The street vendor war continues
The continued discussion of how to regulate Worcester street vendors Tuesday may have been the most exciting City Council meeting Worcester has had in some time, but not in a good way. It was a ridiculous exercise in just how juvenile, provincial and poorly informed some of our elected and appointed officials are. In particular, Mayor Lukes and Councilor Palmieri went out of their way to embarrass themselves and the City of Worcester. The eye rolling, face making and insults hurled at colleagues and constituents, you have to wonder if these two even realize people actually watch the meetings at home. Foolishness aside, the opposing armies in this debate have defined themselves and in effect, speak for themselves. It’s actually quite interesting when you look at the lists, as they break out into rather obvious personality types.
Representing Team Bat Shit Insane:
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Mayor Konnie Lukes
At-Large Councilor Joseph Petty
District 2 Councilor Philip Palmieri
District 3 Councilor Paul Clancy
District 4 Councilor Barbara Haller
District 5 Councilor William Eddy
Two things jump out here. First and most obvious, all but one of the district councilors are in favor of eliminating street vendors from Worcester. These are the people whose entire voting constituency could fit into your average elementary school auditorium. And there is also some overlap between the district councilors and the other demographic at play in this group, people who are likely to be found at an early bird special. If we were to only focus on food vendors here, the group that want’s to get rid of vendors using a late night public safety argument is also the group that hasn’t seen last call in 20 years, if ever. Think about who that, these are the folks defining how you should be allowed to enjoy your city and they’re also the people who are least likely to experience your city outside of normal business hours. The one unexplained exception is my district councilor Bill Eddy. I still can’t wrap my head around what he’s doing on this side of things. Best guess, a bad sausage at the St Patrick’s Day parade in ‘93 and he’s holding a grudge.
Representing people who get out of the house every now and then:
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At-Large Councilor Michael Germain
At-Large Councilor Gary Rosen
At-Large Councilor Frederick Rushton
At-Large Councilor Kathleen Toomey
District 1 Councilor Joffrey Smith
Oh look, the one district councilor in this list is the one district councilor who you’ll actually see out in the city after the sun goes down. What’s most interesting about this crew, none of them seem to be against regulating street vendors. They’re just asking someone, anyone to explain the what and whys of regulating street vendors. An important distinction and one we don’t see enough in Worcester. Simply going to the Chief of Police and asking him if there is a Public Safety component to street vending is not the same as getting a fully fleshed explanation of what exactly that public safety component is. Any idiot could come up with a heat map of arrests for a given area and make an argument there is a risk to the public in said area. Explaining how they got to that conclusion takes a little work. Which brings us to our final waring faction…
People who don’t actually have anything to say but are more than willing to talk into a microphone:
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Worcester Police Chief Gary Gemme
City Manager Mike O’Brien
City Solicitor David Moore
These guys were astounding on Tuesday night, collectively they took up a majority of mic time but literally said nothing. No numbers, no statistics, no maps of affected areas and even reports requested by the Council for this meeting were nowhere to be found; they came with nothing. Nothing but continued assurance that they actually do know how to redevelop an urban area. The Chief gets an extra special prize for the quote of the week…
“The city of Worcester changes after midnight.”
Yes Chief, it actually changes into a city in more than population designation. A place where people actually get out of their cars, off of their couches and interact with other citizens for better or worse; the city is starting to come to life. We’ve been waiting over two decades for that change, please stop fucking that up.
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25 Responses to “The street vendor war continues”
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“for the life of me I have never seen such a debate over city vibrancy that is defined around “vendor carts…it is hilarious to see this evolve in to such an issue mates between all parties:>)
I understand some might feel his is an erosion of some type of right but again we are talking about a few cart vendors…take em’ away from Faneuil Hall and guess what mates…Faneuil Hall would still would rock..” re-printed from mi own blog
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At this point it’s not just simple debate about food carts, Paulie. It’s a debate about doing things the right way and the wrong way. Nobody would be against regulating vendors if there was an obvious and well thought out need presented by any party.
In this case all we have is a Chief who doesn’t want his officers doing anything after midnight unless they’re getting paid extra for it.
A few councilors, such as Barbara Haller who are unable to do anything effective in their districts without increased licensing and regulation.
And a Mayor who has nightmares of her families restaurant competing with canteen trucks decades ago.
So yes, it is silly, it’s silly because we’re surrounded by people who find life without regulations on everything, scary.
It rocks from a perspective that it draws folks to Boston Brendan..folks come to Boston just to enjoy it…the restaurants, the history, the pubs, the cafes-just walking around or people watching and it connects to so many other places like the North End.
I have a very successful events business mate and my events draw folks from all over the country and they are always wanting to be directed to Faneuil Hall & Quincy Market or correspond with me later telling me about their wonderful experience at Faneuil Hall & Quincy Market.
