July 28, 2009: Springfield Forward member George Pappas speaks with WWLP reporter J. Cashman. Springfield Forward voiced opposition to the proposed redevelopment of Longhill Gardens into subsidized low income only housing.
Much has been said about our advocacy for a better option at Longhill Gardens, so here it is in our own words: Springfield Forward believes that the warehousing and segregation of the poor in high density low-income projects is not only mean spirited, it defeats the very purpose of helping those who need it most. Crime flourishes in high density low-income projects because criminals prey upon the most vulnerable in our society, and as crime flows outward into the surrounding City, the residents of such projects are further isolated, stigmatized, disempowered and disenfranchised. We need to do better than that.
Integrated neighborhoods where residents come from ALL socio-economic, ethnic and religious backgrounds, develop a sense of community where neighbors help neighbors and look out for each other. INTEGRATED NEIGHBORHOODS = STABILIZED NEIGHBORHOODS = GENUINE COMMUNITY. Integrated neighborhoods waste less financial resources. Once you stabilize a neighborhood, crime goes down. Once crime goes down, resources are used more productively and a base for economic development has been created. Springfield Forward opposes using $20,000,000 of OUR TAXPAYER MONEY to warehouse and segregate those in need while enriching the developer and bankers who feed at the government trough. Springfield Forward believes we need to take our time, rethink this project, and come up with something better where everyone wins: the City, the community, and especially those who most need our help.
Same Time Next Year
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It’s been nearly a year since I wrote about the problems that come from
having 11 bosses who are not on the same page about anything, as well as
suggestion...
5 months ago
21 comments:
Hey Randell how about shoveling the sidewalks in front of your employers business on Pleasant St.
And tell them to open a path at the crosswalks that they blocked with their truckplowing.
Anonymous:
The walks are shoveled in front of the business on Pleasant Street. The attached parking lot is owned by another entity and I agree that their walks should shoveled better.
Bill
Can you actually post stuff about the airport? Maybe you need a different blog site for non-airport related talk? Anybody got any pics of those beautiful birds on takeoff/landings in our fair city?
they fly right over my house..come over any day one is taking off....we can sit outside on my Adirondack chairs while sipping a Harpoon Hibernian!
I'm getting excited just thinking about it.
The same guy who comments about sidewalks, that are not even our responsibility, asks me where pictures are of the airport.
Wild Will..Anon bettah had not be your dual personality cause I know you will take me up on the Harpoon offah and drink it all:>)
Paulie re: Worc Common Grounds.......I have always questioned how the CEO over there is even qaulified to run a develpoment/constr/rental operation when he had none or very, very little of of that type of work on his resume............maybe b/c he was an ex-city counclior who may have been in need of a job?
Another nationwide search as Howie Carr would say.
Plus he walks the urban hood there and tosses his cig. butts in the gutter.......i have observed it on few diff. occassions.
There are also rumors that float around the hood about Worc Commmon Grounds ratting out private Landlords re: minor violations like unregistered cars and broken gutters
anonymous is most likely the same guy, Jim, who called me "negative".
From now on I am deleting comments from anonymous aka Jim for a couple days.
Just to show you that i am not "jim" the anonymous blogger i registered. These are the only photos of ORH that i can find online.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?placesearch=Worcester%20-%20Regional%20(ORH%20%2F%20KORH)&distinct_entry=true
I was at the harbor freight store the other day and caught the VA flight on final. Thought that someone out there might have some better shots.
rob:
Thanks for the photo. I will post
Bill
no rumor about ratting out other landlords not to mention stealing tenants ..on peaceful Cape Cod right now on way to Harwich to meet a friend for a bite a drink
Paulie where are you imbibing & dining........400 club, Brax Landing, 400 Club East, Chatham Squire, Clanceys???????
