I see the Stone Soup Board has Logged On in these comments lmao. I hope Stone Soup leadership someday reflects on the reactionary ideas they've still got intenalized about houseless people and people who use drugs. No one is encouraging break ins and narcan does not encourage drug use, such tired of conservative talking points. The stone soup has been a gentrifying force on King St ever since the fire. Enacting property rights to remove people they don't want to see. You brought property on King St to be a "community building" but refuse to engage in harm reduction? good luck with that!
Good write up. At the end of the day, Stone Soup is plopped down where the community is. Which community are we trying to help and build interdependency with? If the situation is so bad that Stone Soup has yo shut out the community it is in the midst of, shouldn't that be a signal to all involved that there is a new, pressing work to be done?
Instead of, "we need to make our own organizations good and running, then we can come back to the community around us who are in crisis", shouldn't it be "we need all hands on deck to help our community in crisis, then we can come back to worrying about building from there"?
Bill you are a blessing; it's a gift to read how Worcester sucks for those who love it. On this piece, however, I have to take issue with a few points. 1. I agree there is a division between those doing harm reduction at Stone Soup and those who aim to reclaim the space for grassroots organizing. But it is not true that authentic, respectful engagement with people on the street comes from one side of that division. Sit on the porch for a while with members of Our Story and see for yourself. 2. If harm reduction is about keeping people from dying but ignoring the biohazard of trash and feces that accumulates on the property it is not reducing harm from the perspective of other residents including families with young children on King Street. 3. Building alternatives to the systems and structures and containment zones that the city provides and polices in its limited imagination and its pursuit of property- and privilege-based values requires more than bandaids. It requires something called *organizing*--not just making friends and passing out narcan. Organizing. Organizing led by fresh young visionary leadership coupled with the wisdom of elders who have deep relationships within impacted communities. IMO OurStory has what it takes to lead this kind of organizing from the Soup. One more thing---when one group decides to impose a solution onto a collective, something is awry in the culture that results. A lot more to say there.
To WorcesterAntifa (& why show up anonymously here?): Who from the Stone Soup Board has logged on? I don't recognize anyone from the Stone Soup Board. The people I know who do harm reduction in NYC, Chicago, and Oakland work from within communities, they're not outsiders to the affected community. They understand the complexities, challenges, and array of possible strategies and approach the work with humility because humility is needed and because they're just awesome and wise--it's not about THEM, their rad-ness, their self-image; it's about healing in community, about engagement with all those affected. Just saying, but do your thing, WorcesterAntifa.
This is a really good article and it points out so many important points. It's a very interesting article but it is very incomplete and I understand that the point that you are trying to keep the most important is the homelessness issue and the drug addiction issue. Both huge and monumentous in many areas of our city. This is an incomplete article. It does not show the whole actual truth of things that are transpiring in the King Street building that you are discussing. Without more factual information this article is definitely skewed in a direction that is not at all complete. Your readers would need more information to make a true appraisal of what is REALLY going on. As someone who has spent many hours in the past couple of weeks volunteering time to clean and secure the property there is so much that is left out of this article.It is unfair to leave Stone soup and those who are trying to stop it being taken away from the Main South community and all who reside in it. It has them looking like they care more about the building and their organizations and that just isn't true. There is a lot of heartache from a lot of people about what is happening not only to the neighborhood but a very important group of grassroots organization that has outreached in so many ways too the neighborhood. I have been there and I have seen people from the stone soup Community interacting positively with the entire community. I have seen them providing clothing and water and advice on the agencies that are actually equipped to help the homeless population and drug addicted population and more and ARE actively doing so. Don't make it sound like those at Stone soup are not connected with the social service and grass Roots outreach communities that are working hard and have been working hard in the King Street area and otherwise to help the homeless and people struggling with addiction hunger and much more because that is an untruth. Please don't make it sound like Stone soup is turning away from these communities because that is an untruth in every way. The property is being reclaimed and kept for the community. I am a witness to all of this with my own eyes and hands with many others who wish it to endure. As far as what is being refered to as harm reduction goes (I feel that people trained in actual harm reduction and it's philosophies and principles would be appalled by what has been happening on this property and the community it resides in) The folks you are referring to in this article I have questions about whether or not they are properly trained in actual harm reduction. I see them passing out the needles to parts of the community in the King Street area. But why is it that other entities have to step up to pick up those needles when they are dirty and have blood in them and have been discarded on the sidewalk and on the property and in the garden? Would you want to navigate all that with your kids? Neither do families who are also a part of the community. Cuz I can tell you the people that you discuss in this article who pass them out were not there for the cleanup or care for this building or community after in any way shape or form. Nor have the been in any recent history for the sheer amount of needles trash refuse discarded clothing and human waste that has had to be removed and cleaned is astounding. ( That was left out of this article as well) If the people in this article who call themselves harm reduction actually cared about the population that their trumpeting about here they would not leave them to reside in the filth and nastiness that other people are now cleaning up. Maybe folks would want to know more about that? If whoever was interviewed for this article is painting a picture of Stone soup as closing out the community they are not being truthful. I encourage those who truly care about this issue to look more about what is actually happening at Stone soup better yet stop by and discuss it with the people who are working to clean and secure and reclaim and keep this property for the community. I'm sure they would welcome you and love to have you as an active member of the community.