I spent many a night in Faneuil Hall in my late teens, 20’s & 30’s during the late 70’s, 80’s & 90’s and I am as much a night lifer and traveler as you or anyone else and from my perspective Faneuil Hall is still a great place to take a date, the family or just hanging out with mi buddies looking for chicks..yah us mid 40ish guys still go on the prowl:>)
This has become as Mr. Nemeth call all of us bloggahs - silly!
You once told me that you would gladly move back to the urban core of the ciy if the urban core schools were better - you have a youngster (if I am miss quoting I apologize)..this is an issue our City Councilor should be battling - crappy schools..this one issue alone is killing our inner city and I don’t care if this is happening in other cities…another is the problem property issue and one that has plagued the urban core for years and is now spreading to some of the nicer neighborhoods..another issue that is killing our city! The Vendor issue has become yet another embarrassing issue for this city and our Ciy Council.
As I stated on the WOMAG blog - I approved the pay raises and I still do but with it I expected the bar to be raised with our leaders and it has not!
BTW Brendan:
I am a fairly diverse guy..I enjoy the touristy Faneuil Hall like many do and sometimes I even wear a clip on tie to wakes and weddings..my family owned the first comedy club in the Boston area back in the 70’s and I was around Lenny Clarke, Jimmy Tingle, Steve Sweeney and many other area up start comediens in the 70’s..but I am also a cat who has put on events out of some pretty tough pubs in Somerville when Somerville was Somerville and no one would dare to:>)…I’m no shrinking violet or guy who sits in a back room looking to restrict folks lives or commerce.
What is really scary is that so many bright minds and folks who want to do good are not tackling issues that are really effecting thr city and it’s vibrancy..unless one considers the current state of the city vibrant.
I deleted my comments about Faneuil Hall because they’re irrelevant to the conversation about street vendors.
We all know there is no shortage of things to fix in Worcester, but what exactly does that fact have to do with with this? Will regulating street vendors better the public schools? Will it increase property values in the urban center of the city?
Brendan;
I’ve made my comments on why I feel vendors should be regulated enough so I am not going to re-hash a re-hash…reasonable men will agree to disagree on the need to regulate and what is “the right thing”.
As a taxpayer I would rather see my elected officials as well as paid officals work on other more important issues that in my opine are more of a cause for the decline in vibrancy of this city (vibrancy being something I have never experienced in my 17 years here) and again I have made this more than known but I will repeat..poor urban schools, major problem property issue, crime & grime.
Your subject in my opinion doesn’t just mock the regulations but how it has been deliberated and in my own opinion this is a problem-the deliberation and how much energy has been wasted when this energy could be put elsewhere of major need including yours and my own time on it:>)
So your problem is with ineffectual poorly informed politicians such as your district councilor, Barbara Haller. Feel free to ask her to stop supporting and dragging out meaningless regulations such as these street vendor regs then.
Maybe you could even whisper in her ear the improvements the urban core would see with an increase in owner occupancy rates, if she spent half the time fleshing out that problem as she did on this non-problem, you would have a hell of a neighborhood.
the relevancy of my original Faneuil Hall comment is that these vendor carts are only considered “contributing to a vibrant city” in Woostah….Faneuil Hall was recently mentioned in a WOMAG “letter to the editor” regarding this entire vendor cart issue..I stated in another bloggah thread that it wasn’t relevant to the conversation back then and you defended (something along this line)so this is my basis for repeatedly mentioning Faneuil Hall..my opinion is that if vendor carts were removed from Faneuil Hall few if anyone would give a shit…and if we had no vendor carts in Woostah most wouldn’t give a shit either and there would be no plus or minus to the vibrancy of this city.
The Hot Dog and Sausage vendors booted from the front of Fenway a few years back created some controversy from folks who stated it was the end of an era ..the fact is no one cared especially when Fenway started offering up so much more inside regardless of the price..yah it effected a few folks price wise but a very few.
I am for regulations on this issue ..but this issue should have been tackled professionally not politically…there is disagreement here..when isn’ there:>) Our City Council shouldn’t be meeting on something when a comprhensive plan hasn’t been developed and they haven’ had ample time to hash out in conference with each other.
Lastly, yah think El Delioso parked outside those new condo’s on Benefit Street increased or decreased the unit prices??? How do you think they would effect your condo unit economically if it parked out side your condo in Tatnuck Square till 3AM each day?
