Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 2, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 25 We are Leominster Strong V I E W P O I N T E D I T O R I A L I 've worked in crisis communications for more than 25 years, but on a Monday aernoon in mid-Sep- tember, I learned so much more about the impor- tance of strong leadership and working together. e rain started in Leominster around 4 p.m., just at the beginning of the evening commute. Within two hours, Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella was on Facebook Live informing city residents we were in a state of emergency, the result of what experts are calling a once- in-500-year flood. Within what seemed like a matter of minutes, people were trapped in cars on Route 2, residents were rescued from their homes by boats with their pets in tow, and businesses and homes were flood- ed, some with up to seven feet of water. It was terrifying to feel my home shake because of the heavy rains and heartbreaking to know my hometown was drowning in devastation. Police, fire, ambulances, mutual aid, and many others were true heroes rescuing people in danger. e following morning, reality hit us all. Roads were washed away, homes uninhabitable, the commuter rail bridge impacted. Photos and videos of Leominster on newscasts and social media reached as far away as Cali- fornia, Florida, and the Netherlands, resulting in family and friends checking in on us. As a small business own- er in the city, I dusted off my crisis management plan and reached out to friends to offer my support. e North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce immediately implemented a communica- tions plan, complete with a dedicated email address and website for members to obtain up-to-date information. e nonprofit Ginny's Helping Hand provided support at the emergency shelter for displaced residents and then began a robust outreach program to obtain food, clothing, and personal items. e Paper Store offered the opportunity for patrons to help the flood victims with support to Ginny's. Fidelity Bank used its Frosty Flyer ice cream truck to deliver food. I always knew Leominster was a community of kind and generous people, but what I didn't know is how quickly they would use their collective strengths to get the city back up and running. As a communications professional, I have experi- enced my fair share of crises, but none this close to home. It was horrifying yet humbling to be a victim of the flood crisis for which I was providing support to clients while juggling my own business, home, and fami- ly needs. What I learned is that when we use our shared expertise and knowledge, we can do great things. While Leominster is quickly becoming whole again, I rest assured knowing when crisis strikes, Leominster's leaders, first responders, businesses, and neighbors will be there, working in concert to ensure the safety of us all. We are better together when we are Leominster Strong. Lauren Howe is principal and owner of empHowered PR, a public relations firm in Leominster. BY LAUREN HOWE Special to WBJ A T H O U SA N D WO R D S B Y R A M Ó N L . S A N D O V A L Ensure the golden goose keeps laying eggs Lauren Howe N ot that long ago, Worcester felt like a development desert. Coming out of the Great Recession and into the early 2010s, proposals for new multi-family and com- mercial developments were few and far between, to the point when the 368-unit 145 Front at City Square opened downtown in 2018, it was seen as both a risky endeavor and cause for celebration. Over the last few decades, City of Worcester of- ficials and local business leaders tended to take a whatever-you-need approach to any major business or developer considering investing in Worcester. at long-held approach has started to turn over the last half dozen years, as more developers began to take notice of Worcester, real estate prices began to finally rise, and demand for housing increased, fueled in no small part by people seeking refuge from the exorbitant prices in Greater Boston. But old habits die hard. WBJ has editorialized several times about Worcester's much improved hand that City officials bring to the bargaining table, encouraging negotiators to be a little stingier with large-scale development incentives: tax breaks, waived permit fees, and lease agreements. An improved hand at the table should be translating to more net tax revenues, which benefit all of the city's businesses and residents. e City of Worcester has now begun to take that more assertive stance with developers, as WBJ Staff Writer Timothy Doyle explores in his "Enforcing the win-win" story on page 16. e City Council has decer- tified a property tax break for Tennessee-based insurer Unum aer the company was far out of compliance with the hiring requirements in its deal. Worcester has added an inclusionary zoning affordable housing requirement on all new developments above a certain size; and the council is considering stricter penalties for development projects not meeting their diversity hiring goals. ese are all smart moves by the City and are unlikely to have any significant impact on developers' desire to build in Worcester, despite some wringing of hands. Our concern, though, is maintaining that proper balance. During the 2021 Worcester local election, a new wave of progressive candidates won seats on the council, which helped lead to some of the more assertive stances toward development. For inclusionary zoning, four of the 11 city councilors pushed for a stricter affordable housing standard, which would have limited units to a smaller subset of people. e upcoming city election in November has the possibility to sweep even more progressive members onto the city council. It's not hard to envision a future where too many burdens could be placed at the feet of businesses and developers, thus kill- ing the golden goose that has attracted so much outside investment here. Worcester has experienced some real sustained mo- mentum, but for the right kind of development to hap- pen, the negotiators will have to stay nimble. We need to encourage fair deals where continued investment in the right kind of development is encouraged. The above Editorial is the opinion of the WBJ Editorial Board. The Viewpoint column, the A Thousand Words cartoon, and the Word from the Web commentary represent the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of WBJ or its staff. WBJ welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Send them to bkane@wbjournal.com. W W

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