildings with street level commercial store fronts, 1 office building with street level commercial store fronts, an old theater, an enormous old indoor auto sales and service complex, and a large industrial building.

We'll start at the corner of Franklin Street portion and work our way around.

60 Franklin St: The Hooka Hot Spot














The Hooka Hot Spot is the first new business to open in the Bancroft Commons development and features hooka smoking as well as coffee, tea and smoothies. Aside from chips and salsa or hummus there really isn't any food at the moment. The Hooka Hot Spot is currently in soft opening phase and will have their grand opening in September at which time I hope to have a more detailed entry just devoted to them. Personally I am a big fan of the Hooka smoking and find it to be one of the more relaxing and conversation friendly activities you can participate in. If you have never done it right now is an excellent time to try it as the Hot Spot is offering a free Hooka to first time visitors for the entire month of August. I say try it out, what do you have to lose? They are open Sunday through Wednesday 5pm to Midnight and Thursday through Saturday 5pm to 2am. For more info, including an interesting page about the Hooka and it's history, check out the website.

62 Franklin Street: Offices














This building appears to be 3 floors of as yet to be renovated office space above the Hooka Hot Spot and Sylvia Dress Shop. I am not sure what Mayo plans to do with this address but as of right now it sits vacant. As with the rest of the development, it will be interesting to see what the future holds.

64 Franklin Street: Sylvia Dress Shop
Sylvia Dress Shop recently moved from their digs on Main Street over here to their completely refurbished store at 64 Franklin. I don't know much about dresses but what Sylvia seems to specialize in is fancy dress. Think gowns of the wedding, prom, and evening variety. For my thoughts on the old Sylvia location and the building it resided in see the future Block by Block entry on the Main, Franklin, Portland, Federal block.

66 Franklin Street: Mass Pro Hair Braiding
In one of the two little store fronts that straddle the entrance to the Paris. Awful signage and a business that I am not sure fits the demographic of the neighborhood. Although there seems to be an interesting one stop shopping thing that is developing here on Franklin I am not so sure if it's the kind of thing that goes with Mayo's vision of the neighborhood.

68 Franklin Street: Paris Cinema














Here it is folks, the granddaddy of the downtown eye sore. For those unfamiliar the Paris for years was a porn theater and store which was the sight of all sorts of arrests, prostitution and socially unacceptable behavior. Today it sits closed and vacant as a constant reminder to the citizens of Worcester of what their beloved downtown tragically turned into over the last 4o years of the 1900's. When I first became a resident of this neighborhood last October I applauded Mayo's intent to demolish the building. For the most part I still do but what I think would be great and one of the most psychologically satisfying things that could happen for Worcester as a whole would be the remodeling of this space into a replacement for the closed and shuttered Bijou Cinema which was forced out for the building of the City Square project in late 2004. From the small entrance way it's hard to tell but if you look at the back of the building (you can see it a little bit in the picture) it's a large old theater similar to the Hanover and The Palladium. It would do so much for the attitude of the city to see the Paris returned to the former glory of the Capitol Theater while at the same time filling the need of an Art House theater in Worcester that was left wide open with the closing of the Bijou. This may be a bit of dreaming on my part though. Read the comments at the bottom of the link I provided, they get pretty interesting.

70 Franklin St: Vacant store front

72 Franklin St: A's Barber Shop

74 Franklin St: Sonja's Wigs

76 Franklin St: Worcester Commons














76 Franklin is one of the three current residential addresses of the Bancroft Commons development. I've never been inside so I cannot attest to the apartments or what they look like.

78 Franklin Street: Vacant Store Front
Wow would a pizza place or some sort of takeout be awesome right here. I will more into this in later Block by Block entries but there is a real good business opportunity here for someone if they are willing to jump on it.

82 Franklin Street: More Apartments


















Very cool old building at the corner of Franklin and Salem. What is something to take notice of next time you go buy is how the streets are names right on the corner of the building and the building was built at a time when Franklin St wasn't called Franklin St but was called Park St instead.

84 Franklin Street: 83oAM WCRN True Talk Radio
One of the more interesting new tenants in the Bancroft Commons development is local talk radio station WCRN. With their big, open, on air studio (bottom right of the above picture) facing the common they definitely add a nice feel to downtown. I am still tempted to go and hold up signs when Peter Blute says something I don't agree with. No real web presence yet though, which is odd for a station who is definitely trying to be a big time radio station. Get on the ball folks!!!!