Camparis
Paulie please Enlighten me, where is that?
http://www.camparis.com/
nice pub in the rear...food goood
it's pricey:>)
the best thing about this article is that it goes againgst EVERYTHING everyone on this site has said about low-mid income housing! Thanks for posting. Integrating income levels IS the key to a vibratnt neighborhood. Im just not sure what the motivation was for posting this. If anyone things that Longhill Gardens, at well over 200 units compares to City Builders at 30 units you are dead wrong. Longhill was segregating, CB is integrating. Its just too bad the neighborhood gave so much opposition to the original plan. CB would have been much mcu MUCH better if it was mixed income as originally proposed. The neighbors (as always) had to fight a great proposal to get what they wanted, and ended up with the opposite. Oh well. still, though, 30 units of lo-mid income housing is still not "warehousing" and will overall be a positive thing for Canterbury ST.
Anonymous:
The folks who built the complex on Cambridge/Hacker Sts have only sold 2 of the 11 units there and they have been trying to umload them now for approx a year and a half. The key to allegedly "integrating" is first to be able to sell the units constructed.
If segregating low income people into larger housing develpoments is not good then why dont we just raze Great Brook Valley and Lakeside housing projects? Plumley Village, too.
I suggest to you that mid income folks will very rarely, if ever, live in neighbohoods such as the City Builders site is located in so why even bother originally proposing it as a mixed income project?
What neighborhood do you live in and how well integrated is it?
Mixing low-mid income people is almost like mixing water & oil. Middle income folks dont want any part of living near/in low income housing.
Please let me know what the game plan is for Cambridge/Hacker Sts project. Likewise for the Mason St project.
Non profit built, Low income housing is a costly proposition for the City of Worcester in the long run.
To Jeff Barnard & Scott Zoback:
(sorry Jeff I cant seem to post your website)
Re: Councilors shoveling their sidewalks.
Jeff, please take another ride by Mr Palmieri's home. I suggest to you that his sidewalk is not shoveled. His sidewalk appears to me to be shoveled only from his driveway to the front walkway to the house...i.e. only the portion of the sidewalk that he uses to access his front door is shoveled. I sugggest to you that the remaining approx 2/3's of teh length of his sidewalk is not shoveled at all.
Jeff, Please drive by on one of your Great Brook Valley runs and take another gander. T.Y
Scott, I'll be looking for a retractiion/coorection in January 1st's edition of Womag. I know you were only relying in Jeff's observations...but hey even I make a few incorrect observations once in awhile, too. Thanking you in advance for publishing the correction. You do owe it to the community
Scott, you could also mention that "a" Phillip Palmieri is according to the city treasurres website also behind in property tax payments...so far behind that this person has been charged interest for previous years. Now there is also a "a" Phillip Palmieri city councilor who is twisting the arms of large non profits in teh city to make Pilot payments to teh city in leiu of taxes. Imagine someone demanding that certain non profits make DONATIONS to the city in lieu of not having to pay taxes when someone of the same name is also behind on their own required obligations the city? We have to dig deeper and see if these are in fact 2 different Philip Palmieris or are they one and the same?
Additionally "a" phillip Palmieri is also listed by the city treasuer as still having an out standing water bill dated 7-30-08.........
What next I ask.............abondoned shopping carts buried in snow banks all across the city?
Whats the old adage????.....Do as I say.....not as I do.....
Is 10 hrs after a snow storm adequate time to clear ones sidewalks? I suggest it s/b 18 hrs. For city councliors...18 days???
Bill -
you might want to tell them that they should clean up the site a bit, "Organzied" is something I write all the time too, but don't put on my homepage.
In defense of Bill Randell, I personally saw and accosted some guy in khakis and a button-down shoveling his walk on Pleasant on a trip to Raymundos.
WTF?? is that who you have working for you now!
Dave the mic
Anonymous, could you please give an example of where this integrated housing has worked? I am not saying that I know for a fact that it doesn't but I tend to agree with Jahn that it really doesn't seem plausible.
good question Gabe....more or less we are actuallly rying to mix no-income folks with income producing folks..this will not work!
I make a great salary and have no problem being friends or living next to folks who make less than me..I have a real disdain for folks who contribue nothing and take alot from hardworking folks
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