John and Mary Lou Anderson were once our neighbors with whom we shared occasional meals and guard duty when either of our families went on vacations. We had each other’s house keys and I knew how to water their marigolds the way they liked. They have lived in this same house near Bancroft Tower for almost forty years, but we have long since moved away to another neighborhood off of Flagg Street. As I started to ponder questions about the history of the building of Route 290 and its impact on East Side neighborhoods, I knew John was the one to call to get some answers. Was the rumor true that the powers-that-be at the time wanted to break up those thriving immigrant neighborhoods emerging as a power threatening voting block? No, that was not true, John assured me, but he explained in great detail how the highway impacted each neighborhood. John gives us true wisdom derived from his being a lifelong Worcester resident, a historian with a particular expertise in Worcester history and a shaper of public policy during his twenty- two year career as city councilor (1975 – 1997). He even served as mayor in 1986. In this conversation, he reflects on his public service contribution to the city.
Urban Renewal and the Slow-Kill of Mt Carmel and Notre Dame
Maybe this is no coincidence: This June, two of our iconic, historic Worcester churches, Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Mulberry Street and Notre Dame des Canadiens in downtown, are pending hearings for their immediate demolition. At the Worcester Historical Commission meetings, the petitioners, the Catholic Diocese of Worcester for Mt. Carmel on June 9th and the developers of City Square for Notre Dame on June 30th, are requesting waivers from the one year waiting period for demolition orders. Their goal: Tear down right away. The Diocese is arguing that Mt Carmel poses a safety hazard, the building’s façade potentially crumbling onto drivers on closely adjacent route 290. The City Square developer claims that there is no economically viable reuse for Notre Dame and that its presence becomes a barrier to the successful on-time completion of the City Square project.
Knit One Purl Two: Knitting Worcester Memories
The downtown of Worcester has always struggled to be a happening place, at least since I moved here in 1995. Was there a golden time when the downtown was alive with activity? I figured the best way to learn about Worcester before the urban renewal changes of the 1950s and 1960s, would be to go to the Worcester Senior Center on Vernon Hill. The women’s knitting group extended me an invitation. I could join them at one of their marathon sessions on a Wednesday afternoon. On a cold, snowy April, I brought in a slide show of old photographs of a downtown “Worcester that is no more” to stimulate the flow of memories. As the women knitted scarves, gloves and blankets, they strung together memories of what life was like in downtown Worcester before the downtown mall and highway changed this fabric of life.
Will You "CitySpeak"?
During a series of public performances at Worcester State University in April, CitySpeak, an innovative theater performance at Worcester State University, gave Worcesterites a chance to hear voices of those not usually heard in the public sphere. As an arts- and research-based approach to urban planning and community development, the CitySpeak Project was based on the interviews of over fifty Worcester residents representing almost every zip code of the city. Students from the Department of Urban Studies at Worcester State University, interviewed residents they met through the networks of its partner organizations including Girls Inc., Oak Hill CDC, Worcester Common Ground, African Community Education, Parent/Professional Advocacy League and Worcester’s NAACP. Students from Visual + Performing Arts used anonymous transcripts of the interviews to create a public performance piece that stimulated dialogue on the issues raised – racism in the city, lack of adequate transportation networks , inability to get trash picked up to name a few. All were stories of connection, disconnection, and non-connection from each other, City Hall, and the city in general.
Can Worcester afford to destroy yet another historical gem?
A district must mingle buildings that vary in age and condition, including a good proportion of old ones. Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them...If a city has only new buildings, the enterprises that can exist there are automatically limited to those that can support the high costs of new construction....
WooVoice #4: Kevin Harrington, Co-Founder Technocopia
It’s a Thursday night, OpenHack night at Technocopia downtown at 44 Portland Street. The space is alive with activity, laughter and conversations. Before I interview Kevin, he stops to chat for five minutes with another member. He asks the member’s advice for a student he met that day at the fab lab at Quinsigamond Community College. The member offers to help the student who wants to make an exoskeleton for his hand that has no strength by printing and manufacturing his own upgrades. So, this is what a makerspace is all about – to make things, to share tools and ideas and to create community together. Technocopia is a big tool workshop that is a collectively shared resource.
A Pilgrimage to Jane's New York
In order to celebrate the history, architecture, art, and community organizing initiatives that preserve livable urban neighborhoods, volunteer- led neighborhood walks have sprouted in cities across the globe during the first weekend of May, Jane Jacob’s birthday week. Since 2016 is a special celebratory year for Jane Jacob’s 100th birthday, these “Jane’s walks” have proliferated. Over 200 walks in all five boroughs in New York City were held during this past weekend, May 6 – 8. The weather was horrible, rainy, cold, dark, but how could I let this stop me? This was a pilgrimage trip, a way to get inspiration for a year of blogging for “Jane Jacobs in the Woo”.
WooVoice #3: Chris Sawyer, Store Window Designer
Chris Sawyer has not had a vacation in five years. For his day job, he travels up and down the east coast and Chicago to design the store windows for over twenty Ralph Lauren stores. For the past five years, he has returned to Worcester during his precious vacation time to donate his energy to beautifying the store windows of the Denholm building downtown at 484 Main Street. He does whatever it takes to maintain the beauty he remembered during his youth, anything from washing the windows to creating intricate design stories for all to see on Main Street.
Are you a "Jane Jacobs in the Woo"?
CONSIDER THESE QUESTIONS:
1) Do you want a Worcester that is more biking and walking centered? Do you believe in building more bike lanes, pedestrian plazas and better public transportation options in the city? Do you wish you didn’t have to use a car as much to get around town?
2) Do you believe in the importance of maintaining, restoring and re-inventing our historic architectural infrastructure? Do you support the model of the Crompton Collective, for example, to create new and innovative uses of our old buildings?
3) Do you agree that bustling urban neighborhoods must combine a variety of mixed uses – residential, retail, industrial, cultural? Do you believe in the importance of high density over urban or suburban sprawl?
WooVoice #2: Bram Yoffie, Urban Architect- turned-Artisanal- Bread-Maker
Bram Yoffie’s truck sits outside his parents’ home on the west side of Worcester. In February, he returned from an eighteen month wheat growing and bread baking immersion experience in a two hundred person village in France. Now, he is hoisting his motorcycle on his truck and filling up the cab with stores of canned tuna fish and almonds for his upcoming 6000 mile journey cross country. His goal is to reach the west coast, anywhere from northern California to Oregon, find a farmer who can grow wheat from polycultures, establish a stone grinding mill and then start baking fine loaves of artisanal bread. His dream is simply to recreate the paradise of a bread culture he found in France. Along the way, he plans to meet farmers, millers and bakers to share the vision of farm-to-table natural bread. We were lucky to catch him before he left.
WooVoice #1: Melissa Myozen Blacker, Roshi and Zen Teacher at Boundless Way Temple
There is no better way to initiate a series of “WooVoices” than to hear the wise words of a Zen master. Ordained as a Soto Zen priest, Melissa reminds us that “what we have here is what we get to work with” in this present moment and that we can cultivate a true appreciation of the Worcester we live in right now, not the Worcester we wish it to be. She and her husband, David Dae An Rynick, Roshi are resident teachers at the Boundless Way Temple on Pleasant Street.