Worcester Block by Block #1 in Pictures

Worcester Block By Block #1: Main St, Front St, Franklin St

Worcester Block by Block is something I have been thinking about for a long time. Basically documenting every block in the urban core on foot and then adding a little of my own commentary about the block to go along with it. As I have said quite often Worcester is an insider's city and I think that since I see so much of urban Worcester on foot that I see the city from a different perspective than a lot of Central Massachusetts residents. It occurred to me it might be fun to share some of this perspective. I figured I would start dead center in the middle of the city and work my way out in rings. Hopefully there will be entire posts along the way about single things on a certain block that deserve more attention. I also hope that my ADD doesn't get the best of me and I can follow this through to the four corners of urban Worcester. I also hope that during this little experiment I can get a new digital camera and take myself some pictures. If you are free during the day and would like to be the official Worcester Block by Block photographer though, let me know.

Let's get started


There are really only two things on this entire block, city hall and the Worcester Common Park. Along with the stretch of Main across from city hall the block also serves as the hub for the WRTA. Rumor has it though that the WRTA is looking to change this and move the hub to Union Station.

Most days during the week the Common is a wash with activity from people waiting for buses to downtown workers on their lunch breaks to people with nothing better to do then just hang out in the park. The Main St side of city hall is usually filled with inner city kids hanging out and always appearing to be up to no good. Who knows what they are really up to though. Most mornings Monday through Friday there is a vendor at the corner of Main and Front selling hot dogs.

The Common Park has always seemed a bit underutilized which may have to do with their not being too many folks living near it. Right now they are building a skating rink in the Common and have half of it dug up and fenced off which pretty much cuts off the main residential building (Bancroft Commons) from the area of downtown north of city hall. I question the wisdom of the build it and they will come thinking of the ice skating rink but am excited about the event pad that will be there during the warm months. I am interested to know how big the rink is going to be and if it will be possible to pay regulation hockey games on it. St. John's versus St Peter Marian anyone?

Another plan

The Telegram reported today on yet another proposed redevelopment plan for one of the cities many blighted urban neighborhoods. As most of these plans do, this one has it's good ideas and bad ideas. Good being knocking down that AT+T building. Bad being operating a trolley in one neighborhood that sits in between several neighborhoods that all are walkable.

As an aside by the way, a trolley that serviced Shrewsbury St, The Canal District, Downtown, and Elm/Highland would be phenomenal, but this is only talking about North Main.

Why I do this I don't know, but I usually read all the comments on any stories involving development and planning on the Telegram page mostly to get myself all riled up and the ignorance that gets spouted over there. Every one in a while you see something pretty good.

From a poster known only as "Gonzoworm":

"As a professional city planner born and raised in Worcester, I can hear and understand some of the frustration with 'another plan,' but such plans are the only way that investors and business people get the signal that a certain area should be invested in...however, the city's real problem is not so much too many plans, it that there is no one unified vision for the city...Tim Murray wasn't a plan...Worcester Ctr. Common Square or whatever Mr. Park calls is not a plan or vision either...the reason Worcester continues to languish is that no one can articulate how these competing and sometimes incompatible mini-plans (north main, courthouse, Hanover, canal district, Shrewsbury street, gateway project, union station etc.) work TOGETHER...that's where real planning happens...the city has no trained city planners working for it (sorry, Joel Fontaine) and the the continued recycling of long-time ineffective city hangers-on (see: Steve O'Neil, Dennis Hennesey, Julie Jacobson) and grandstanding unimaginative and under-educated elected officials, it's no wonder people continue to feel that despite all the activity in recent years, it's not leading anywhere. Like Hemmingway said, never mistake motion for action. For what it's worth, I work for a real estate and architecture firm consulting nationwide...large scale moneyed investors often look to see is a city has a current master plan before making investment decisions...Worcester's last master plan was done in 1987 before computers using typewriters and hand-drawn graphics...Worcester is fond of promoting it's innovative industrial heritage and current biotech-university new frontier...but with a no modern, unified plan, we'll be having this same discussion within 10 years...at one time Worcester was a national leader. It's time to reassert ourselves. GENERAL PLAN NOW!!!!"

I think we need more people like this Gonzoworm character getting involved with the reshaping of urban Worcester.

Downtown Preacher Man Live Blog

As blogged about over at 4rilla is For Real this guy has been down at the Worcester Common every Saturday in the good weather since I moved here in mid October of last year. Sometimes he is so loud that I can't even watch television, read, or even concentrate in my own apartment, and I am 8 floors up and about 70 yards away. I decided this weekend that I would get to the bottom of it. Here is what transpired. Kudos to the police for the quick response.

