April 03, 2008

Nick K Story on UniverCity Partnership

Nick K wrote a story today on the closing of the UniverCity Partnership. I want to thank Nick for writing about this. After reading it I have one question, refer to the goals on the UniverCity Partnership below. Are not these nine goals laid out three years ago by the task force are as important, if not more important, today.

If all 9 goals, listed below, were being achieved by the UniverCity Partnership, why then are we closing it?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

ATA Airlines declares bankrupcy and ceases operations...

http://www.ata.com


Harry Tembenis
Worcester, MA

Anonymous said...

I am from Missouri, show me..... I like specifics.............

a. They claim 20% increase in WORCester. residents employed at area colleges....gimme the specifics...........no names......just positions filled at each college AS RESULT OF UNIVERCITY efforts......how many were employed prior to their efforts and how many did UNVERC bring on board.........

b. $400,000 in add'l bizz for Worcester business..........gimme the specifics......businesses involved.....type of gods sold, is thsi on going repaet business or i hope this 400K wasnt in constr business which is just "one time" type of business...b/c even a small constr job can run 400K w/o batting an eyelash...e.g. Clark rehabs one 3 decker and thats 400k.....or worse yet razes 8 three deckers)

c. All 9 objectuiives achieved.........show me the objectives.......show me what was done SPECIFICALLY to achieve them..........how can they be deemed achieved if the measuring sticks were never in place??


Let me ask a question.....what is Worc's goal for affordable housing units......have we achieved it??.....well we're req'd to have 10% affordable housing..............we now have 13%+.......so it s/b time to disband our 8 to 10 non profit builders of low income housing...

Right Mr OBrien???.....Mission accomplished...........time to close up these shops that are absolutely destroying Worc's demographics

Bill Randell said...

Jahn:

Yesterday I posted the nine goals from the report on the blog. Again, if all these goals were being achieved that is a case to keep the UniverCity Partnership open, not close it.

Bill

Anonymous said...

Bill, and we all wonder why no one bothers to serve on boards or commissions...............either their recommendations are ingored.............orthis happens.

So whats the real deal on why this was disbanded?

Maybe Carriere was pushing colleges too hard.........and they squaked to the powers that be.......let us not forget colleges are Worc's biggest industry............adn tehy have a huge collective clout.

BTW ........not that i agree with it............but Hows the Pilot Payments coming along........a pipe dream that will never happen

Anonymous said...

Bill, the Univercity Partnership had a 3 year lease on life with a proverbail option to renew??????

3 years is up..............the plug has been pulled......w/o re: to mission accomplished or not. Given its 3 year term.......I am not so sure that it was a bad thing that it ened??

We need to have sunset provisions in other things the city does, too.....e g. low income housing and non profit builders....they too s/b voted off the island and/or have 3 years leases on their "lives".........along with Mr Rick Rushton and Mr Michael (Not) Germaine ( 2 years leases on life)

Bill Randell said...

Jahn:

The whole point of the UniverCity was to transfer the assets and the power of the colleges to the City of Worcester's bottom line. This is not a three year project but an ongoing endeavor. Seriously, Jahn you need to read the report and what other cities similar to Worcester have done.

As long as we have colleges, like we do, we need a group like the UniverCity Partnership. Problem was that it was not effective and was shut down.




Bill