You can complain....

Article today in the Telegram about the sale of the Chevalier building in the Canal District to Winn Management. Comments are filled with boobs as per usual. So first order of business Worcester needs to do is abolish the term low income housing and start calling it what everyone else does: rent control. Next thing they need to do if they are going to keep funding this stuff is start educating the public on what rent control is, who is eligible, and how they can benefit from it.

$33,600

That is how much you should be making to be eligible for one of these apartments. There are real good, honest, hardworking folks making this kind of money. Young folks just out of college that are living with roommates they can't stand in drafty 3 deckers in parts of the city a lot shittier than the Canal District. Parts of the city where they need to get in their car to get some good take out or go to a decent bar, or go shopping at a good thrift store. Parts of the city where they need to take a car or get in a cab to get to the commuter rail. Parts of the city where it takes them 15 minutes just to get to 290 in rush hour. And I don't know if you have looked around Water St in a while, but parts of the city where they may not feel as free with their sexuality as they might in the Canal District.

We as a city can blame Winn all we want if this fails (and they would deserve some of the blame) but we as a city are funding a part of this and you know what? It's a done deal. So instead of being the cowpokes that we are and not understanding the difference between clustered low income housing in an already ghetto-ized neighborhood and rent control in a hip, up and coming neighborhood, how about we do things like direct people looking for a place to live to this neighborhood and you know, be a little fucking positive for once?

I don't believe Worcester can be what I want it to be anymore, but that doesn't mean I don't think that stuff can't work out sometimes as intended. If I was single, 23 years, just out of college, and living in Worcester I can't think of anywhere else I would want to be than the Canal District because there is actually shit going on there all the time on a weekly (most of the time nightly) basis year round. You can't say that about any other neighborhood in Worcester.

CSX

It is a bit crazy reading all the comments over at the Telegram regarding the CSX expansion and the Grafton Hill Business Associations opposition towards it. A few commenting there see it but what the majority is failing to see is that this is a rare opportunity to do it right. Now when I say right I mean really right. Not right for economic development, not right for gentrification (a concept that I fully support in Worcester by the way), and not right for aesthetics, but right... as in really right... worldly right …everything is right with the cosmos right.

Here is an opportunity to usher in jobs, not just any jobs, but jobs for people that need them. People who may not have the good fortune to own a car that is going to take them east to professional jobs. People who may not even have the college education needed to get those jobs. People that for whatever their lot in life may contribute greatly to the make up, appearance and bad rep that our city has.

Let's face it, Grafton Hill ain't no great shakes. You drive down any of those side streets between 290 and Billings Sq and the conditions are very similar to those you see in Main South, Piedmont Village and neighboring Vernon Hill. These folks need work and they need blue collar work. How nice might it be for these folks to have well paying jobs that they can walk to. I am guessing that if the people who live in Grafton Hill that oppose the expansion want to leave the neighborhood folks with new found CSX jobs would love to take their place.

Now, as far as the businesses go, you operate your business in a city. A city that NEEDS to change. I would ask yourself these questions: Does the neighborhood you do business in need help? Does it have a plan? Are you part of that plan? Does your existing business fit in with that plan? If there isn't a plan are you prepared to be there when one is drawn up? If you have never asked these questions you need to get with the damn program because when shit changes it is on YOU not the city, and not CSX. You think the Kenmore is poo pooing over this? You think Choo Choo Charlies is? You own a garage? Get a diesel mechanic! Adapt. There are going to be 100 more trucks a day. These guys need STUFF. When they come asking for it, HAVE IT!

The face of Grafton Hill is going to change. The change is that it's daytime population is going to go way way way up with people with money in their pockets. Now you can continue to whine and carry on about it or you can step up, adapt, and make money along with everyone else.

As far as The Canal District, Washington Sq, and Shrewsbury St go, the negative impact will be minimal and if and when we get those 20 extra trains, the positive impact will far far far outweigh the negative.

So in short, have a little faith and STFU for a change Worcester. This is a good thing, the rare good thing that is a good thing for EVERYBODY.

PLEASE JUST SIT BACK AND LET IT HAPPEN.

2009 Mayor/City Council Elections Episode 2: District 2 Council Seat

This guy right here is running unopposed in District 2. He's my district councilor. He is the councilor of Federal Sq, Downtown, North Main, Shrewsbury St and The Canal District. He chose not to respond to my interview. I'd print his name, but you know, screw him. Shutting the hell up is probably the smartest thing dude has done all term. I mean the guy who thinks that young people and their ideas are bad for Worcester should probably shut the hell up right? Hooray Phil, Worcester's apathy gets you another term! Congrats. Thanks for not growing a pair and answering my interview!

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?

Dear Councilors

Sent this out today. I urge anyone reading this to do the same.

Mayor, Councilors, and City Manager,

I was alarmed to see the story printed in the Telegram today about the low income housing development planned for Water St in the Canal District. If you care about the city and care about the progress that has been made in one of the truly up and coming neighborhoods in Worcester you must understand that this is a terrible idea and one that could erase everything that has gone on in that neighborhood over the past 5 years. While great strides have been made in the Canal District there is still much to do to get things where they should be and part of that is getting the neighborhood densely populated by a demographic that will frequent the great new restaurants, bars, shops, and galleries that are opening on what seems like a monthly basis there.

Low income housing may very well add more crime, and overall will hinder attempts to make the neighborhood clean and aesthetically pleasing as it must be to be attractive to the young urban minded folks it needs to attract to move forward.

I hope that you take this seriously and understand that along with City Square, the future urban quality of life in Worcester also hinges on the success or failure of neighborhoods like The Canal District, Federal Sq, North Main and Shrewsbury St. We should be working diligently to make these neighborhoods our urban crown jewels.

I understand the development is already approved but I would hope you take the opportunity to oversee the process and make sure that it fits with the character of the Canal District as has already been defined and not let the building become an eventual cultural eyesore that may in fact hinder the rejuvenation of what could potentially not only become one of our greatest urban neighborhoods, but a destination for many in Central Massachusetts and beyond.

Thank you for reading and I hope you understand the possible implications of this development.

In case you haven't read it this is what I am all fired up about:

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090319/NEWS/903190624/1101/LOCAL

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.