1:03 PM
Here I am. In the common on the free city wi-fi. I am about to call the police on the dude. Let's see what they do.

1:08 PM
Supposedly an officer is on his way.

1:18 PM
An officer arrived and talked to the preacher. He in fact has a permit for every Saturday in the common for the rest of the summer.

So what is the next step here? Ask yourself. Would you stand for this? How much does it cost to get a permit to do something involving amplification in one of the most high profile public spaces in our city? If I wanted to have a concert in the common with amplification every Saturday could I? Would I need a police detail? Should the preacher have a police detail? Does my city councilor know about this? How does he feel about it? All questions I intend to get answered this week.

1:33 PM
I haven't heard a peep out of him in about 10 minutes he talked for a little bit after the police showed but since then I haven't heard much. The officer did tell him to turn down a bit.

I honestly don't mind him being there if he keeps it to a dull roar. I didn't move down here for the peace and quiet. Almost anything that loud that happens on a weekly basis though has gotta go.

1:55 PM
He's gone. He is usually here, two three hours. Interesting. He has a permit, but the police coming down obviously made him think about some things.

To be continued next week...

Do You Remember

That PSA that used to run in the 80's about cocaine? "I need to keep working more hours, so I can make more money, so I can buy more coke, so I can work more hours, so I can make more money so I can buy more coke, so I can work more hours so I can buy more coke...." And so on and so on.

I have a new one for Worcester.

There's no one downtown, because people think it's dangerous, because there's no one downtown, because people think it's dangerous, because there's no one downtown, because people think it's dangerous... and on and on and on.

Downtown this morning 7/12/08

Got up early (well early for me on a Saturday) with the goal of going down to the barber on North Main and getting my hairs cut. Like a whole lot of businesses in the city this week he is closed for vacation. I was going to write a big diatribe here about this and then remembered that I took July and August off for the First Fridays so I need to drink a big glass of shut the the f*ck up.

On my way there I noticed that there is a new designer glasses store opening up at the corner of Walnut and Main. The guys inside said about two weeks. They weren't the owners though so who knows how factual this is. They couldn't even tell me the name of the business. There is a very nice Georgio Armani logo stenciled on the front double doors however.

I was looking to eat some lunch/breakfast and passed by Garden Fresh. They were open. I kept walking. The owner thinks that street vendors are going to cause bomb like hysteria in downtown Worcester. Stupid folks like that are bound to mess my food up. I won't ever go there again. You shouldn't either. You are only asking for eventual bad food.

I went walking around behind Garden Fresh up George St and Eden St. There is an absolutely gorgeous old house I have never seen before at the end of Harvard Ct with it's windows all smashed out and a big red x on it which of course means it's destined for the wrecking ball. It's really too bad. This house could have been a really cool three or four unit apartment or condo building.

I continued down Eden and was noticing all the urban residential in this area. A great deal of what looks like 6 or 7 plus unit buildings. You would think with Unum and Fallon right here never mind all the other offices that these buildings would be packed with young professionals. Especially with the rising cost of gas. What has changed where it was so common in the early days of industrial America for workers to live so close to where they worked but now this just isn't the case? I would love to live directly across the street from my job. I would love to live 80% of my life on one block and spend the other 20 traveling. Maybe this is just me.

I walked back down to Main and ended up getting lunch at Spoodles at the corner of Main and Maple. This place is a real jewel that doesn't get much play in the Worcester word of mouth. It's one of those places that does everything right. Food and atmosphere. I had a pastrami on rye while sitting up in the loft seating looking at pictures of Dean Martin and James Dean and listening to an early 50's pop satellite radio station. Yep good experience down to the last detail.

I walked past City Hall on the way back to my place. There was some crazy Christian Jesus Saves type demonstration going on on the steps of City Hall where a bunch of people were yelling at a bunch of other people and telling them that the way they live their lives is wrong. What happened to separation of church and state? What would happen if next Saturday I wanted to have a rock concert on the steps of City Hall? And for jeebus sake can someone get that preacher with the high wattage public address system out of my front yard on Saturdays?

Downtown this morning

Downtown this morning is really awesome.

Dude playing catch in the common with his kids. Two street vendors on Front St, one selling flowers the other selling jewelry and incense. Another vendor, who is selling hot dogs in front of City Hall, told me there was TV coverage this morning on the street vendor issue.

My favorite thing going on this morning though?

In a transformation of space that should embarrass City Hall, there is a busker singing and playing guitar in the foyer of the old Paris Cinema on Franklin St. Seems to be cleaning up too.

VIBRANCY!!!!