WORCESTER – During a comparatively brief Worcester City Council meeting Tuesday night, the main topics of discussion were street vendors and busking and traffic and streets.
Councilor At-Large Morris Bergman asked for a report detailing the existing ordinances related to street performers and vendors and specifically asked if there’s an age minimum to receive a street vending permit. Bergman also said he wanted to determine if the street vending season was shortened this year from Dec. 31 to Oct 15.
Geoffrey Killebrew spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting to explain that he wants to be a vendor at Elm Park, operating Eden’s Slime Sundaes and Kid Car Rides which offers ice cream, snacks, and little cars for kids to drive, among other things.
According to city documents, Eden’s Slime Sundae was awarded a vendor/concession permit for Elm Park from April 1 to Oct. 31.
Killebrew argued that the discriminatory practices, inequitable processes and antiquated rules and regulations regarding street vending and performing in the city led him to create the nonprofit the Worcester Renaissance Project.
The Worcester Renaissance Project is meant to work with city officials to address these issues, according to Killebrew, and then work to find street vendor and performer applicants from historically redlined communities.
Allowing youth to apply for street vendor and performer permits “would give them the ability to start businesses by sharing their creativity in public spaces as an alternative to after school jobs,” according to Killebrew.
City Manager Eric Batista was not present at Tuesday night’s meeting but has said in the past that he is working on revamping the city’s processes for public use of the city’s parks.
Bergman said he had trouble figuring out what the city’s rules for vending and street performing were so he requested the report to help to further clarify, as well as to see if there are possible ways that the city could improve engagement opportunities.
The councilor also said it was his understanding that the street vendor season was shortened from Dec. 31 to Oct. 15, as indicated in the report, and wanted to know why. According to city documents, the park vendors for 2023 were awarded permits that lasted from April 1 to Oct. 31.
King signed on to Bergman’s request, adding that anything that can help facilitate and spark entrepreneurship is important.
The council voted unanimously in favor of requesting a report from the city manager.
A majority of the relatively short meeting was spent discussing streets and traffic.
Mayor Joseph Petty requested the city manager hold listening sessions on the process of converting private streets to public, which sparked a discussion started by King about what the city can do when private streets become hazardous and difficult for first responders to navigate. King requested a report from the police and fire departments about which private streets are hazardous for first responders.
District 2 Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson said she made a similar motion months ago asking what could be done to make the private roads passable.
The traffic that’s been clogging up Pleasant and Highland Streets and the surrounding community also hit the table for discussion.
Bergman made a request for a report on what, if any, factors are considered regarding traffic delays when multiple major streets are scheduled for construction in the same general areas, referencing the multiple projects around Newton Square as an example.
“For some reason all the major roads…at that juncture are being repaired at the same time, whether it’s morning, afternoon, or evening, just to go less than a quarter of a mile is taking 20 minutes to a half an hour,” Bergman said. “It seems to me that we should have alternate routes planned if we’re going to be having major roads at the same intersection etc. being done at the same time.”
The councilors voted unanimously to send the request to the city manager and Petty added onto the request asking to make sure that construction will not impact anyone’s access to polling locations on election day, Nov. 7.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
