etelhaxhiaj.bsky.social
District 5 Worcester city councilor. Albanian. Housing is a right. Climate justice. Vision Zero. End homelessness. Anti-War & Genocide. Building community.
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That is a LOT of production of units at all income levels! We're going to need all-hands-on-deck, all-policies-on-deck to make this happen.
By the way, the final draft will come to Council for a vote in May of this year.
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Very exciting progress. Looking forward to working our departments to improve the quality and safety of our streets.
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Appreciation goes to the City Manager, as well, for encouraging communication with the District Councilors and allocating some of the free cash money to improving neighborhood road conditions.
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I will share more information with our neighborhood groups. In the meantime, I welcome the expertise and experience of our new Commissioner & his committment to coordinate/ work collaboratively with the Dept. of Transportation and Mobility for better quality roads, sidewalks and safe streets.
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I am glad that my advocacy and communication about road conditions in District 5, in partnership with our staff at DPW, and the City Manager's allocation of free cash, will result in major improvements for some of District 5 residential streets most in need of repair.
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“There is a different path. A political solution without ethnic supremacy… [And] the foreign policy of this country is helping to block this path. Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe?” Yuval Abraham
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"We call on the world to stop the injustice & stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people," says Oscar winner
@basel_adra
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No Other Land Co-Director Yuval Abraham:
"The foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path. Why? Can't you see that we are intertwined? … There is another way. It's not too late for life, for the living. There is no other way."
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"@yuval_abraham: When I look at @basel_adra
I see my brother, but we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control, there is a different path…the foreign policy in US is helping block this"
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Making our housing stock safer, preserving the safety of our firefighters and residents should be three public safety priorities for every City Councilor. We will see whether everyone agrees.
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With the statute adopted by the City, our Fire Chief will be given the authority to mandate the property owner to install fire sprinklers, if a multifamily building is undergoing significant renovation.
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It means that if a fire erupts in a multi-family building, as it happened at Washington Heights, the property owner can find loopholes in the law to shirk away from installing automatic fire sprinklers.
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If the City Council decides to vote this recommendation down it will mean two things. 1) The recommenation from our Worcester Fire Chief to adopt this widely-adopted statute is outright rejected. 2) That our firefighters, residents' lives will continue to be endangered.
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When the report comes back, the Council will presumbly refer both items to the Public Safety Committee, which will then make a final recommendation to the City Council.
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The automatic fire sprinkler statute, adopted by over 190 municipalities, has received the endorsment of Worcester Fire Chief Dyer-- the best authority on this matter.
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Very exciting John!
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🎖️good job for surviving both
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3 of 3
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2 of 3
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I also believe that we -- the elected body--have a responsibility to hold any developers who receive taxpayer dollars accountable to our residents, in District 5 and across the City. I look forward to this conversation on the Council floor.
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I have confidence in City Manager Batista and his team’s ability to stear through the challenges ahead.
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In the days & weeks that followed, we've found out that rather than follow-through with development plans connected to the ballpark, Madison Properties has instead been arranging financing to purchase and develop the Rotman's plaza.
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In 2024, Worcester taxpayers had to cover shortfalls to the ballpark loans because of Madison's failures.
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Madison Properties asked Worcester taxpayers for a handout. In order to get that handout, Madison Properties made promises and commitments to Worcester taxpayers.
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A year ago, I signed the Responsible Development pledge. Many of us did, because we believe that when taxpayers subsidize development projects we, as city officials, have a responsibility to hold developers to higher standards, keeping them accountable to our residents.
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"Request City Manager provide City Council with regular updates concerning the Ballpark District Improvement Financing (DIF) revenues, efforts to work with Madison Properties, and strategies to address the unbuilt left field office building, hotel, and other
promised properties. (Haxhiaj)"
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So why don’t you bring these folks to answer questions instead of issuing ridiculously patronizing slap in the face decisions like 5% cuts for two months.
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Better still, why don’t you ask @EversourceMA @nationalgridus to come speak to our communities? I invite you to come out too! Because I have no avenues to support my constituents.
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A young grad trying to keep their head above water? A family with kids taking care of them and elderly parents, making choices between food or heat?
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theft of their $ by Eversource and National Grid. How, dear DPU, would you like me to respond to a family on fixed income? A senior on disability income?
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Awwwe thank you! It’s an excellent and fun evening! Much needed
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The City just did that with the Denholm Building, and now at last week's quicky WRA meeting it feels like that project is slipping away and Worcester has the project on it's hands.
There's now talk of giving the Menkiti Group more taxpayer susbsidies so they please please do the Denholm Building.
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Super happy to see this duo do this.
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Yes. I’m with Danielle.
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Lot of questions and lot of frustrations. I plan to stay on these topics and re-introduce them every 90 days on the council floor, if I have to. Ofc, I will keep talking about these on every social media platform and nbd meeting too.
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to get housing built, house small businesses, encourage mixed-use development in our District 5 neighborhoods. Why isn't Webster Square paid attention to in the same way the City has paid to downtown?
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Neighborhoods outside of downtown? Big D just got a big incentive, thanks to my proposal to turn that into a Urban Center Housing zone- which would incetivize them to get a TIF. Why do the residents of Mill Street have to wait until this owner FEELS like developing it, while we're struggling
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an incentive to develop. I don't care which is it. I am super frustrated that we continue to let these folks just sit on these properties, while residents will wait 10-20 years to see anything there. How is this fair to our neighborhoods? How does this align with the City's goal to revitalize our