508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Mike and Brendan offer some predictions for 2011.
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[2:14] Mike, despite being contradicted by yesterday’s news, thinks Barbara Haller won’t run for re-election in 2011, but an anointed successor will take her place.
[3:15] Mike prediction: The City Hall skate rink won’t be operational.
[4:34] Mike prediction: Stone Soup will be rebuilt.
[5:06] Mike prediction: Worcester will get Google Fiber.
[5:28] Mike prediction: Marty Lamb will appear on 508.
[6:14] Brendan prediction: Not much will change.
[7:29] We revisit the 2009 predictions.
[9:10] Brendan won’t say if Mayor O’Brien will be re-elected.
[11:20] There’s a Youth Poetry Slam on Saturday, 4pm at Clark.
[11:37] There’s an Aldi being built.
[12:23] Brendan wonders why Worcester has so many more supermarkets these days.
[14:00] T&G: Police arrest 24 Assumption students at off-campus party:
Twenty-two of the students in court yesterday agreed to take part in a diversion program, instead of being arraigned on alcohol and other charges.
[16:43] Some City Councilors want to increase property taxes on apartment buildings.
“But, Councilor Rosen,†you ask, “didn’t you join the large majority of your colleagues the previous four years and vote for the lowest residential tax rate for homeowners (a.k.a. the highest possible tax rate for Worcester businesses)?†Yes, I plead guilty as charged. However, I’m now suffering some regret as I see how shortsighted those four votes were.
T&G:
[Councilor Palpatine] said he believes classifying such properties as commercial entities would probably lead to a significant reduction in the commercial-industrial tax rate.
[24:40] Mike had a good time at “The Next Big Thing” at the Palladium. Brendan thinks “pay for play” events in Worcester have tended to be among the better ones.
[26:28] Bruce will be a Wise Man in the Christmas pageant at Pleasant Street Baptist Church, 5pm Sunday.
[26:24] Brendan explains the coming widespread vehicular surveillance of Worcester drivers.
Did Brendan just coin the next Worcester slogan? “Worcester … it’s not that bad.”
Yeah, it really isn’t. A few thumbless Jeep Compass drivers and polocks from Holden try to make it worse than it is, but it’s simply not the worst place around…so, move here I guess?
“Worcester, hey it’s not Patterson NJ.” I left out the “at least” because my fledgling version of that slogan is more like a reminder to grow thumbs so the rest of us who actually live here can live.