Main South

By Hannah Payne

The Regional Environmental Council is an environmental justice organization working in Worcester since 1971. This year we are excited to launch a second farmer’s market location as part of our Food Justice Program. The first market has been running since 2008 and is located in the parking lot of the YMCA (766 Main St.) and runs from 10 am - 2 pm every Saturday. The new market is located in Great Brook Valley at the Great Brook Valley Health Center (19 Tacoma St.) and runs from 9 am - 1 pm on Saturdays. This is the first year for the Great Brook Valley market, which had its grand opening June 19. The REC hopes to spread the success of the Main South market to Great Brook Valley. Through the farmer’s markets the REC aims to provide fresh and local produce and food at affordable prices to the Main South and Great Brook Valley communities. With this mission in mind the farmer’s markets accept WIC and senior coupons as well as SNAP (food stamp) benefits.

One of the best things about the REC’s farmer’s markets is that you don’t need cash to shop at the market, credit, debit and EBT cards are all accepted in addition to cash and WIC and senior coupons. One of the most exciting elements is that if you make purchases with your SNAP (food stamp) card all purchases are half price! Local, organic produce is typically expensive in grocery stores but at these farmer’s markets it is accessible to all, thanks to the already reasonable prices and the SNAP deal. Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

We ask(ed) the good people of Worcester to get out and vote! We ask(ed) the good people of Worcester to cast their ballots for:

* District 4 City Councilor: Barbara Haller

Vote for Barbara Haller!

Spend some time with Barbara Haller, and you’ll quickly realize she has reached a kind of spiritual zenith in (what has become, I think) the dream of her life-time.

Her journey with her beloved District 4 continues, her love for its people still strong and pure. Click to continue »

By District 4 City Councilor Barbara G. Haller

Every day is different in District 4, and yet in many ways each day is similar - mountains of important meetings, lots of contact with city departments for responses to resident and business problems, continual driving around neighborhoods and reporting on quality of life violations, writing letters of support or opposition, attending ribbon cuttings. Near continuous connections to the heartbeat of the City is achieved via my city-supplied handheld computer and my personal cell phone. Many days never seem to end.

I love it!

It is a tremendous privilege to participate in the richness of this City - and especially District 4. I am awed by the diversity of our talents and skills and the resiliency of our hopes for a better city, even as we are frustrated and worried that progress is elusive and things will only get worse. As I look back over my past 8 years as District 4’s local city councilor I see important progress despite persistent barriers (see sidebars). Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

One day District 4 City Councilor Barbara Haller got a call from a constituent. The person lived in Main South and was annoyed as hell. There was a cleaning company across the street power washing/vacuuming the wall-to-wall carpeting in the apartment building across the street. Trouble was the power vacuum’s big hose was being run up the side of the building - not taken inside to do the job - so all the vacuuming (and crap being sucked up) was whooshing and brrr-brr-ing in the middle of the neighborhood - for everybody to hear.

Haller went to check it out. God! What a racket! The truck and its machine were loud. Haller could see why the neighbors were so upset. Then she made the classic Barbara Haller move - she went up to the truck, poked her head inside its window and yanked the plug out. The noise stopped; the machine stopped. The neighborhood was peaceful again. “I didn’t know I was going to do that until I got there,” Haller says.

The guys running the machinery ran out to see what was going one - and got miffed at hands-on Haller. Haller called Building and Code on her mobile phone - and after some negotiating, the City of Worcester made the company install mufflers on its giant vacuum cleaner. Thank you, Building and Code. Thank you, Barbara Haller.

One autumn day Haller sees a guy - obviously drunk - sprawled out on a Piedmont neighborhood street. He is scrawny, unshaved and sporting an unhealthy complexion. Haller, a dumpling shaped 60 year old, parks her little SUV by the curb and jumps out. She walks up to the guy, looks down on him. The guy - even in his drunken stupor - recognizes Haller. With a sigh he acknowledges this apparition. In an exasperated tone of voice he says, “I’m fine, Barbara Haller. I’m fine.” He waves her away. Haller is uncomfortable with this. But the guy tells her he can stay on the curb if he wants. He is annoyed. “Barbara Haller,” he says again and then falls back on the sidewalk again.

Seems everyone in District 4 knows their city councilor. Click to continue »

By Peggy Middaugh
Resident, Castle Park Neighborhood

Basketball pickup games; kids on swings; soccer tournaments; families picnicking; mothers with strollers ; handball games. All of these are familiar scenes these days in Castle Park, a little known gem located in the heart of Main South. One block off Main Street, it is a peaceful four acre oasis of green, open space and recreational space enjoyed by local residents.

But it hasn’t always been like this. In the early 1990s, Castle Park was an overgrown, trash strewn, abandoned lot. It was well known for illegal drug activities, and needles and drug paraphernalia were everywhere.

But Barbara Haller had a vision. What a crime, she thought, to have such an historical treasure go to waste – and especially in a neighborhood bereft of green open spaces. She was determined to bring it back to reflect its former glory, Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

… homes by he and his wife, Lisa Weinberg.

