Year: 2009

“Shaping a Local Green Economy” in Worcester

Last night there was a forum on “Shaping a Local Green Economy” at Clark University in Worcester.

People experimenting with Worcester green initiatives, along with institutional players, spoke briefly about their work. The keynote speaker was Omar Freilla of the Bronx-based Green Worker Cooperatives.

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My video of the event was only so-so, so I’m posting the audio of the Worcester speakers here for anyone curious about the range of local green things happening.

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The Worcester speakers were:

  • Joel Fontaine, Worcester’s Director of Planning and Regulatory Services. Worcester has “adopted the state’s first climate action plan.”
  • Stephen O’Neil of the Worcester Regional Transit Authority. The bus system is seeking ISO 14001 certification of their Environmental Management System.
  • Patricia Feraud, Toxic Soil Busters Co-op. TSB, part of the Worcester Roots Project, is a youth-led project that tests lawns for lead contamination and deals with the problem when they find it.
  • Julius Jones of the Regional Environmental Council. Julius works on projects that manage community gardens and teach young people how to grow and sell food in their neighborhoods. The “overall vision is to have community gardens within walking distance of anybody that wants one.”
  • Jill Dagilis of the Worcester Community Action Council. WCAC would like to “reduce and eliminate the reliance on fuel assistance” by increased weatherization.
  • Clark Provost David Angel. Clark is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1995 levels by 2010, and to be “climate-neutral by 2030.”
  • Mary Knittle of Quinsigamond Community College. QCC will have a regional training center for clean energy jobs.
  • Stacie Brimmage and Ashey Trull of the Worcester Energy Barnraisers. At their events, people learn weatherizing by joining dozens of others in weatherizing a local building. (I made a short video of their last event.)
  • Stephen Healy of the Worcester Green Jobs Coalition.
  • Sarah Assefa of the EMPOWER Energy Cooperative. EMPOWER is a business that plans to make biodiesel out of local waste vegetable oil.

508 #92: Bald eagle

508 is a show about Worcester. This week Brendan Melican and Drew Wilson talk about a bald eagle.

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Also: Buddha Hut’s vegan meatballs a top 10, Saturday is a VegWorcester buffet, Stone Soup porch burned, Rosen’s Roundtable talks taxes, and Hermis Yanis starts a podcast after his radio show is “terminated.”

508 #91: Fox Cops

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Kevin Ksen, Brendan Melican, and Tracy Novick.

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We talk about the City Council election. We talk about the School Committee election. We talk about a new Worcester video site Mike’s playing with (and you should, too). We talk about a $10 million lawsuit against Worcester for an incident during the taping of the Fox TV show COPS in 2006.

Worcester election results, 2007 vs. 2009

chart2009-2007

Here are the election results for the Worcester City Council At-Large race in 2009, compared to 2007. The data points are the % of ballots cast for each candidate.

Some obvious points:

  • Emmanuel Tsitsilianos did very poorly.
  • Joe O’Brien did very well.
  • Aside from O’Brien, challengers this time did worse than last time.
  • Petty and Toomey are stronger, Rushton and Lukes are weaker. Rushton and Petty basically switched places.
  • Two incumbents were forced off the council last time (Perotto and Irish), none were forced off in 2009.

(Yes, charts for district and School Committee races are forthcoming.)

All Worcester incumbents (but one) win

The Telegram & Gazette is saying that all incumbents but School Committee member Bob Bogigian have won re-election. They say O’Brien has won the open City Council seat (Rosen not running for re-election) and mayorship; Novick & Biancheria are new on the School Committee (one of those seats being open, too).

Looking forward to seeing tomorrow’s numbers and making some useful charts.

Update via e-mail: “Channel 3 just referred to Joe Petty as ‘The Quiet Man’.” Heck yeah.

508 #90: Performance Oval

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Gabe Rollins.

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We talk about Gabe’s attempts to send his own survey to the City Council candidates; the “performance oval” behind City Hall; the Worcester energy barnraising; and the pros and cons of voting.

508 #89: Challengers

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Aria DiSalvo and Brendan Melican.

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Aria DiSalvo tells us about the “Stop Spewing Carbon” anti-biomass incinerator campaign.

Election molehills: Mayor Lukes’s husband has cars registered outside Worcester! Candidate O’Brien linked to his boss!

Brendan talks about the police department’s latest feud with the newspaper. Mike talks about the Center for Nonviolent Solutions kickoff.

As the centerpiece of the show, we come up with reasons to vote for every challenger in the upcoming election.

Mike contrasts Worcester Magazine’s search for an “edgy” writer with their past claims to be “non-dowdy.”

Worcesterites will be celebrating the October 24 International Day of Climate Action with a weatherization “barnraising” and tree planting.

Continue reading “508 #89: Challengers”

Worcester Center for Nonviolent Solutions kickoff

Great turnout for today’s kickoff event for Worcester’s Center for Nonviolent Solutions. Standing room only!

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Catholic Worker Claire Schaeffer-Duffy was emcee; Nate Pickens of Mosaic talked about his own experiences with violence in Worcester; Michael True explained the purpose of the Center; Congressman Jim McGovern shared some stories from his life and introduced keynote speaker Colman McCarthy, journalist and educator, who gave a wide-ranging talk on nonviolence and the people who practice it.

Nice to see a lot of people I haven’t seen in months; especially nice to see Bishop McManus in attendance.
Continue reading “Worcester Center for Nonviolent Solutions kickoff”