I’m concerned that the toxic people in the workplace will use this as a weapon. Are there controls for that?

That area has always been jammed with traffic. The rotary makes the traffic patterns more predictable and clear which makes it safer. Larger spaces for pedestrians makes pedestrians more visible to traffic.

The “/s” indicates sarcasm

“NH sucks. They have to. they don’t have any teeth” and on top it’s a real-time ticker of MAss GDP

It’s a pretty big hurdle to clear.

Ew

There wouldn’t be enough ridership to justify that. Just ask the WRTA. also the land purchase that would be needed would be in itself prohibitive

No. What I’m saying is that UMass should be held to provide this service given the impact and since it’s their request

Also submit a petition to change Salisbury Street’s name. See how far that gets. Then tell me this petition isn’t itself a practice of privilege impacting marginalized communities the most. Think you’ll get far as far changing Salisbury Street than you will Plantation?

Make UMass pay for the change. Not the residents of the city. That means setting up an office from 7am -7pm 7 days a week with a representative dedicated to help the residents change all their licenses, utility bills, credit card bills, and everything else. Keep it open for 1 year. Force door to door visits to engage the residents for the assistance. Hire multiple reps who speak all the languages found on Plantation Street. Then see how committed UMass is to this cause.

Yeah this is probably my biggest issue with it. Although I don’t live on that street it is one of Worcester’s longest streets. It’s not at all comparable to the Yawkey way issue in Boston. Because the Red Sox were the primary owners of property on that street in addition to a handful of restaurants and a 7-Eleven. Whereas plantation Street is home to probably well over 1000 residents

It’s the guy who works at UMass’s business/PR rep who petitioned for the change. I’m sure he had support from the school’s board or chancellor or whatever the appropriate office is. I won’t name him, because I think he’s a good guy, and it might not be his baby. Could be something he was told to do. Idk

It won’t be a vote. That’s not how these changes are made in the city’s charter. It could possibly be a vote if someone starts a citizens petition. Ask the city clerk about that process if you are interested.

My opinion, for anyone interested, is go ahead and change it. It’ll be a logistical headache for everyone on that street because it’s one of the longest streets in Worcester. But do it anyway, because what’s the point in arguing against it? You’re just going to sound racist because you’re arguing to keep something that someone else said is a racist thing. So now it’s this weird fucking stand-off between people with no proof that it’s racist and people with no proof that it’s not racist. So it just become another thing to yell about. So just change it. My suggestion to the city council would be to change it quickly with zero fanfare and pageantry. An affirmative vote by the council with no discussion should take 5 seconds. And move on and be done with it. Moreover, although I give flaccid support to the change I’ll offer that the word plantation in this context is not a reference to old southern slave plantations as is the stated reason from the petition. In this case plantation is derivative from “Quinsigamond plantation” which was the former village that Worcester used to be. That village was an English settlement which was burned to the ground during the king Philip war. So if we are to be offended by the name of plantation street, it’s not due to the history of racism suffered by African-Americans it is actually the atrocities carried out by the English settlers against the natives. So, although the petition seeks to change the name of the street because of the country’s history, it’s actually more appropriate to cite the actual history of Worcester. I doubt the Nipmuc tribes or Wampanoags were asked about the change.

That’s not on plantation street. That’s Belmont street

They’re saying that character does actually matter. Whereas you said it doesn’t. And they’re telling why they think that it does