I don’ have my D4 Councilors ear mate..I have many disagreements with my D4 Councilor and state them to her all the time:>)..this all being said..I don’t agree with alot of things you opine on but I have and can still sit down and work on issues that we agree on and even disagree on:>)
I along with Barbara live in a tough part of the ciy Brendan..I have sufered enormously economically over 17 years here..I can’t begin to tell you..I have been arrested for defending my property from unrully college kid’s shitting and pissing on my lawn after a heavy night of boozing at Suney’s-yah I was the one who got arrested..I have been beaten up by a gang of thugs who tried to take over one of my houses and me eventually getting everyone back individually:>)..my former girlfriend assaulted by my next door neighbors, one of my houses almost burned to the ground by an arson (former tenant I got rid of)…should I go on? I respect my D4 Councilor for having mucho courage for sticking up for many things she believes in and that have contributed to the betterment of D4..you moved out when many of us stuck around..I don’t lap dog to anyone let alone my D4 Councilor or as some have suggested Chief Gemme..but I know when folks have contributed and I laud this and I know when many like to bang but have done little to get a sweat..I’ll take the 67% of what my D4 Councilor stands for & I agree on cause as I see it there are few else contributing that much to what I feel has bettered D4.
I appreciate the give and take..I got to say uncle and go plant some more wildflowers I got in the Catskills this past weekend with the ole lady..yah a guy who respects regulations still calls his ole lady his ole lady..I might just go dust off the Triumph and go for a ride in the rain:>)
So we fully agree on the vendors. Great.
I moved out of your hood when it was time to buy, no sense buying a property for 400k in war zone when I could buy a single family for half that in Tatnuck. The properties I looked at in your neck of the woods are now worthless and lacking anything made of copper and we’re doing just fine. So now we’re back to looking in your area. Investments right? If I do a little public school math, 17 years means you started buying in the last time the housing market bottomed out. Looks like we agree on how and when to buy in that regard.
As to the El and district 4, a decade of Councilor Haller advertising her district as a war zone has done more to turn off potential buyers than any street vendor. Next time you and Babs have some time together ask her why my single family, west side neighborhood is getting foot patrols this summer while there is an open air drug market all day, every day on the corner of Main and Wellington. All your problems are easily solved as soon as we take the ineffectual out of the equation.
I sold/brokered the commercial bldg on Main and 8 unit residential on Wellington to the Santiago Brothers 18 years ago Brendan..it was an open drug market then also and Babs wasn’t the CC
But we’re talking about today, Paulie. If you can find a way to get foot patrols assigned to the past, I applaud your dedication. But today in 2008 we have foot patrols in Tatnuck where there is no crime and marked cruisers in Main South where some rather obvious quality of life issues are at play. I’d love to let you have my foot patrols, police make me nervous.
yah I bought low Brendan a number of times:>) Mi madre & padre took sometime out of their busy days to give me just a wee bit of guidance:>)We could use more of this with all the folks getting so much help in D4 today.
I’m a fan of buying low and selling high or waiting for gentrification or some sense of prosperity and not just during the last downer..this current downer is just another part of the up and downs of economics..the next wave will see my investments go up and hopefully Worcester will take advantage of this..did you know values have stayed even or gone up in Somerville, Cambridge and other locals close to Boston including rents! I’d like to see Worcester Urban move in this direction someday in that it is looked at as a very desireable place to live just like you and that with every economic downturn doesn’t slip in to such a dive like it has with this current downturn
Buddy the Beagle got lost in the hood today..I spent three hours looking for him..I really got to get a good peak at my D4 neighborhood and I reflected on what a war zone it was 17 years ago and how it has changed today and with the help of many including Babs as you called her:>) When I bought here Brendan you were in your early teens-it was a WAR ZONE..I was just beginning my investment career..I consider myself one of the pioneers who have hung on and have even decided to live here..I am not the only one mate and I am aware of this..but those of us who have hung on and are working pretty damn hard to change the environ here in D4 are starting to see some change..look you are even thinking of moving back:>)
I swear the cops on foot patrols prefer an easier area. I’ve seen them in the West Boylston Drive area, going up the hills to Tower St and areas like that, but they don’t go anywhere near Indian Lake beach. That place is the Latin Fest all summer long (except for this weekend).
Again we agree Paulie.
With the economy as it is today, this is when Councilor Haller should be giving personal guided tours of D4 to prospective buyers. Show people what kinds of amazing architecture can be had for under 150k with rental income rolled in. Remind some of the ol Micks who moved out in the 60’s that each floor of your average three decker has more sq footage than the GI Bill slabs they moved too. Maybe even make sure us West Siders with kids, concerned with rising tuition rates, are aware of the generous (free) tuition packages Clark offers to residents of the area.
As it stands you have one of the worst municipal marketing teams working for your goals in D4.
What I haven’t heard anyone say and what I believe this reaction to the vendor issue is all about is that I think there is a common consensus amongst the 25-40 year old crowd who have grown up in Worcester and the surrounding area that the city government and the people of influence in Worcester are anti night life and pretty much anti the pursuits of people of our generation.
