Roberta Schaefer of the Worcester Research has a story about privatizing some subsidized services. Read here, this is a list from the story:
Facility Tax-Pay Subsidy
ORH 700,000 (it is actually more then that)
Union Station 775,000 (not to mention the loans we are taking our for future tenenants)
Senior Center 915,000
Hope Cemetary 1,000,000
Auditorium 120,000
DCU Ctr 400,000
Green Hill 150,000
total $4,700,000
Same Time Next Year
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It’s been nearly a year since I wrote about the problems that come from
having 11 bosses who are not on the same page about anything, as well as
suggestion...
4 months ago
19 comments:
MR Randell.....What's this BUZZ?? ....I thought I was a man about town.............and I never heard of it?
Can I get this buzz on a Hot July afternnon by imbibing a 16oz adult beverage for my 1/2 hour lunch on the Common or in front of the Harold Donahue Federal Building?
Mr Randell?
The Buzz is an insert in the Telegram by Rod Lee of the Telegram. Comes out monthly and is excellent.
Got it in the paper earlier in the week but you can usually find it around the City.
any chance of privatizing all the lay abouts in this city on SSI,food stamps,Sexy 8's,medical - did I miss anything?
How come no one evah writes a story on this?
This would save BILLions:>)
Why make Billions we we could have.........Millions!!!!!
(begin Austin Powers theme music for Dr. Evil)
A Fan
Isn't Mr. Randell your father, Bill ????
Harry Tembenis
Worcester, MA
BTW, Buzz & Paulie(Walnuts?) have Jahn written all over them...
How do you privatize lay-abouts? When I refer to privatizing, I am talking about farming out municipal jobs to private contractors, Layabouts, by definition, dont have jobs???
Bill, do you allow intangibles to be added to the listed of items that have left the city or closed/ended. If so, please add Clinton, Holden, W. Boylston, and holiday bus service. Do Holdenites dare even be seen on a bus?
Roberta's list of privatization candidates failed to mention the bus company.
What do the City & the bus co. have in common?
When facing deficits they ALWAYS reduce service and never reduce wages & bennies. Ahhhhhhhhh!!! nuttin' quite like a monoply.
I guess McGovern aint going to be getting any Amalgamted Transit member votes.......seems he cant find anymore money from Washington to fund the bus company. Will the transit union toss Havana Jim under the bus? Stay tuned to Jordan and find out
Why doesnt Zoback ask Moylan and the council about all the god dam unfunded mandates that we as taxpayers get handed to us by the council and Mr Moylan?
God, Mr Moylan has managed to raise the sewer hook up fee for new houses from $330 per bedroom to $1320 per bedroom. Thta's only a 300% increase during his tenure as commish. He also instituted and initiated a $1,000 water line hook up fee which never existed until 2001. Then theres our water and sewer bills. I assume thats the councils doing
What has happened to Zoback the investigative reporter? I need to see a good story every once in awhile about some Worcester dirt and I aint talkin' about canal dirt. Maybe Fletcher has muzzled Zoback until Fletcher gets his Banal Canal District money from the taxpayers. Never, ever rattle anyones cage when you're about to feed at the public trough. A $750,000 Mc Govern grant from Washington to just to fund a feasability study. I'd say this canal is probably in bag .
Mr Fletcher, be advised, dont hire IMG (Infrastructure Management Group? for this study b/c if you do, hell will freeze over before your canal is built.
Betcha Zoback wont publish this in neext weeks Womag Blog Log.
I'm a supporter of the Canal District but not a supporter of an actual Canal..for a city with so many infrastructure problems it seems rather silly.
The City can't even support groovy park benches, funky lighting and other types of streetscape in the Canal District to support people watching, street musicians and like kind found in downtown Haverhill, Davis Square, Newbury Street ,downtown Nashua and Manchester..$750K would go along way. Not even a sign in Kelley Square directing folks to the Canal District...
As for privaitizing the layabouts..tongue in cheek Jah but it is a major issue in this city..Congressman McGovern is advocating for more food stamps in the "Stimulus Plan" and makes no mention of our crumbling infrastructure and a plan to fix like past major infrastructure programs in this country or any middle class relief to Fed Chief Bernanke two weeks back. This is the kind of stuff that is driving the middle class out of the secondary urban cities in this state..enough of more section 8 housing, food stamps,SSI dependants in this city.
If the Canal District is such an important issue to this city...why isn't State Rep Agustus investing there instead of hip happening Dorchester and Charlestown..AND living there.
This city has a major problem in that none of the leaders live in the urban core of this city..Jordan Levy bangs about the Zip Car on his show as a silly issue to be discussed by the City Council yet Zip Cars are incredibly popular in hip happening urban communities all over the country..he has been living where the coyotes roam to long and has lost his urban zip..all the studies point toward needing more folks living downtown yet none of our leaders do:>)How can we blame Young Park for taking his time on City Square if none of the powers to be wanna take a chance??
