Canvassing For Votes With Worcester D2 Council Candidate Rob Bilotta

WORCESTER, MA — Rob Bilotta's Worcester city council campaign is a family affair.

On Tuesday afternoon, Bilotta's mother, Sheila, parked her van — complete with a bumper sticker that says "Mothership" — along Clearview Avenue for a round of canvassing. Bilotta, who has Becker muscular dystrophy, rolled down a ramp and out of the van smiling, ready to hit the street with his campaign volunteer mom and his campaign manager (and cousin), Angie Bilotta.

The trio set out with a list of voters with Angie taking one side of the street, Bilotta and his mother the other. Bilotta relies on volunteers to literally knock on doors. At the first house they hit, Bilotta spoke to a woman from a walkway as she stood on her porch examining one of his handbills.

This is part of a series profiling the 14 candidates who will compete in the Sept. 5 Worcester city council preliminary elections. Patch has reached out to every candidate in each preliminary race seeking interviews.

Farther up the Clearview, which pitches up steeply in the middle, Bilotta had to exit a sidewalk vaulted by tree roots onto the street. Even from a distance, Bilotta spoke to voters in a cheerful tone, thanking them for taking even a few seconds to talk. He passed one house with one of his signs in front, although the residents weren't home to talk to.

"I really want to be a more accessible councilor for Worcester," he says.

Worcester's District 2 is unique among the five district contests going on this year. Bilotta is challenging two candidates in the Sept. 5 primary who have represented the district for a combined 22 years: incumbent Candy Mero-Carlson, first elected in 2015, and Phil Palmieri, who won the seat in 2001 and held it until his term ended in 2015. Bilotta, 36, notes Palmieri was entering his third term by the time Bilotta was old enough to vote.

Bilotta, a member of the city's Human Rights Commission, decided to run this year following his involvement in pushing for Worcester's new inclusionary zoning ordinance. He was one of the main advocates pushing to increase affordable accessible apartments in the city.

Affordable housing is scarce, but more so for people who need accessible homes. Bilotta won a lottery for an affordable and accessible unit at the Voke Lofts building along Grove Street. He lived there until he got a new job at Easterseals Massachusetts. The job came with a salary increase, which pushed Bilotta out of the income bracket for his apartment. His rent doubled, forcing him to move in with his parents.

"It's not my disability that that's a problem, it's having a world built without us in mind," he said.

He says the city can push the envelope more with developers to increase affordability even beyond the new inclusionary zoning law. Worcester is a very desirable place to develop now, he says, and the city should use that leverage.

District 2 has perhaps the most economic development of any district. It includes the downtown core east of Main Street, UMass Memorial and St. Vincent's hospitals, UMass Chan, a new biotech park off Belmont Street, Polar Park, the Canal District and Shrewsbury Street — a center of political influence in D2. As a councilor, Bilotta said he wants to see corridors like Hamilton Street (shared with District 3) and Lincoln Street share in the development boom.

But during Bilotta's canvassing along Clearview Street, he talked more than development and housing. At one home, a resident asks Bilotta about his position on homelessness and drug addiction. The man confided he's been in recovery for 23 years, and wants more to be done for people struggling today. At another home, a Worcester Public Schools teacher comes to the curb to speak with Bilotta, who pitched bread-and-butter items like pedestrian safety updates, beefing up the city's inspectional services department and improving trash collection.

After about an hour of door knocking on Clearview Street, the Bilotta team boarded the "mothership" and headed to the next street full of voters.

"I love trying to connect with people," Bilotta said.

More in this 2023 election series:

• Edson Montero Seeks Worcester District 5 Council Seat In 2023
• Ted Kostas Among 5 Candidates Seeking Worcester District 4 Seat
• Maureen Schwab Eyes Worcester District 4 Council Seat In 2023
• Jenny Pacillo Seeks Open District 1 Worcester Council Seat In 2023
• Dave Peterson Seeks Chance At Worcester District 1 Council Seat