This week’s City Council meeting is Tuesday at 6:30pm. The agenda is here.
Topics: A very light agenda. Goddard playground, drones, tax breaks, bus fares.
Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/91727574825
Improving a Goddard Playground: The city will transfer the asphalt lot at 20 Richards Street, next to Goddard School, to the Worcester Public Schools. Goddard already uses it as a playground; the transfer means they’ll be able to build a “multi-functional competition court” with astroturf and an ornamental stone entrance.
Tweaking Police Drone Policy: Last week, the Council approved the WPD buying a drone. This week, Councilor King, who voted against the drone, has items asking that our drone policy be amended to prohibit sharing information with federal agencies and prohibit the tracking of homeless people.
SOMA Diversity Hiring Problems: The “SOMA” housing development being built near Polar Park got tax breaks in exchange for agreeing to hire certain percentages of Worcesterites, people of color, women, and local firms. They’ve done fine in terms of local firms, but are reportedly way behind in the other categories. The Economic Development Committee wants the full Council to ask the committee to meet with the developers, and for the city to figure out a better system for penalizing firms who don’t meet the benchmarks at various points in their projects. (SOMA stands for “South Of Madison (Street)” and probably also references the drug from the dystopian novel Brave New World.)
Zero-Fare Transit: Through the end of the year, city buses are free. As an occasional bus rider, I think this is great. Councilor Bergman has an item asking that this continue through the end of 2023. The city has some seats on the WRTA Advisory Board but this is ultimately that board’s call.
ARPA Update: The Manager has an update on how we’re doing with distributing American Rescue Plan Act money. We’ve assembled a small army and they are doing lots of things. They have some timelines for things like “program releases,” but I’m not sure how closely those things correspond to actual money being spent.