Evaluate the City Manager!

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

Tomorrow night City Manager Mike O’Brien will present his self-evaluation (which you can read here) to the city council in which he’ll assess his work and accomplishments over the past year.

O’Brien will also receive scores from his bosses: the city councilors. Each councilor fills out a sheet that looks like this:

Using a score sheet that looks like this:

Expect him to get some overall glowing reviews from the council, especially after a year that saw continued strong bond ratings, the airport taken off the city’s books, progress on CitySquare and the CSX deal. Lukes could go after him for raising taxes, however.

The city councilors’ reviews are due by 7:00 pm tomorrow. Luckily, with this posted online forever, your deadline isn’t so strict. Feel free to perform your own evaluation of the City Manager.

A conversation with Deval Patrick

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

Charlie Baker was in town Friday, Gov. Deval Patrick is in town tonight. Worcester is blushing with all the attention.

The Ward 3 Committee of the Worcester Democratic City Committee are sponsoring “A Conversation with Deval Patrick” tonight at the Dodge Park Rest Home (101 Randolph Road) at 7:00 tonight. The event is open to all registered Democrats who reside in the city of Worcester.

It’s official

Posted by Brittany Durgin

Worcester Mag has taken its alternative attitude and brought it kicking and screaming into the world of cyberspace with a newly revamped website launched this month.

With countless interactive features, a clean, hip look and an improved advertising platform (we’ve got to pay the bills you know), our new site will offer an online vehicle for all things Worcester.

“We’ve worked hard to create a site that goes beyond just reading the paper online. We now expect readers to enjoy both our print and online editions for their unique advantages,” explains Gareth Charter, Publisher of Worcester Mag.

So what can you expect when visiting the new worcestermag.com? From WooTown Sounds, where you can hear the latest from local bands, to  “Wicked Deals” where gift cards to local restaurants and retail stores are sold at a 33 percent discount – worcestermag.com offers you the best of WoMag and much more. Plus stop by the newest trend in alternative dating called “Wooed,” where Worcesterites can find love (or lust) online.

Savvy online Editor Brittany Durgin, who has spearheaded the website revamp for the past several months says, “We’re not just putting the print edition online anymore. The new website is an interactive community of artists and their work, readers and their opinions, and worcestermag.com belongs to the community as much as it belongs to us.”

Stop by worcestermag.com today and let your eyeballs romp over our new features, upload and share your favorite videos and pictures (no, not the dirty kind), search and map local restaurants, read the latest Worcester Mag content, or even take a look through the archives. Worcester Mag. Your one stop Worcester resource – both in print AND online.

Where we’re from and where we go

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

Forbes.com has created this map based on 2008 IRS data that tracks where 10 million Americans moved that year. If you click on the link you can play around with it some more, and see some pretty specific numbers.

Man, look at all that red.

Stolen from Brendan Melican

Charlie Baker comes to Worcester tonight

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

Curious about Charlie Baker? He’ll be in town tonight at the Worcester Country Club at 6:00, attending an event along with Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican selectman running against incumbent Democrat Jennifer Callahan for the Sutton/Bellingham/Uxbridge/Blackstone/Millville state representative seat.

The event is open to anyone who wants to attend, according to Fattman (although it sounds like donations will be solicited).

Primary season officially begins

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

Primary season has officially started now that the five Republicans running for the November ballot opposite US Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Worcester) have turned their sights on each other.

The five candidates debated Tuesday night at North Attleboro High School, with both Marty Lamb and Michael Stopa each proclaiming themselves winners in the debate. This morning, Lamb sent a release alluding to an attack ad from Brian Herr’s campaign, writing, “I am very disappointed that one of my opponents is not adhering to Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment. It is more important that we focus our attention on the incumbent and his failing record. However, this attack clearly shows that I am the frontrunner.”

Lamb also got a shot in at Herr’s record, pointing out that “my opponent, while serving on the Hopkinton Board of Selectmen, raised property taxes.

“Unfortunately, he failed to keep taxes stagnant. They grew every year,” he said.

Until recently, the five Republican candidates’ campaigns have spent more time pointing out they’re not Jim McGovern; now they’re focusing on separating themselves from each other.

We’ve contacted Herr’s campaign for a copy of their “attack ad.” We’ll post more info when we get it.

Update: Herr’s comment was in regards to Lamb’s idea of tying the country’s spending to the rate of inflation. Herr’s remark was “only in politics can someone try and convince voters that increasing spending is the way we cut spending.”

He disagreed that the release was below the belt. “People challenge my ideas. People have different ideas. We’re never going to run negative or nasty ads, but we will challenge ideas that I do think will take us in the wrong direction.”

The results are in

On worcestermag.com we asked you:

Which Worcester event are you most looking forward to?

You said:

stART on the Street		64%
African American Festival		11%
Pet Rock Festival		11%
Latin American Festival		7%
Spencer Fair		7%

City Council liveblog: 6/15/10

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

Agenda. Cover it Live. Party time.

7:06: Lukes assumes the chair for the beginning of the meeting. We’re going to see the end (hopefully) of the ACLU motions for public forums before council meetings, but we’re starting with some economic development talk.

7:08: M.O’Brien says that the City Square II team “is doing final assessments” for demolishing/developing the buildings. M.O’Brien gives a rough estimate that demolition will happen at the end of this summer–by fall we’ll see significant progress.