to GetAClo: The folks I know from Stone Soup see community as everyone who lives in the neighborhood, housed and unhoused. It's the "harm reduction" folks who shut out anyone other than the homeless from consideration. The issue is strategy. How to move the needle on the work that's really needed (and why show up anonymously here?)
One last comment about due diligence. Mr Shaner did you actually verify whether or not the people that you interviewed and quoted other than Our Story Edutainment are actually affiliated with Stone Soup and have approval of it's entities to use the property as it sees fit? Which actual active organization or entity members of Stone Soup are the harm reduction people representing? You didn't say. And are you insinuating that when people are homeless they are given the right for breaking and entering and damaging property? Because that is not at all a respect of communities philosophy. I wonder how many of your readers would feel if someone who does not pay their mortgage or their bills told homeless people in their community that they had to right to break and enter properties and do as they please on them. Because that is essentially what your article and Leo Sun is saying about the break ins. You really left out too much information and put a unfair portrayal of what is actually happening at Stone soup just to cause attention to a very serious problem that our entire city is having. That is not only unfair but dangerous. You should of told the whole story of what the actual facts that our contributing to the situation on King Street are not just pick and choose what fits your narrative of a cause you hold dear. This is not unbiased reporting this is taking certain elements of a situation and reporting on it just to prove your point. Sadly this is what most media does today and apparently that is what you do in your writing as well. It's a dis service to the truth and your readers.
It's a difficult and shitty situation and the only party not deserving of sympathy is the city government. Surprise, surprise.
I see the Stone Soup Board has Logged On in these comments lmao. I hope Stone Soup leadership someday reflects on the reactionary ideas they've still got intenalized about houseless people and people who use drugs. No one is encouraging break ins and narcan does not encourage drug use, such tired of conservative talking points. The stone soup has been a gentrifying force on King St ever since the fire. Enacting property rights to remove people they don't want to see. You brought property on King St to be a "community building" but refuse to engage in harm reduction? good luck with that!
Good write up. At the end of the day, Stone Soup is plopped down where the community is. Which community are we trying to help and build interdependency with? If the situation is so bad that Stone Soup has yo shut out the community it is in the midst of, shouldn't that be a signal to all involved that there is a new, pressing work to be done?
Instead of, "we need to make our own organizations good and running, then we can come back to the community around us who are in crisis", shouldn't it be "we need all hands on deck to help our community in crisis, then we can come back to worrying about building from there"?
Bill you are a blessing; it's a gift to read how Worcester sucks for those who love it. On this piece, however, I have to take issue with a few points. 1. I agree there is a division between those doing harm reduction at Stone Soup and those who aim to reclaim the space for grassroots organizing. But it is not true that authentic, respectful engagement with people on the street comes from one side of that division. Sit on the porch for a while with members of Our Story and see for yourself. 2. If harm reduction is about keeping people from dying but ignoring the biohazard of trash and feces that accumulates on the property it is not reducing harm from the perspective of other residents including families with young children on King Street. 3. Building alternatives to the systems and structures and containment zones that the city provides and polices in its limited imagination and its pursuit of property- and privilege-based values requires more than bandaids. It requires something called *organizing*--not just making friends and passing out narcan. Organizing. Organizing led by fresh young visionary leadership coupled with the wisdom of elders who have deep relationships within impacted communities. IMO OurStory has what it takes to lead this kind of organizing from the Soup. One more thing---when one group decides to impose a solution onto a collective, something is awry in the culture that results. A lot more to say there.
To WorcesterAntifa (& why show up anonymously here?): Who from the Stone Soup Board has logged on? I don't recognize anyone from the Stone Soup Board. The people I know who do harm reduction in NYC, Chicago, and Oakland work from within communities, they're not outsiders to the affected community. They understand the complexities, challenges, and array of possible strategies and approach the work with humility because humility is needed and because they're just awesome and wise--it's not about THEM, their rad-ness, their self-image; it's about healing in community, about engagement with all those affected. Just saying, but do your thing, WorcesterAntifa.