I was never a fan of Dukakis but I remember running into him on the Green Line as he took the MBTA home and the often pics of him on it each day in the Boston Globe was amusing then but kind of hits home now in regards to what I have posted. The local Pols out here need to support some of the things they are expecting others to support.
I know exactly who Paulie Walnuts is, and he is not Jahn. I agree 100% with him on this.
I started working downtown Worcester in 1986. We had great restaurants and bars downtown--Legal Seafoods, Rovezzis, Maragaritaville, Firehouse.
People talk about how great the Canal District. Don't get me wrong there are some great places down there, but all that really has happened is that the bars that were downtown moved over there.
I also dare say that maybe we have pushed out some very very good businesses like Patrick Motors, Pressmet and WoodMeister to name a few.
Also keep in mind that hardly anyone has bought condos and live down there. It has not happened.
The last thing we need to do is dig up the canal.
Gov urges life-science training...page 21 in todays Herald
Nice pic of our Governor..he states we have 150,000 unemployed in the state and 90,000 unfilled jobs due to a unskilled citizenry
How about a MIDDLE CLASS condo project - Government financed on May Street instead of more low income rentals so that besides bringing in a positive influx of working folks who will spend their own money we may actually have something to offer bright educated folks who could fill some of those unfilled jobs in Worcester. Yah think Main South might change quickly..
We keep rah rahing more low income housing in choice urban locations within this city..
Lose two educated productive peeps to Boston & Providence and take in 4 unproductive from Boston, Providence, Lowell & Haverhill...rah rah!!!!
now I am not sure maybe Paulie Walnuts is Jahn?
This is the one and only "Paulie"..isn't that project across the street from you low income?
I notice you got a broker..yer project looks good
I have my first of 6 units on the market for rent now (actually rented)..long time tenant moving in but I will have another available soon..any recomendations for a local attorney to draw up condo docs for (3) three deckers?
I don't think the city drove away those business Bill..I think the market did..the affluent Worcester has a suburbian mindset like other affluent suburbs in Greater Boston..the urban core of this city is 60% below the poverty level..thats what is killing the urban core of this city and the business within then,,I have had loads of folks come into the city for my events..they all say the same thing..they just do not want to be around women that walk around in their pajamas...men who wear hoods even in the summer...folks who can't put even two sentences together..I stayed in Boston last week...woke up at 6AM and went out for a walk..so much life..newspaper hawkers, coffee shops packed..folks hustling and bustling to work..buses and trains packed..do the same thing here in the urban core of the city and all you see is the land of the walking dead..how much longer can Worcester say it does not want to be like Boston or Providence or continue saying you can't compare the three..Worcester seems to be able to compare itself when it has three more folks than Providence..someone has to shake Jim McGovern and say no more foodstamps, no more sexy 8's..no more SSI receipients from Puerto Rico..we have done our share to save humanity..we now need to save the city:>)
Paulie:
Thought that was you.
My project on May/Kingsbury is 100% my monies, no gov't subsidies and I paid all my permitting fee and sewer hook-ups. Between permits and sewer fees, I must have paid at least $12,000 bucks. I have never received any HOME funds or other tax payer monies on any of my projects.
In the end the owner will be what the market will bear. Agree 110% with your Canal District comments.
Bill
I agree McGovern is a disaster, but our only hope that when Mass loses a congressional seat..........that it's Havana Jim who gets a cigar & the boot.......but it prob. wont be.
Paulie you're nutz, how can we can have a Canal District w/o a canal......but then again anything is possible b/c we have an Airport district and an airport that for all intents & purposes is somewhere between marginallly operable to dead in the water.
Paulie, the $750,000 is just for feasibilty study, as I understand it. Someone please correct if I am wrong. Maybe Camp Dresser & McGee can come up with a billion dollar price tag for the project and then Uncle Jim can get us some more Washington money to help out all guys hanging around the carpenters, laborers, concrete finishers, and operators union halls.
There would be a sign in Kelly Sq but the now former Canal District Community Dev'ment Corporation allegedly had some Bob Spellane type bookkeeping problems.....a.k.a. allegedly unauthorized/improper disbursements...mere clerical errors.....and as result there was no money left for signage.....so the current CDCDC, as I understand is currently on ice. Rumor has it Alan Fletcher is hoping for an early March thaw this year, but Puxatawney Phil says no.
Paulie, Levy should not be talking about silly issues being discussed by the council. When he was the first popularly elecetd mayor, the council meetings were known as the Tuesday Night Gong Show.
