Has the Worcester renaissance always been SponCon?
The Boston Globe formalizes the Developer / Newspaper relationship
Hello and welcome to the Thursday edition! This one is a bunch of quick hit stories, and then on Sunday, I’ll be releasing a neat longer essay I’ve been working on all week examining the links between Holy Cross and the CIA. (I’m going off camping tomorrow morning so you’ll get that one while I’m away in the woods without a cellphone, which is mildly stressful but a cool experiment.)
In today’s post:
Polar Park SponCon—Pressure campaign on shelter changes—Clairo at the White Eagle—ADU Override—Odds and ends
Has the Worcester renaissance always been SponCon?
The economic development consent manufacturing machine around Polar Park is at it again! This time with a new twist on an old classic.
The Boston Globe on Tuesday published a story headlined “In Worcester, a ballpark and a neighborhood rise together.” The copy is run of the mill. Same old blah blah about “moving forward,” quoting the same old people. The interesting part is this right here...
Computer: enhance.
Rockland Trust is deeply invested in the idea of Polar Park working. In 2022, the bank announced “it is leading a $57 million financing package to Madison Properties LLC for the mixed-use development in the Polar Park neighborhood, SOMA.” The bank also bought the naming rights for a small public park adjacent to the stadium. In 2022, the bank did some landscaping and had it renamed from General Pickett Municipal Parking Lot to The Rockland Trust Plaza.
Neither of these investments are discussed in the Globe piece. In fact, there’s no indication of the relationship between Rockland Trust and Polar Park. To the untrained eye, the “sponsored by” might look like a prominent digital ad placement. But there’s this paragraph:
Then there’s what’s around the park. Along with six acres for the stadium, the city has about 12 acres of land it has turned over to developers with plans for apartment buildings, a hotel, even lab space. So far, four apartment buildings are open or near completion — one towers over the scoreboard in center field — with nearly 550 units in all. At the recently opened Revington, where WooSox players live during the season, one-bedrooms start at $2,275 a month, while another across the street is entirely set aside at below-market rents for lower- and middle-income tenants.
They don’t mention Rockland Trust or Madison Properties. But, in the next line, they allow City Manager Eric Batista to make an unchallenged claim:
All of it, said City Manager Eric Batista, will bring foot traffic to support nearby restaurants, workers for downtown employers, and street life year-round to a place that, not so long ago, had none.
The Canal District was lifeless before these developers (which paid for this story but don’t worry about that) came in and turned things around. That is, at best, an ahistorical take on the Canal District. At worst it’s an outright lie.
The Canal District would have been better off without Polar Park. At best, it’s learning how to live with it and hang on.
There’s no space for that point of view in the Globe story. Considering who paid for it, that’s not a surprise.
The story was part of a series the Globe calls “On The Street.” Each story is about some sort of “up and coming” neighborhood or town, and they’re all reliably sponsored by a bank. In 2022: “Framingham is reinventing itself. Again.” — sponsored by Eastern Bank.
The Polar Park piece Tuesday ran alongside another story about Worcester, also sponsored by Rockland Trust, about how the city is handling housing during a period of growth. That one’s a little less bad—Councilor Etel Haxhiaj is quoted criticizing the city’s approach to affordable housing—but all in all it’s an advertisement the same as the Polar Park piece.
The Globe wouldn’t be stooping to this sort of direct sponsored content stuff if it wasn’t in trouble, and I hope it keeps the good journalists they have there away from the layoff chopping block a while longer.
It could have been a lot clearer that the story was an advertisement, but these sorts of “up and coming” stories in big regional and local dailies like the Globe and the Telegram are not new. The new part is they’re being directly sponsored by the financiers who stand to benefit from them.
Really, making stories like this sponsored content formalizes the longstanding relationship between developer and newspaper vis-a-vis the growth machine.
It’s always been sponsored. Now it’s ‘sponsored content.’
This morning, I picked up the Thursday print edition and found that there’s no mention at all of the fact this story was sponsored by a bank with a direct stake in the subject matter.