Over the years, way back to the Harlow St Worcester Artist Group getting shut down over neighborhood complaints of noise (in an industrial area mind you) to the current problems with the Q, to countless stories of Jordan Levy and the liquor board, to the “adult entertainment” zoning issue, to countless other things, City Hall does not want to let Worcester move forward as far as a countercultural center and a center for nightlife. Two of the main functions of a large cultural node.
Through the vendor issue and statements that have been made by local politicians about the vendor issue we have found out that the thoughts that many of us have always assumed are going through these politicians minds actually are, culminating with what Palmieri said the other night.
I agree with you Paulie that the vendor issue is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but when actually thinking about what it represents and what I have personally experienced over the years with the city as far as their ignorance as to what nightlife is, that there are different types, that on the whole a healthy nightlife is a HUGE plus for any city, well, with this vendor issue what you are seeing is the boiling over of years and years of frustration of an entire generation of Worcester inhabitants. Worcester inhabitants who right now are of the age where they can and should start actually putting some real money into this city.
I was wondering the other night if anyone at city hall cares or is even aware of the importance of the the continuing amazing success of places like the Dive Bar and Armsby Abbey for example, and what that success means to the cultural fabric of our city. I wonder if to them The Armsby, The Vernon, Breen’s, Galway Bay, Suney’s and Club Universe are all the same place.
Palmieri is right, it is nothing but problems, but only problems for his and his colleagues antiquated way of thinking as far as to how our city should be run.
Gentlemen;
I put on some of the funkiest running events in the Boston area that include BBQ’s that feed 1000+, bands that play in front of 1000+ regularly - thousands & thousands have attended over the years..hundreds of Central Mass folks participate…hundreds of Central Mass folks tell me they wish I would do in Woostah…I can’t cause of the difficulty in doing business in this city…no one is more aware of this than me who has a knack for putting on events that folks really dig..my #1 constituents are college educated women 21-35…it’s 65% of my business..I know what I know what takes to attract a young educated & employed crowd…I have to disagree with you Gabe cause I just think to many are giving this issue more than it demands…it’s a issue that should have been done in commitee professionally aside from the El Delisioso issue which is an issue in itself.
Vendors should be regulated in my opinion and I have stated them a little bit on my own blog..what if any regulations do you suggest Gabe and Brendan should be placed on vendor carts?
Beyond updates to health code and fee structure, not much. It’s a non-issue, we have a few dozen at most and there’s not enough data beyond anecdotes to justify additional regulations.
Like I said I agree the issue is small potatoes, I was just trying to give you some background as to where the ire is coming from.
Now could you please get on the ball with planning events in Worcester that draw primarily 21-35 year old women? I like this idea very much. Please have these events right in front of 50 Franklin St. Thanks.
Is the preacher on the common not drawing in that demographic, Gabe? I’m shocked.
He draws a couple lovely ladies of this age group, you want me to get you some digits?
He’s back by the way. Building management is going to file a formal complaint with the city.
Next time preacher man is on the common we should roll a Weber grill with some dogs cooking out there next to him. He will be booted in no time.
As far as the vendors go I will be firing off a couple emails this weekend to City Councilors just so I can make my voice heard.
My background: 33, grew up in Fall River, work in Canton Crystal and I purchased in Worcester because we wanted a city “feel” and city “nightlife options” without paying city prices. I will honestly say that factors such as good restaurants and quality drinking establishments were high on our list while house shopping and a big reason we chose to buy here. It seems we did not do the nest job of our homework and fact checking though.
But we are living proof of a late 20’s early 30’s couple with no Worcester roots who CHOSE to live here because we think this city has so much potential and we want to be a part of that. The fact that a common sense plan regarding vendors cant be established boggles my mind and is not what I envisioned.
I live in D4 and have met with Haller on a few occasions due to our building, she has been responsive to “lend an ear” but the overall followthru has left something to be desired…
Don’t you guys ever go to sleep?
Chatting away like a bunch of parakeets on meth.
Just back from Hyannis this morning..took in the Saw Doctors show at the Melody Tent last night.great time:>)
Hyannis was hopping last night…many new pubs and restaurants have opened up including Tommy Doyles Irish Pub in the ole Hooters spot….they have one in Harvard Square in the ole House of Blues spot and in Kendall Square also in Cambridge…place was jammed with lots of young kid’s..something Hyannis has been lacking for years..Hyannis was always the place to go in the 70’s & 80’s…anyway..not one hot dog stand in sight:>)
Hyannis developed a master plan for the downtown a number of years ago and it has really come together…new mixed use development..older properties rezoned and refurbished-loads of private development..Barnstable government came together with the streetscape designs..just a real tuen around from the past….
[...] Mike dares the panel, and all Worcester journalists, to say something new and interesting about the Worcester vendor debate. [...]