Posted by Jeremy Shulkin
The last couple city council meetings have been fairly short and generally easy-going; a lot of referrals to subcommittees and praising of city employees.
This week, though, things will get exciting.
On the docket for tomorrow’s meeting is a number of current events, including Lukes’ query into taking over CitySquare by eminent domain, improvements to the Belmont/Rt. 9/Lake Ave intersection–which I like to think of as an extension of the new Burns bridge project Lt. Gov. Murray keeps talking about–and some discussion about the budget.
The Philadelphia Plan, the second most talked about tax plan for the city after the dual tax rate, will be brought up again. The City Manager (actually, the assistant City Manager) has released a ten page report detailing how emulating Philadelphia’s tax system (which allows businesses to move to the city and not pay property taxes for the first ten years) could help Worcester. Of course, there would be some differences and hang ups in implementing it here, and they even say copying the law as it’s written in Philly “would not be possible” without any sort of Home Rule Charter petition.
Joe Petty wants to apply to Google and get the city a network of high-speed, fiber-optic internet. Google is rolling out this experiment throughout the country, but only in selected cities. Brendan Melican explains it better.
Pit bulls, and dogs in general, will also be talked about. Eddy, Clancy, Lukes, Rushton, Toomey and Petty want the city to look at Boston’s Responsible Pit Bull Ordinance. Palmieri wants the City Manager and police to look into the feasibility of requiring dog owners and their dogs to go through training if their animal is ever involved in an attack on a person or animal.
UPDATE: The deal with CSX will also be discussed. The City Manager’s office says that the new improvements will make Worcester CSX’s New England hub and opens up the rails to more freight from the Eastern seaboard and the mid-Atlantic region, and will increase commuter rail.
There’s plenty more coming too. It will be exciting, and it will end late.
Daily Worcesteria 
Oh, I’m so glad I’m going. I’m not a fan of dog breed-based prejudice. (Also, I’m surprised that Haller’s name isn’t on there…)
For those who can’t get a copy of the Boston pit-bull ordinance, a pdf is here.
That Boston ordinance is silly, but more importantly it’s now 6 years old. What kind of data do we have showing its effectiveness? And if the answer to that question is anything less than “reams of peer reviewed data showing Boston is in-fact a safer city as a result of this ordinance”, how do we go about enacting a Responsible City Councilor ordinance to prevent these otherwise respectable members of the community, from doing harm to themselves or others?
are there a lot of problems with the dogs of Worcester, to paraphrase Brendan, wheres teh data
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