This week’s City Council meeting is Wednesday at 6:30 pm. The agenda is here.
This week: Plantation Street, City Manager search, leaf sweeping.
Streets: There’s a request to remove the northeast tip of Onandaga Street from the official map. This doesn’t exist as an actual street, just a wooded lot between two private properties.
Zoning: Frank Zitomersky requests that 4-9 Castle Street be rezoned from business to residential. As the proposal notes, “The present properties are residential and have been residential since the zoning map was developed.”
City Manager Search: Unless some of the Councilors get together to continue to delay the process, the Council will be able to vote on whether the city should, as the Council previously agreed on, hire a search firm to find a new City Manager.
Renaming Plantation Street/Parkway/Terrace: UMass Med School would like these street names changed. “The word ‘plantation’ connotes oppression in our country and serves as a reminder of the painful history of slavery in America. We would hope to participate in a larger community discussion regarding the appropriate course of action to find a more appropriate name.” (Ivan Sandrof in A History of Your City Streets notes “This was the first road laid out in the Plantation of Quinsigamond [the earliest name for the European settlement that eventually became Worcester]. Before it was Plantation street, Worcester residents called the trail Love lane.” That name’s available; we have a couple streets named “Lovell,” but none named “Love.”)
Leaf Collection: The city will start sweeping up leaves on November 11. Tentative schedule, by the day your trash is collected:
Wednesday: November 7-10.
Monday (Quinapoxet/Grove): November 14-19.
Monday (Grove/Salisbury): November 21-26.
Monday (Salisbury/Pleasant): November 28-December 3.
Tuesday: November 14-19.
Friday: November 21-26.
Thursday: November 28-December 3.
Rockland Trust Plaza: The Manager wants the Council to okay the city receiving the Plaza from the quasi-governmental Worcester Redevelopment Authority. This property, formerly a parking lot on Green Street, is adjacent to Polar Park. Did you know there is a stone trough in the plaza intended as “a 90-foot replica of the canal as an homage to the Blackstone Canal”? Also, “Next year, a statue of Tobias Boland [one of the contractors who built the canal] will be installed at the foot of the canal replica.” Note that there’s now a plaque and a few trees honoring General Josiah Pickett, who used to have the whole plaza to himself.
Pickleball: This item is unsigned, I’m not sure how that happens. “Request City Manager request Assistant Commissioner of Public Works and Parks consider adapting existing public tennis courts to also accommodate pickle ball use.”
Little League Field: There’s currently a plan to build a baseball field adjacent to some properties Phil Palmieri has near Risso Court. Palmieri has opposed this and has a couple related items this week. He wants the city to make sure they are not violating state laws regarding “land taken or acquired for conservation purposes.” And he wants the city to require all new municipal parking lots with at least 16 spaces go before the Planning Board before construction, no exceptions. This second proposal will go to the Planning Board for more discussion.