This is a really good article and it points out so many important points. It's a very interesting article but it is very incomplete and I understand that the point that you are trying to keep the most important is the homelessness issue and the drug addiction issue. Both huge and monumentous in many areas of our city. This is an incomplete article. It does not show the whole actual truth of things that are transpiring in the King Street building that you are discussing. Without more factual information this article is definitely skewed in a direction that is not at all complete. Your readers would need more information to make a true appraisal of what is REALLY going on. As someone who has spent many hours in the past couple of weeks volunteering time to clean and secure the property there is so much that is left out of this article.It is unfair to leave Stone soup and those who are trying to stop it being taken away from the Main South community and all who reside in it. It has them looking like they care more about the building and their organizations and that just isn't true. There is a lot of heartache from a lot of people about what is happening not only to the neighborhood but a very important group of grassroots organization that has outreached in so many ways too the neighborhood. I have been there and I have seen people from the stone soup Community interacting positively with the entire community. I have seen them providing clothing and water and advice on the agencies that are actually equipped to help the homeless population and drug addicted population and more and ARE actively doing so. Don't make it sound like those at Stone soup are not connected with the social service and grass Roots outreach communities that are working hard and have been working hard in the King Street area and otherwise to help the homeless and people struggling with addiction hunger and much more because that is an untruth. Please don't make it sound like Stone soup is turning away from these communities because that is an untruth in every way. The property is being reclaimed and kept for the community. I am a witness to all of this with my own eyes and hands with many others who wish it to endure. As far as what is being refered to as harm reduction goes (I feel that people trained in actual harm reduction and it's philosophies and principles would be appalled by what has been happening on this property and the community it resides in) The folks you are referring to in this article I have questions about whether or not they are properly trained in actual harm reduction. I see them passing out the needles to parts of the community in the King Street area. But why is it that other entities have to step up to pick up those needles when they are dirty and have blood in them and have been discarded on the sidewalk and on the property and in the garden? Would you want to navigate all that with your kids? Neither do families who are also a part of the community. Cuz I can tell you the people that you discuss in this article who pass them out were not there for the cleanup or care for this building or community after in any way shape or form. Nor have the been in any recent history for the sheer amount of needles trash refuse discarded clothing and human waste that has had to be removed and cleaned is astounding. ( That was left out of this article as well) If the people in this article who call themselves harm reduction actually cared about the population that their trumpeting about here they would not leave them to reside in the filth and nastiness that other people are now cleaning up. Maybe folks would want to know more about that? If whoever was interviewed for this article is painting a picture of Stone soup as closing out the community they are not being truthful. I encourage those who truly care about this issue to look more about what is actually happening at Stone soup better yet stop by and discuss it with the people who are working to clean and secure and reclaim and keep this property for the community. I'm sure they would welcome you and love to have you as an active member of the community.
to GetAClo: The folks I know from Stone Soup see community as everyone who lives in the neighborhood, housed and unhoused. It's the "harm reduction" folks who shut out anyone other than the homeless from consideration. The issue is strategy. How to move the needle on the work that's really needed (and why show up anonymously here?)
Great article. I appreciate your passion and your unbiased reporting.
One last comment about due diligence. Mr Shaner did you actually verify whether or not the people that you interviewed and quoted other than Our Story Edutainment are actually affiliated with Stone Soup and have approval of it's entities to use the property as it sees fit? Which actual active organization or entity members of Stone Soup are the harm reduction people representing? You didn't say. And are you insinuating that when people are homeless they are given the right for breaking and entering and damaging property? Because that is not at all a respect of communities philosophy. I wonder how many of your readers would feel if someone who does not pay their mortgage or their bills told homeless people in their community that they had to right to break and enter properties and do as they please on them. Because that is essentially what your article and Leo Sun is saying about the break ins. You really left out too much information and put a unfair portrayal of what is actually happening at Stone soup just to cause attention to a very serious problem that our entire city is having. That is not only unfair but dangerous. You should of told the whole story of what the actual facts that our contributing to the situation on King Street are not just pick and choose what fits your narrative of a cause you hold dear. This is not unbiased reporting this is taking certain elements of a situation and reporting on it just to prove your point. Sadly this is what most media does today and apparently that is what you do in your writing as well. It's a dis service to the truth and your readers.
Very disappointed.