There is, however, a half page ad taken out by Rockland Trust on the page previous to the meat of the story. So a reader sees a big ad for Rockland Trust, then turns the page to find a story Rockland Trust directly paid for, with no indication of that arrangement.
Special shouts out to Zach Comeau for putting this in front of me. Me and Zach used to share a cramped little office at the Milford Daily News way back when. I covered Milford and he covered Medway. In fact he got me in at the paper—my first full-time journalism job. So really this newsletter is his fault if you think about it. Blame him, not me.
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Pressure campaign
City Councilors Etel Haxhiaj and Thu Nguyen are keeping the pressure on the governor over her disastrous changes to the state’s shelter policy. The pair organized a joint statement from over 30 local leaders across the state, released this morning, calling on Governor Maura Healey to stop being so awful (paraphrasing).
Last week, many of us joined advocates, legislators, families, renters, and health care providers before the State House to ask you to rescind the five-day shelter policy for EA-eligible families. Massachusetts is the second-most expensive state in the United States. After months of apartment search, most families can barely find anything affordable and healthy. How are they supposed to sign a lease in five days? We understand that the state has limitations regarding providing shelter to people and families seeking refuge in Massachusetts, especially in the absence of meaningful action by the federal government. Still, we are disheartened that this policy change is taking effect mere days after being announced. Housing is a human right, and we cannot sit idly by when faced with a policy that may result in young children being forced to sleep on our city streets.
Along with Haxhiaj and Nguyen, the statement is signed by Councilors Khrystian King and Jenny Pacillo, as well as School Committee Members Sue Mailman and Vanessa Alvarez. Also attached are city leaders from Acton, Cambridge, Littleton, Lowell, Malden, Melrose, Newton, Somerville, Springfield, Waltham, and Watertown.
The letter is part of a wave of activism across the state to get Healey to take these cuts back. This afternoon, there’s another rally at the statehouse aimed at these cuts. Tomorrow, the state will begin forcing families out of the shelter system. The administration has already identified 57 families that will receive the first boot.
On Tuesday, me and the stream boys had Haxhiaj on to talk about these changes to the shelter system in depth. It’s a great hour-long deep dive on the changes and how they’ll affect Worcester.
In my main piece last week, I went over the changes in depth: “The miserable will be made even more miserable.” It is truly draconian stuff.
Related news: “Boston has 2nd highest homeless rate in the US, report finds.” Yikes. It’s getting bad bad bad across the state, and these changes will only make it worse. Even on Martha’s Vineyard they’re evicting encampments.
White Eagle in the limelight
Now for some good news: The White Eagle and the Beyond Wrestling crew, which has been bringing the bar to life for years, feature prominently in a new music video by indie artist Clairo.
The song’s not for me, but the video is a really fun watch. Clairo has 2.3 million YouTube subscribers, and the video has been watched 559,646 times as of my writing this. She links all the Instagrams for both Beyond and the individual wrestlers. A classy move.
Apparently it’s her first music video in six years?
Crazy that she chose our Worcester wrestlers for it! And it’s really beautifully shot. On film, it looks like.
Couldn’t find much on how this Clairo / Beyond partnership came to be, so if you have the scoop, hit me with it.
When someone on Twitter asked for the backstory, Clairo replied with a vague TikTok video in which a guy says “this is indie wrestling in Worcester, Massachusetts.” So that’s that!
A recent WoMag article has a bit more detail:
On July 19, one TikTok user posted a video of two professional wrestlers performing during a Wrestling Open show set to a few bars of "Juna." Clairo saw the video, and according to Beyond Wrestling owner Drew Cordeiro, only a few days later, he learned that she wanted to film a music video for the song at Wrestling Open.
But still no clear answers.