Let’s start with a quote about Joe being a true man of the people!

Telegram & Gazette columnist/Joe O’Brien-p.r.-flak Dianne Williamson was so good at pumping up ol’ Joe in one of her recent columns that he featured her pukey prose on his political mailings/push cards. O’Brien, who is running for mayor of Worcester, after a mediocre stint on the Worcester School Committee (he fought to get teachers who were on maternity leave the ability to work part-time) sent these political cards to practically everyone in Worcester! The quote: “There’s no arguing that he’s a guy [O'Brien] who walks the walk. While he and his wife could afford nicer digs elsewhere … they’ve chosen to buy a home in the heart of Main South … .” - Dianne Williamson, T & G

Oh, puhlease, Dianne! Joe and Lisa are not “walking the walk,” they’re working the real estate system and getting breaks from everyone! Take their home at Oread Place - the Main South abode Williamson writes so lovingly about. When Joe and Lisa bought the house, they paid a lot less than what it’s worth. Only days after they payed $25,000 for the home from the Castle Street Neighborhood CDC, it was mortgaged by Joe O’Brien) and Lisa (Weinberg) for $82,650, courtesy of Bay State Savings Bank. The bank obviously valued the property at over tripple what O’Brien paid for it - only one week after he purchased it! Joe O’Brien was basically paid to buy the house! How many people are able to mortgage their house for more than three times what they paid for it immediately after the purchase?!!

Since the original mortgage of $82,650 in August of 2000, Joe O’Brien and Lisa Weinberg have been given an ADDITIONAL $269,000 in mortgages on that property by various banks over the last six years, some of which have been discharged. The most recent outstanding mortgage is one for $76,000 on June 22, 2007. Click to continue »

By Josie Shagwert

Today, access to and knowledge about good, healthy food is essential. We live in a day and age where world hunger rates are increasing, obesity is a national epidemic, meals mainly consist of cheaply manufactured ingredients, meat and vegetables are chemically produced, and the traditional method of growing food has become the expensive alternative. We must take back our right to good, healthy food that nourishes our body rather than poisons it. The Worcester Educational (WE) Garden is a simple step in the right direction.

Aside from acting as a traditional community garden, the WE garden is a place where community members can check out creative urban gardening ideas that they can then use to grow fresh produce at home. Click to continue »

By Steve Sandberg

We’re back with another outstanding lineup of world cinema! The summer weather may have been forgettable, but Cinema 320 will give you a much brighter and hotter autumn.

CINEMA 320 AT CLARK - FALL ‘09
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950 Main, Worcester, MA. Tix: $5.50, $3.50/current Clark ID & over 60. 508-793-7477
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For more information on each movie: www.Cinema320.com

TOKYO SONATA (Japan 2008; PG-13)
Tues Sept 29, Thurs Oct 1, Sat Oct 3 - 7:30PM;
Sun Oct 4 - 1, 3:20PM.
When a Japanese salaryman is unexpectedly laid off, the emotional consequences ricochet among his dutiful wife and two wildly dissimilar sons, revealing flaws in the fmily dynamics that had really been there all along. “One of the most compelling, finely orchestrated and oddly enchanting films of the year”- Globe and Mail (Toronto). Cannes Jury Prize, 2008.
119 min. Subtitles. Click to continue »

By John Monfredo, Worcester School Committee member

InCity Times has been a strong advocate for our children in Worcester and has especially attempted to support educational efforts on behalf of those families who have no voice in the decision-making process. One of the questions facing education across the nation is what can be done to help our children learn at high levels. Can poor children and children of color achieve success? Is it possible for schools to help children who face the substantial obstacles of poverty and discrimination learn to read, write and become educated citizens?
As a former Worcester Public Schools principal and a long-time educator, I believe the answer is “yes.” The question is how to do it and is it being done? Robert Gordon, education advisor to U. S. Senator John Kerry, pleads passionately for us to recognize that if we rectify our most glaring and manifest shortcomings, then we can achieve a social miracle. We can have an America where birth doesn’t dictate destiny. Nothing offends democratic ideals more than the fact that a typical African American 12th grader reads at the same level as a typical middle-class or white 8th grader. Nothing is a greater threat to middle-class prosperity than mediocre schools. Click to continue »

Sex Offender Registry update

By District 4 City Councilor Barbara Haller

Since 2005 I have provided attendees of Main South’s National Night Out the opportunity to look at the photographs and descriptions of convictions of Level 3 sex offenders who live or work in Worcester. This year’s event was no exception.

I have updated my book of Worcester’s Level 3 (high risk) Sex Offenders as published on the Massachusetts State Sex Offender Registry. The information was provided by the Registry on July 31, 2009. The Registry states on its web page ‘… the risk of reoffense is high and the degree of dangerousness posed to the public is such that a substantial public safety interest is by active dissemination ….’

Attendees at the National Night Out had the opportunity to look through the book. My intention is that as a result of making this information readily available that families will sit together and talk about the threat of sexual crimes. Sexual crime is a fact of life and the Level 3 book shows that in living color. Click to continue »