White North Main and "Minorities" Main South

Lilly White North Main and 'Minorities" Main South

The Economic Development Committee of the Worcester City Council met on March 31, 2015 and the speaker who surprised us the most was the representative of the League of Women Voters, Lee Bona. The issues she raised, that were off the radar,  were diversity of the workforce that will be working on the Courthouse project, the diversity of the renters of the one hundred and fifteen upscale apartments, and the issue of green space. Ms. Bona is a White woman. Ms. Bona said that North Main St. was becoming  “lily white” and Main South would remain for “minorities”. She wanted to raise additional issues, but the Committee Chair  said  the Committee did not have time to listen to all of her issues

Although there were about fifty people who attend the meeting and about twenty five speakers, the issue of race, gentrification, and green spaces were raised by a White woman from an organization mainly concerned with elections. The City officials did not address these issues. The City Manager did not address these issues. In all  fairness the issue of a diverse workforce was brought up briefly by  Councillor Rushton.

A slogan from a radical group, “ Jobs – Yes,  Racism – No” came to mind when Ms. Bona spoke.

Ms. Bona suggested that a  “community benefits agreement” be drawn up like in other cities, including Boston. Such agreements guarantee benefits to a community including mitigation of any adverse changes.

State Representative Mary Keefe attended the meeting.  The old court house is in her District. Representative Keefe was somewhat tight lipped on the issues. She would only say that she was attending the meeting to learn more. Representative Keefe leans towards issues of worker rights. What  came out at the meeting is that three million dollars of State money has been given to the City for preparation of the site for development.

These three million dollars  are entirely under the control  of the City and City Manager. What contracts and who work  for these contractors and the  makeup of the workforce are issues entirely within the purview of the City Manager . The City Manager did not discuss the details of the use of the three million dollars in State money nor the one million dollars in “supplemental“ funds.  Brady Sullivan  aside,  Manager Augustus is able to make a commitment for a racially and gender diverse workforce with at least fifty percent Worcester residents. City Manager Mr. Augustus did say he thought that the agreement reached with Brady Sullivan (developer) is good for Worcester.

Presently the City Assessor has set the assessed value of the  old court house at one and one-half million dollars. There are no plans to raise the assessment after the completion of the project. Several people said that given the one hundred and fifteen upscale apartments and  additional retail space the assessment after the completion of the project should be closer to ten million dollars.

A spokesman for Brady Sullivan said that his employer is committed to have  at least a fifty percent of its workforce coming from Worcester or within thirty miles of Worcester. He said Brady Sullivan has met that goal  for its Junction project in Main South. The Brady Sullivan spokes man said that it was committed to the same percentages for the old court house project. The City representative, Mr. Trainer, confirmed that it and Brady Sullivan had a goal  of fifty percent  of the court house workforce being from the Worcester area.

The Worcester Community Labor Coalition requested that the agreements between the City  and Brady Sullivan be released to the public for scrutiny. The Committee agreed to post the agreements on line. It also postponed approval of the agreements at least for another week.