14 | NOVEMBER 19 - 25, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
CITY VOICES LANDGREN AN URGENT THANKSGIVING WISH ....
WORCESTERIA
Is Boston getting on the bus with Worcester? Victor D. Infante Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
FIRST PERSON
Random thoughts from a curmudgeon Joe Fusco Jr. Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
1) The channel changer just died this afternoon. I wanted to watch a very educational Hulu documentary on OnlyFans and ... nothing. I hit all the buttons, changed the batteries, whacked it against the couch, exhausted all my technical expertise, and still came up empty. It got me thinking that my remote’s demise is how I want to go. Working fi ne and then suddenly, The End. My Dad’s ending was similar to the channel changer. He was coming back from Foxwoods with his third wife after a solid
run of Caribbean Poker when he took the proverbial dirt-nap in the passenger seat of their Buick Regal. My Mom’s ending was also an immediate aff air. She was enjoying a bowl of Frosted Flakes at Beaumont Long-Term Care when she slumped in her chair, dropped the spoon, and left stage right. What a g-r-e-a-t fi nale. We all should just have an expiration date. Live a fresh, vibrant, meaningful life then kaput. Check our batteries, whack us against the couch, then move on. No fuss, no muss. 2) My 13-year-old grandson Logan and I have started playing See FUSCO, Page 28
BOSTON LOOKS TO WORCESTER?: It was very odd to hear Worcester being namechecked on “Boston Public Radio” last week on GBH, let alone in a good way. Usually, when we hear the city on the radio, we brace ourselves for being presented as the cautionary tale. “Don't do this or you'll end up like Worcester!” Instead, hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan were discussing newly minted Boston Mayor-Elect Michelle Wu's push to make the MBTA fare-free, and the radio journalists pointed to an article in Commonwealth Magazine that heralds Worcester as an example of a place doing it right. You'll have to forgive us, we're not used to unsolicited praise that doesn't come with a ballpark attached. According to the article, “the Worcester bus system is one of the relative bright spots (in public transportation usage). Ridership went from 32 percent of pre-pandemic levels in April 2020 to topping 90 percent in July and August of this year, roughly 30 percentage points above the statewide average for ridership retention at regional transit authorities.” Mind, as Worcester Magazine pointed out in August, there still needs to be a signifi cant eff ort to think through the routes to maximize their eff ectiveness, for
Riders on an WRTA bus on Aug. 9. CHRISTINE PETERSON/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE FILE
both work and leisure needs, but evidently, we're doing something right. WORCESTER WATCHING BOSTON?: In the notso-happy news department, one imagines several people at City Hall are watching the ACLU's lawsuit against the City of Boston over the eviction of the homeless from a tent encampment in the area around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, known colloquially as Mass and Cass. “We can’t sweep or arrest our way out of the intersecting crises at Mass and Cass,” Carol Rose, the state ACLU’s executive director, said in a statement, as quoted from CBS Boston. “This plan is harmful and unconstitutional because it forces
people to disperse with no safe place to sleep, while disconnecting them from the medical care they are able to receive at Mass and Cass. Indeed, it’s inconsistent with city assurances, public safety, and the law.” The reason Worcester offi cials might be watching is because the same thing happened here on a smaller scale on Oct. 20, in an encampment near Walmart. The ACLU of Massachusetts did not immediately return a call questioning if the organization would be likewise taking legal action here, as many of the same issues are at play. If nothing else, what happens in the Boston case will almost certainly set a precedent for the treatment of the homeless here.