On the site SEScoops, Cordeiro is quoted saying:
It was an incredible experience to work with Clairo and her team. When Clairo shared the fan-made TikTok featuring Ryan Clancy and Brad Baylor to her Instagram story last week, we saw a massive influx of new fans that were curious about Wrestling Open. Timing is everything and I think this collaboration will bring independent wrestling into a mainstream spotlight like we haven’t seen in more than a decade.”
White Eagle in Worcester has hosted Wrestling Open every Thursday for the last 135 weeks. The opportunities we have been afforded this year is a testament to the extraordinary work of our entire crew. For our wrestlers to get recognition on this stage is virtually unheard of, yet totally deserved. Before Clairo left, I told her that the “Juna” music video would change lives. Wishing her nothing but continued success as she embarks on her North American tour!”
ADU Override
Governor Maura Healey signed a law today that overrides the restrictions Worcester City Council put on accessory dwelling units.
The council is now put in the position of updating their ordinance or torpedoing the whole thing.
Worcester’s ordinance passed last December with several restrictions, including a mandate that the owner of the property with an ADU live on the property. Sean Rose snuck the owner occupancy restriction in at the last moment, a final bit of skullduggery on his way out the door.
Now, the state law makes it illegal for Worcester to have that. ADUs can go anywhere without zoning board approval or owner occupancy restrictions.
Certain councilors are sure to have a fit about this. Remember when Moe Bergman went on this unhinged rant?
“I look around this room and I see a lot of people who live in single-family homes. Some people don’t. Some people choose not to.”
As I wrote at the time:
The premise that single-family homeownership is a matter of consumer choice is just… it really stretches credulity to think he’s dim enough to believe that. Single-family zoning is on the short list of most powerful tools used to maintain economic segregation. People do not “choose” to live in multi-family neighborhoods over single-family neighborhoods. Single-family zoning exists to draw a geographic line between classes. The bank decides where you get to live and where you don’t.
So, the question now becomes: will the council, in the midst of this housing crisis they claim to care about, torpedo one of the only measures they’ve actually taken to address it?
Wouldn’t put it past them. The council’s next meeting is on August 20.
Odds and ends
Thanks for reading! Please subscribe if you like what you read and you can afford it. Independent local journalism doesn’t pay for itself unfortunately.
And don’t forget, there’s a whole ‘nother post coming Sunday! It’s a fun one.
Lemme know if you like a short post like this on Thursday and another on Sunday. Still testing it out.
Let’s see let’s see what else...
Dave's Hot Chicken, a new fried chicken chain with celeb backers like Drake, Usher, and Samuel L. Jackson, is opening a location by the Starbucks and Chipotle development on Park Ave.
Not related to Worcester unfortunately, but it should be: a new tenant union federation was launched recently, in an effort to bring together tenant unions across the country to apply pressure federally. It’s called the Tenant Union Federation. Anyone looking to start/revive such an effort in Worcester would do well to reach out.
One instance in which a tenants union would be helpful: The 36 tenants replaced by the Washington Heights fire are still facing problems. Per the Patch:
In the weeks after the fire, residents said they've continued to endure stress and uncertainty. Most residents displaced by the fire were sent to the Residence Inn — on the opposite side of Worcester from Washington Heights — with just the clothes on their backs. The managers of the complex, they say, failed to communicate with them about what would happen next.
"We feel like we’ve been tossed here and told, 'You're on your own,'" one resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.
WPD is looking for the public’s help identifying the driver who hit a man on an electric scooter, badly wounding him. They recently released security camera footage asking for tips. There’s also a fundraiser for the victim, who’s suffered, among other things, a collapsed lung. Another horrific bit of traffic violence in this city.
Came across this clip of my dude Josh Vaquerano talking about biking around Providence again. At the end he goes “communism will win” out of nowhere. So sick.
Ok see ya on Sunday!
Thank you for that piece on the BG "On the Street" articles/newsletters. My uncle forwarded both to me, so this critical analysis was really valuable.
Also, re: your bus journey: Use the Transit app for planning your bus trips! (Apple Maps? What are you? Nuts?)
Thursday short reads are greatly appreciated