Worcester's Good But Hurts

Long time no talk! Me and Big Dan explain why that's the case. Exciting! Then, we get back into the quagmire of Worcester politics with an explanation of Question 5 and why you should go vote "yes" on it next Tuesday. For that I brought on Ajayi Harris, a member of the ballot committee in support of the Community Preservation Act! Yes for a Better WorcesterMusic this episode from Worcester thrash metal band High Command. "Imposing Hammers of Cold Sorcery" is the most recent single out ahead of their upcoming record, "Eclipse of the Dual Moons." Southern Lord Records! Nov. 25!  Cringe alert! I'm  thinkin about this record and I'm just so proud of my guys. It's going to turn heads! Get people around the country thinking 'woah what's going on in Worcester'? And that's a question you want people to be asking. 

Couple weeks ago I went on Josh Croke's Public Hearing podcast to talk about ARPA funding and the problems inherent in the way the city has decided to administer it. Public Hearing is about as good a podcast as you could hope for on governance and Worcester. Lots of great interviews and interesting topics. Check it out and get it in the rotation! 

Worcester Starbucks is unionizing baby let's freakin go!! I sat down with Jacob Roessler and Chanel Rodrigues, two partners at the East Central Street Starbucks (across from the post office), to talk about their decision join the national movement to unionize Starbucks employees. A few days ago the team there authored a letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz announcing their intent to join Starbucks Workers United. They've got union cards and they're headed toward an election!Music this week by The Oracle and you can find it on their bandcamp. 

Brought new City Councilor Thu Nguyen on the program and at the right time I'd say! Earlier this week, Nguyen had an order on the City Council agenda which caused quite a stir and moved the ball in a big way on Worcester's failure to hold onto a chief diversity officer. I wrote about that whole thing at length on the newsletter this week. But that was just part of a long-ranging conversation in which we touched on the expectations of a campaign versus the reality of holding the position, approaching City Hall as an outsider to the networks of power around it, and about what a city councilor is, what it can be, and what it should be. 

We go over the absolutely ludicrous discussion of nuclear disarmament on the City Council floor last week, which I also wrote about on the newsletter this week, and update the folks at home following the Worcester Police Department's Cocaine & Jenga Controversy. Why can't the City of Worcester keep a chief diversity officer? Maybe racism? And finally, what you should not, under any circumstances, do with a dog. Music this week by Worcester's own speed metal champions Seax, with the fitting "Nuclear Overdose." Check it out on their bandcamp.

What were the motivations of the Worcester man arrested recently for jumping into the tiger's den at the Franklin Park Zoo recently? We try to find out. And if you're listening, please come on the show. We also talk about the unnecessary and disheartening right wing hubbub in Shrewsbury around a poem that was literally written by a high school student. What is critical race theory? Does anyone know? Does it even matter? No is the short answer. Meanwhile the fascists demonstrated outside an anti-fascist bookstore in Providence and the war in Ukraine continues to worsen. In war the only victor is death. That's why at Applebees we're offering bottomless shrimp all month. Eatin good in whats left of your neighborhood!

I brought on Andrew Quemere, an independent journalist and public records watchdog, to discuss the Telegram's recent victory over the City of Worcester in its lawsuit for police misconduct record access. We talk about the decision, what it means for public records access in Massachusetts, and more importantly about how the city handled this lawsuit like a little piss baby. Quemere wrote a long and substantive piece on the subject for Dig Boston and he publishes The Mass Dump, a newsletter focused on public records. Music this week yet again by Worcester legends Facepaint. The song's called Devil's Bride and you can find that and more on their bandcamp. 

We dive straight into the lake and come out covered in doodoo. No one knows how to stop the semi-annual catastophic sewage overflow into the recreational lake! A classic Worcester problem if you ask me. We also re-address the mask mandate repeal and Gary Rosen's ruh-roh, which I wrote about this week. Music by Green Jello this week. Not a Worcester band but we couldn't think of a more appropriate song for the subject matter. 

