Quick update

A post in lieu of posting

Hello Worcester Sucksters, this will be short. No real post for today. Early this morning I lost my grandmother. She died peacefully in her sleep after a week of declining health. I’m writing you from her kitchen table, where she’d do the crossword every morning, only cheating a little bit sometimes but always finishing them. 

I had the pleasure of living with Claudia Gardner for a third of my life, from when she moved into an in-law apartment in my parents house (shout out to ADUs) when I was a child to when I moved out as a larger, smellier child. She was—is—very important to me, as to all her other grandchildren, whom she kept well-knit in a way that few extended families seem to enjoy. 

My focus today is writing her the obituary she deserves, and being present for my mother in whatever way she needs. 

But, even just for the sake of assuaging the nagging thought I need to “get something up,” I’ve a few notes to share on an especially crazy week in Worcester. Were it more quiet I’d have likely been content to miss a post in my loose two-a-week schedule. But hoo boy. Was not quiet. Here are the things you really need to know—that I’d otherwise have a few thousand words on by now.

• Denis Dowdle, the developer most responsible for the promise of Polar Park “paying for itself,” told the Worcester Redevelopment Authority this week through his attorney that the developments outlined in the agreement between Madison Properties and the city are merely “aspirational.” They are not, as WRA Chairman Mike Angelini asserted on Thursday, a contractual obligation. And the way former City Manager Ed Augustus authored the deal, Madison is pretty much right. Four of the five buildings promised will be built “when Madison is ready,” said the company’s attorney. Meanwhile the city has a $6 million loan payment every year regardless of whether the property taxes from new Madison construction start coming in. As noted in my last post, we’re already failing to come up with that revenue under the current plan. The WRA meeting Thursday made it clear the city is left with only one concrete recourse in the Madison dispute. They can force the sale of property back from the developer to the WRA, which could relist it and attempt to court a new developer. There are many more facets of this drama worth breaking down and digging into. Hopefully soon. But the uphot:

• A local restauranteur spray-painted a city resident in the face right outside of the council chamber at the start of the city council meeting Tuesday. David Webb approached the podium during public comment with a slash of black spray paint over his face and chest. “I’m sorry,” he said, “I’m a little shaken up because the owner of Piccolos just spray painted me.” A warrant (or summons, it’s unclear) has been issued for John Piccolo for assault with a dangerous weapon. The cops were curiously absent at the time of the spray painting (there is always in my experience an officer there for the duration of city council meetings) and when the cops did arrive they were without body cameras (city manager said they were all charging them). These curious details are made more so by the fact John Piccolo is a politically connected individual, with friends on the council toward whom Webb has been critical. I put together a summary of his local campaign donations: Joe Petty and Candy-Mero Carlson top the list, joined also by Moe Bergman, Donna Colorio, Kate Toomey and George Russell.

  

  Six councilors in total—coincidentally, the same ones who voted to block Gaza demonstrators from speaking, voted against a push for more aggressive city-level climate action, voted against a moratorium on homeless encampment sweeps. On and on. The same six that shoot down every good idea. The day after, the mayor took to the local radio station and heavily implied the spray painting was my fault, because in a recent post I called Moe Bergman an asshole. (Which he deserved, by the way. Moe Bergman is an asshole.) If you can believe it, Petty did not mention that the spray paint bandit was a supporter of his. “We don’t have all the facts.” Instead, he said we all need to “turn down the temperature,” drawing a 1:1 distinction between spray painting someone in the face (assault as generally defined) and using a swear word (assault if you’re a little fuckin baby) or protesting a genocide (assault if you’re a fascist). Listen for yourself if you’d like, it starts around the 14 minute mark. 

• Twenty seven Worcester police officers are currently under investigation for using technology to bypass state-mandated trainings. As Chris Robarge pointed out, there are 70 under investigation statewide, meaning a third of all those who allegedly did this are from the WPD. Something to remember before investing yourself in the belief that anti-bias or de-escalation training sessions constitute meaningful police reform. 

• There’s a new documentary out by local filmmaker Alex Oneil about the Worcester Community Fridges called More Than A Fridge. It’s really, really good work. I’m interviewed briefly toward the middle, talking mostly about homelessness and rent prices, per usual. Watch the whole thing on Alex Oneil’s Youtube channel:

I’ll be back Sunday or Monday with a post unrelated to everything above, except for the last item in a tangential sort of way. I have it like 90 percent done and I think you’ll really enjoy it. 

In the meantime, please consider helping this outlet exist and hopefully grow. When I say independent local journalism is vital it’s because I want to keep doing it as long as I can but also because without it people like Petty just get to flat out steamroll any semblance of the “local left” we desperately need more and more every day.

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If you caught any typos in this post no you didn’t!

Talk to you soon.