Yes Levy does almost live in Holden suburbia (Whisper Drive). I'd love to relate to you some of the whispering I have heard about Levy & the Whisper dev'ment. People like Levy are what is wrong with Worcester. He straddles the fence on most issues. He'll take a position on his radio show and when someone calls in to strongly disagree , he immdiataely starts back pedaling....a classic pol.
Levy bemoans gub'ment strangling businesses, then he weeps & moans about no help from Uncle Sam when his business got flooded about 2 years ago. He never mentions the fact that he decided to warehouse his business on a floodplain.
He also continually & habitually pi++es and moans about no housing being built downtown, yet he voted into law a new zoning ordinance back in early to mid 90's that outlawed residential housing in business districts and outlawed use variances as well....so if downtown Worc is zoned exclusively for business...guess what cant be built there on a small scale.
Please note that this was After the city council (that he chaired) was all gung ho about James Soffan building the White Pinnacle at Main & Chandler Sts. with all kinds of help From Uncle Sam.
FWIW the Pinnacle was taken from its former owner and builder for 50 cents on the dollar about 5 yrs after it opened. I understand it that at this time it absolutely does not house middle class condo's/rentals which was the original intent. The White Pinnacle's ultimate demise is one of the reasons that Park Young is treading so very slowly.
Didnt Dukakis also drive a Pinto (as well as a tank)?
I was traveling the new 146N again last week......again I re-iterate there are no signs re: th e airport. Opposite the site of the old Tipperary Pub (on the 146S side) there sits the old Rome Building Supplies structure that is supposed to become the Blackstone Valley Historic Museum & Centre. Right? So what's up with that situation? Is this another stalled Worc project? FWIW, a smmall section of the Blackstone canal was re opned in that area. I just happened to be stopped in trafiic when they weer removing what appeared to be a cobblestone structure covering the canal........it reminded me of an old aquaduct. The canal (or river) was also partly exposed prior to the re construction in that area.
So i am thinking to myself..........why do we need to have a Canal District in the Water St/Harding St area....other than the fact that Mr Alan Fletcher wants his name memorialized....when we already have a canal that is partly exposed and is sitting right next to proposed Blackstone Valley Museum and is just a 1/2 mile from Kelly Sq? The more I think about it, the crazier it seems.
I am niether an urban geographer nor an urban planner.....but......The canal district s/b contiguous with the Blackstone museum?????
It's as elementary as having:
1. the Mass Pike pass directly through Worcester or
2. an airport having commercial air service and an access road or
3. a city having a vibrant downtown business district.
On as positive note, the new parking garage at Union Station looks nice from 290 ....... as does Union Station itself.....at what cost....I will not discuss.........but again.....looks great........
Just think.........one of the big reasons Murray wanted to boot Hoover was the slow progress on this very parking garage...so more than 3 1/2 years after Hoover is booted..........the old post office there comes down.......and it looks like 4 1/2 years after Hoover we'll finally have a finished product.
hmm...I didn't say that Congressman McGovern was a disaster:>) I have met Jim a few times and he is a good guy..to good a guy.
That being said my mom and dad are two nice folks and neither would I want representing me in Congress.
I think Jim's ideas on many policy issues are bankrupting the middle class and many of our secondary cities.
He will be on the Jordan Levy show today....Jordan went off on another of his tirades today..this one being about how mad he is:>) Let's see how well he interviews the Congressman...Jordan gets angry a lot but he rarely lays much of his steam on the cats who create the issues that steam him...or he tell's us steam him:>)
Young Park has probably spent many mornings with a cup of coffee in hand sitting on a street cornah watching who is walking around this city and saying.."what am I doing here"
I'd love to be a fly on the wall of a Mayo Group monthly meeting on their Worcester holdings..
Anyway, went down to Providence this weekend for a pint and I was quite amazed for the second time in one month..that is one bustling city and the pints of Guinness where great:>)
nothing but softballs..as expected.
The Congressman was asked how he thinks a President Clinton II would fund her insurance proposals and all he could suggest would be "administratively"..not one tough question from Jordan..he did state many times that the Congressman was his friend..where is David Brudnoy when you really need him?
Thats what I mean about Levy.........he takes positions and then when questioned or challenged with facts....he starts back pedaling........
Frankly ...the afternoon drive for me is Carr over Levy anyday.............even though Carr does attract more than his share of knuckle-draggers........Levy just likes to hear himself talk...worst thing that ever happened to Worc was when Levy got him self elected back in 1976 when people were rip++++ about their taxes..............we'd be better off if he kept selling womens clothes on Main St. and stayed outta Worc politics........
One day I almost drove off the elevated section of 290 when Levy claimed he never helped get anyone a job working for the city.
You guys wish you were Jordan Levy.
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