We talk about the decertification drive among the nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in all it's flagrantly union-busting glory. Check out my story on the matter in The Intercept if you haven't yet. And we also go over the Board of Health's 3-2 decision to repeal the mask mandate. Unfortunately, we recorded this episode before it came out that Gary Rosen forgot to get sworn in to his BOH decision, a blunder which hilariously casts the decision into question, as he was the deciding vote. We'll touch on that in a later episode to be sure. This episode was recorded on Tuesday but getting published on Sunday because I spent the whole week pretty much down in Pawtucket at Machines With Magnets helping Worcester thrash heroes High Command record their upcoming record. So in honor of that, this week's music is brought to you by the heavy metal rippers themselves. The song's called The Commanders Code, off their first LP, and you can find it on their Bandcamp page. 

To listen to the full thing, subscribe to the Patreon (patreon.com/wgbh) or to Worcester Sucks and I Love It (billshaner.substack.com)We take a look at the latest Worcester Police Department scandal: officers overdosing on fentanyl-laced cocaine after a game of Jenga and the spectrum of resulting professional consequences. The Telegram recently won a lawsuit against the city of Worcester for its withholding of police misconduct documents, so we talk about that too. Perhaps the city fought so hard to withhold the documents because this is just the tip of the cocaine and Jenga iceberg? A pervasive problem among local law enforcement, or, darker still, an arcane ritual stretching back generations—a game for which the prize is unknown save for the players and the players are bound to secrecy by blood oath? Time will tell. Oh and we also share our experiences with the Catholic Church. Music this week is by Worcester/Boston band Burning Wind. The song's called "Nomad" and it's off their 2021 demo, which you can find on Bandcamp.  

You can't sit there and mainline an hour of public comment from your average Joe Central Mass COVID denier and not want to hop on the first train headed for the sun. But that's just what me and everyone else who watched the City Council meeting this week had to do. In this episode I offload my misery onto Dan by making him listen to some choice clips, then I called up Doug Arbetter, the guy who got us into this mess, to give him one last chance to explain himself before he's sent to the newly installed communist gulag in the basement of Pfizer's corporate headquarters.  Music by Worcester legends Facepaint. The song is called "Venom" and it kicks ass. You can find it on their bandcamp.The original theme song we concocted for this program is obnoxiously bad and while that may have been the joke it's not funny anymore so we've decided to leave the music to the musicians. Each episode we'll spotlight a band from the area that we like and we think more people should like or at least know about. This episode is free but the last episode, on the drama between Worcester Wares and Worcester Hates You (somehow still going on) is paywalled. You can access it on our Patreon or by subscribing to Worcester Sucks and I Love It my newsletter thank u :-)

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Down on the ground! In this episode we tackle the latest incredibly dumb column from the Telegram's Ray Mariano, the affordable housing crisis through the eyes of a full-time house flipper, and what it might be like to wear the crown. Oh and smash the link to donate to Mark Whelan's fundraiser for his fight against Leukemia. This is the second episode, but the first episode available for free. The first was paywalled and we're gunna go one free, one for paying subscribers from here on out.  You can subscribe to Worcester Sucks and I Love It or the Worcester's Good But Hurts Patreon for access to the paid-only episodes. A Worcester Sucks production, Worcester's Good But Hurts (WGBH) is a weekly recap of the significant happenings in Worcester, Massachusetts, a city widely regarded as mediocre, frumpish, cartoonish, down-on-its-luck, gritty, terrible, smelly, trashy, worthless, insignificant, destitute, inconsolable, irreparable etc. The podcast is hosted by Worcester Sucks and I Love It author Bill Shaner and Dan Anderson, fellow co-host of Highway 69 and an apprentice at the Worcester-based Ideal Americana Tattoo Company. 

For the full episode, head on over to the Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/wgbh) or subscribe to Worcester Sucks And I Love It (billshaner.substack.com)A Worcester Sucks production, Worcester's Good But Hurts (WGBH) is a weekly recap of the significant happenings in Worcester, Massachusetts, a city widely regarded as mediocre, frumpish, cartoonish, down-on-its-luck, gritty, terrible, smelly, trashy, worthless, insignificant, destitute, inconsolable, irreparable etc. The podcast is hosted by Worcester Sucks and I Love It author Bill Shaner and Dan Anderson, fellow co-host of Highway 69 and an apprentice at the Worcester-based Ideal Americana Tattoo Company.