Petty battles several candidates looking to dethrone him from his mayoral seat. “When I first entered politics, I was interested in building the quality of life for all residents of the City of Worcester. In 1997, I was driven to making a change and ran for city council to pursue these goals. I have not looked back.”
WORCESTER – As the Worcester municipal election is only weeks away, the Worcester Guardian reached out to candidates in contested races. Asking each a set of questions, the Guardian will publish these responses through election day (Nov. 7).
Incumbent Joseph “Joe” Petty is running to keep his seat as mayor/councilor-at-large as a democrat.
Joe Petty was raised in the Hadwen Park neighborhood by Francis and Bernadine Petty. He graduated from Holy Name Central Catholic High School, working nights and weekends as a cook at Abdow’s Big Boy Restaurant. He attended Nichols College, then New England School of Law in Boston. Petty was first elected in 1997 to the city council, which he served on for more than a decade. He became Worcester’s 59th mayor in 2011.
The following are Petty’s responses to the Guardian’s questionnaire:
What inspired you to run (again), and what makes you the right person for the job?
When I first entered politics, I was interested in building the quality of life for all residents of the City of Worcester. In 1997, I was driven to making a change and ran for city council to pursue these goals. I have not looked back.
I have continued to run for election because I am a trustworthy candidate. Residents trust I will not take us backward. I have been instrumental in developing the strong and steadfast improvement of the city. Residents who have lived in Worcester and have seen the changes I have made can appreciate the work that I have put into my mission of improving the quality of life of residents, a mission that started over 20 years ago. Although I have been in office for more than 10 years, I feel that I have not met my goals entirely. In the next two years, I would like to specifically focus on affordable housing, mental health, economic development, and improving the school’s infrastructure with a focus on Burncoat and Worcester East Middle School.
We’ve seen in these past two years that we have moved very left on some issues and very right on other issues. We need to figure out how we can move forward, and make sure that we aren’t moving too far too quickly, and we do not want to move back. It is important to understand the roles of the three top positions in the city: the superintendent is responsible for running the schools, the city manager is in charge of running the city, and the mayor is in charge of managing the relationships between the decision-makers that help continue to move this city forward.
The issues that are being addressed in council are often out of our control or counterproductive to the other parts of the system. I have always prided myself on being focused on being neutral so that we can move forward. In order to move forward, we need to continue straight and move in one direction, rather than swinging from left to right, which will allow us to make progress.
What are, or should be, the city council’s top priorities?
As mayor, my priorities in this election are to go back to basics and be thoughtful about what city residents need the most – clean streets, public safety, affordable housing, school improvements, mental health support, and the environment. I’m concerned that we’ve gotten away from our priorities, and I want to get back to using data to measure the effectiveness of different moves. Unlike my colleagues, there are things that I won’t budge on. I didn’t vote on PILOT, which attacks our churches. I didn’t vote on an eviction moratorium that would have cost the city money we don’t have. I’m proud to say that I’ve never been on the dissenting end of a 10-1 vote.
In 2017, we announced the construction of 117 units; while we are still working on putting up these units, I have worked to incentivize naturally occurring affordable housing and I have gotten creative to use different forms of funding to incentivize home ownership and facilitate affordable housing outside of the Worcester Housing Authority. I called for the plan that led to the Worcester Now Initiative, which provided funds to maintain and rehabilitate multi-family units to ensure that units were up to code and could be rented out to individuals and families looking to live affordably in the city.
I was unanimously supported by the council to put forth a request to commit to becoming the cleanest gateway city in Massachusetts, and I was also unanimously supported in the re-evaluation of recycling bins in the city, assessment for the installation of permanent speed humps, and the piloting of floating crosswalks. I have heard the feedback from residents and responded by putting forth orders that are appropriate and relevant to the information I get from the fellow experts on the city, the residents who live, work, and thrive in Worcester. I have also considered our wildlife, residents of the green and bluespace in the city. I created a Lakes Report that informed practice, and I worked toward making sure our bluespaces did not go ignored. This assessment has been extended to other bluespaces to ensure no wildlife are left behind. It has been my mission to enhance the quality of life for all who inhabit this city.
I called for the creation of the Mayor’s Mental Health Taskforce in light of staffing needs for social service agencies. This came prior to the pandemic, highlighting the significant gap in services for individuals who manage mental health diagnoses and substance use disorders. The pandemic only emphasized these gaps in service, and we continue to work to bring more people, from all backgrounds, into the human services field where help can be offered to those in need. I am particularly passionate about evidence-based practice and the harm reduction model when it comes to the opioid crisis. I was the first to bring forward a request for the administration to sue pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid crisis and used these funds to support my agenda in enhancing the quality of life for individuals with substance use disorder by bringing more services to the city.
Finally, economic development will be essential in supporting the funding of future projects and initiatives. We have been looking to bring more business developments to the City of Worcester to lower the tax rate and use commercial tax revenue for economic development in the City, including improving the school’s infrastructure, with a focus on Burncoat and Worcester East Middle.
What’s the most negative impression of Worcester (whether real or imagined), and how do you think this can be remedied?
I believe that some people still think of the old Worcester – the Worcester of a generation ago. There is a pervasive belief that Worcester is run by an old boys’ club, and I simply do not believe this is the case today. In fact, I take a lot of pride in the diversity that has been brought to City Hall and the diverse voices that have been welcomed to the decision-making table. We have come a long way since the times of the “old boys’ club” and I only look forward to bringing in even more diverse viewpoints and perspectives to our delegation. Not only do we need to continue to make Worcester one of the most livable cities in the country, we need to ensure that there is appropriate representation that aligns with the demographics of our unique city.
Do you think the city is responding appropriately to immigration to Worcester? Is the city meeting the needs of the influx of refugees?
One of the things I am most proud of is that we are a welcoming city. We started taking refugees before you or I were here, back in 1915 with the Armenian Genocide. We proudly house the oldest Armenian Orthodox church in the Western hemisphere. Here in the City of Worcester, we have continued to provide the springboard for displaced individuals to make a prosperous life.
I am proud as mayor that we have continued to come together as a community to address the influx of new arrivals to our city. I think we have done a good job of integrating new refugees. We handled the Afghan refugee issue very well, and we have continued to do so with our recent Haitian refugees. The key to improving the lives of our refugees is to get the USCIS to allow work permits, so that the new arrivals can be empowered to be self-reliant.
Now that we’re several seasons in, what are your thoughts on the city’s investment in Polar Park? Good or bad for the city?
Polar Park has provided the city with a new image. People see Worcester on TV now. This helps attract people, developers and even college students, all which combine to make us better. The revenue from Polar Park is currently being used to pay for itself. However, I look forward to seeing how Polar Park’s revenue pays for new projects.
Polar Park has also created hundreds of fun jobs for people in the city. Just for some perspective on the cost of Polar Park and how it relates to other projects–the construction of Doherty cost about twice as much and I am more than happy to do it. The ballpark has also been a catalyst for change in Kelley Square, Green Island, and the Canal District. We have taken a major brownfield and have built a ballpark while private development is constructing housing along Green and Madison streets. We have brought more affordable housing to the city and revived an area of the city that was dilapidated for generations.
What’s the best place for breakfast or lunch in the city?
That’s a tough question, since there are so many delicious options for diners in the city. I have been a long-time fan of Miss Worcester Diner – I usually get their special, but their corned beef hash and stuffed French toast are the best.
What’s the last concert you attended?
Elton John
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