No Slogan Day Recap

Thanks to everyone who came out to Dive Bar last night – The 1st Annual No Slogan Day was a huge success.  Duncan, Brooks and Troy played a few ridiculous sets, and the beer flowed like…beer.

And, best of all, we were entirely slogan-free, except for Pie and Coffee’s Mike Benedetti, who let slip an ill-advised “no place for hate,” on us sometime after midnight.

Thanks again to everyone who came out, and we’ll do it again next year.

(Oh, and there are a very few t-shirts left.  If you’re interested, shoot a message our way)

NO SLOGAN DAY

Here it is, No Slogan Day. A day to imagine a slogan-less Worcester; a city that isn’t On the Move or doing anything that can be summed up in four brightly printed words or less.

No, for one day and night, we are just Worcester: Stop Talking.  (Shit, is that a slogan for No Slogan Day? Gah.)

Anyway, see you down at the Dive Bar tonight from about 7pm until 2am. Will be the ones drinking good beer and celebrating a tagline free evening.

Carbon Monoxide poisoning downtown

16 people have been sent to the hospital this morning with carbon monoxide poisoning.

The Stevens Block – home to a couple state agencies – has been evacuated, and officials say some of those poisoned are in serious but not life threatening condition.

The downtown scene is something of a zoo, although the mood among many is light. State workers waiting to be triaged joked and laughed, including those about to be placed on gurneys. EMS workers posed for pictures with each other, while firefighters and police gathered around the buildings’ entrance, waiting for the next order to come through.

Officials say the building will remain empty until the source of the problem can be found.

Parking meters

Haller says a good number of parking meters she comes across are broken.  Moylan says that while upgrades at lots are made, many meters are 30 years old or more, and are expensive to repair.  They’re at the point of “obsolescence.”

And Palmieri wants the number of minutes on the meters to be researched–some of them are waaaay too short, he says.  “The time limit is established through the off street parking board,” says Moylan, from information from abutters.

Back to Budget

We’re recessing back to Finance.  We’ll continue blogging.

Smith stands alone

Weird exchange.

Block Grant funding was about to get approved, when Smith – after a quick whisper conversation with Petty – rose to say he was concerned his District wasn’t getting enough money, proportionally.

Clancy quickly rose to say that the distributions are done by the number of eligible neighborhoods; Smith’s district simply doesn’t have as many as say, Haller’s.  And Rosen said that if Smith wanted to come testify during the process (read: don’t ask when we’re al done) he would be welcome next year.

Still, Smith voted “no” to the allocations, standing alone.

8:53

St. Gobain, start trucking

Rushton and others want St. Gobain and other companies that use CSX for transportation to consider using alternative methods.  He’d also like other towns in the area to do the same with their major manufacturers.  What would those methods be?  Trucks?  Planes?

Palmieri adds that he’d like one of the City Manager’s staffers to be dedicated a couple hours a week to train issues, including talking to other towns.

8:42

MassPort money for class size

Rick Rushton wants the $250,000 from MassPort to go directly to reducing average class sizes.

8:35