Dear Friends,

As I begin another year as a City Councilor in our great city, I wanted to give you a quick update to what we have accomplished this past year and to share my top priorities for the year ahead.  First, a quick re-cap of the past year.  Thanks to the hard work of our elected and appointed officials, we had many significant accomplishments to celebrate this past year here in the city.  Led by our Lt. Governor, we were able to finally bring the mall down and connect Front Street to Union Station and Washington Square. City Square continues to rise up from the former mall site with the Unum Building, the Saint Vincent’s Cancer and the WRTA Transit Center nearing completion and new projects are being announced throughout downtown.  Thanks to the work of the Council and City Administration we have added new Firefighters and Police officers to improve public safety.  We also announced the planned construction of a new Nelson Place School and are continuing multi-year efforts to improve our school infrastructure. Working with a strong community-labor coalition we passed a revised Responsible Employer Ordinance to encourage more local hiring on city sponsored construction projects and to insure they are done in a responsible manner. We also brought together Taxi and Livery owners to strike a new agreement to help address longstanding community concerns.  These are just a few of the good things that have happened and I want to thank my colleagues on the City Council, School Committee and all the elected and appointed officials who worked so hard this past year to move our city forward.

On the political front, we were able to help turn the Worcester area from red to blue in the November elections. Our area produced strong margins of victory for President Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Jim McGovern and all our democratic team. Just as importantly, our city saw record turnout in many precincts, especially in the inner city thanks to the tireless efforts of hundreds of great community volunteers.  This effort bolds well for the future for everyone and we should be proud of what we accomplished together.

Now as we enter into the New Year, I will be putting most of my public effort this year into improving our communities schools.  I truly believe that the the prosperity and promise of Worcester depends on the future of Worcester’s schools.  Anyone who lives or works in this city has a stake in Worcester’s public education system. Why? Because robust property values are tied directly to vibrant schools and can help keep middle class families in our city. Strong schools that produce a skilled, educated workforce helps our community attract the businesses we need to keep our local economy strong. Good schools can also assist in keeping crime rates low and addressing many of the social challenges that face all cities.  Here in Worcester we have made significant progress in building a strong urban school system, but we believe that we must do more to insure that our system has the facilities and resources necessary to insure that we have a great urban school system.

Over the next few months I will be working with our elected and appointed officials to help start a city-wide conversation about laying out a plan for the next decade to improve our public school facilities, stabilize school operational funding and to help leverage new partnerships to help support our schools.  I hope that you will take time to be part of this conversation. To help promote this and other efforts to keep people connected, I have created this blog.  I hope that you will visit this blog periodically to keep updated on the workings of city government, upcoming events and other helpful information.

On a personal note, I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive my family and I this past year.  I am truly grateful for your friendship and support.  Thanks again for all you do to help our city and community! Please email or call if I can help in the coming year!

Thanks!

Joe