508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Brendan Melican, civic gadfly Jo Hart, and Mike’s sexy body.
The question: What do you want the candidates to be discussing as they compete for votes in this year’s City Council election?
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Video: mp4 download link, other formats
You can watch 508 Fridays at 7pm on WCCA TV13.
A couple of quick notes on this week’s thoughtful show:
1. During the intro, I kept thinking that Mike was going to say, “It’s …” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=063jQAM6N8I
[Obligatory Monty Python reference]
2. Re: Brendan’s comment about only carrying cash for panhandlers:
http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/06/14/will-the-cashless-revolution-wipe-out-panhandling/
Karl, it might be a difference in gender and taste, but I saw Mike and thought:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL_1RBxOYNA
Also — before I re-watch Mike’s Ursula Andress moment and lose any semblance of cogent thinking — the most important question about PILOT is when the private, non-profit Worcester Regional Research Bureau will voluntarily begin participating in a PILOT program. If you’re a non-profit advocating for PILOT, put your money where your mouth is.
[aside — in the winter, we need to do an opening sequence of 508 that’s like the ski sequence in “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Complete with parachute.]
Council question:
Wormtown or Woo?
A story on boston.com caught my attention three years ago. It was about a study a couple economists did on common factors among really successful urban areas. Not surprisingly, really clever slogans and tough restrictions didn’t seem to play into building successful urban centers. What did? From the story:
“Social scientists had long studied the growth of cities, but in the 1990s they started to notice something puzzling: Cities like Seattle and Austin were booming as new-economy hubs for no apparent reason other than the fact that the people responsible for the greatest innovations in high technology had chosen to live in places that were bike-friendly, had good music scenes, and allowed them to show up to business lunches in jeans.”
There’s a little more to it than, that, but you get the picture.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/12/28/urban_playground/
Noah — that was really inspirational, and kind of confirms that the City Council CAN make a difference, and COULD do so with some really simple quality-of-life stuff that makes a big impact.
For those of you interested, Streetsblog has had an excellent series on some of these topics: Making Cities Safe for People, Designing for Walking, and Planning for Bicycles.
I wonder what the anarchists you had on last week would think of Jo’s comment “The revenue causes a better quality of life.”
Mike should pose for Twinkie magazine.