The Points North in Sydney Australia 1/21/10

I definitely don't talk enough music in this here blog.

The Points North are a fantastic alt-folk band made up of current and former Central Mass residents Chris Alspach, Regina Peterson, and Dylan Clark. They recently set out on a tour of Australia. This is a video from a show they did last Thursday at the Vanguard in Sydney. They have been known to grace the stage at Nick's on Millbury St from time to time, usually for no cover charge and a pass of the hat. Keep an eye out for their next appearance after they get back home in March.

Sometimes the best things happening in Worcester are happening on the other side of the planet.

Response Time And How The WPD Chooses to Swing The Hammer

On Saturday night I was visiting a friends house up in Tatnuck. A couple of lady friends were outside on the steps smoking when they noticed a car coming down the street. The car sideswiped a neighbors car, went through the intersection and swiped another car. The girls called the police right away and they arrived in less than a half hour. The officers took down the info about the car and took off. Within the hour they had circled back around, told us they had found the car, and requested the girls give them a more formal statement.

So this is nothing spectacular. The police do not deserve huge kudos for this. It was a good job absolutely, but it is a job we should just expect out of them. It is what should be expected by all of us no matter what zip code you call your own and what address you lay your head at. Those of us that live in urban Worcester know that recieving this type of treatment from the WPD is a pipe dream.

I understand that times are tough and that we are short staffed on the WPD. I also understand though that in the coming years there is much money to be made in Fed Sq, North Main, Shrewsbury St, and the Canal District. Money that will help out with these tough times. So as a city I guess we can either get with the program and have the WPD make our primary economic development zones as much a priority as Tatnuck and the rest of the Westside or we can continue to ignore the perception problem and very real response problems in those neighborhoods. Of course every year we have less money coming in off of commercial tax rolls the higher the residential tax rises. Cities just aren't supposed to be paying for the amount of services a city needs to pay for with this much residential money.

Bottom line is that residents need to feel safe to go out and use the neighborhoods they live in for economic development to happen. As citizens who have a vested interest in how this city progresses we need to realize that economic development starts at the residential level. We need to start looking at every neighborhood as it's own village.

Can we do this? Please?