Hello…is this thing on?
This past Friday there was an article in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette which discussed the issues three city councilors ( Petty, Rosen and Toomey) charged with the City Council Public Service and Transportation Committee would like to tackle over the next year. It was interesting for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is their plan to introduce the idea of hiring a full time transportation planner to the city administration; which should be a no brainer for any community larger than an Amish township. But what really struck me was this statement from Councilor Petty:
Among the responsibilities of the transportation planner would be to help bring about more commuter rail and intercity bus service to Worcester, as well as working with the Worcester Regional Transit Authority and the local cab industry on addressing issues associated with the services they provide.
Those of you who actually pay attention to this drivel I write may remember reading something similar here, or in Worcester Magazine where that post was republished as an op-ed a week or so later. Now I would never be so bold as to assume someone is actually paying attention to me, but if you are, right on Joe! I received a lot of negative feedback from folks after WoMag ran that piece, from cab drivers and would be customers alike for a variety of reasons I felt comfortable ignoring. But its great to see the Council is concerned with staying ahead of the curve instead of waiting for the curve to keep curving and eventually kick them in the ass. However, there is a slight problem with the Committees stated goals, freshman councilor Toomey is quoted in the article as saying…
If we can find a way to make it easier for college students to get downtown, it could impact the types of businesses we are able to attract there,”
Uh, yea. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. Maybe you’ve heard the old saying ‘…putting the cart before the horse’? Loading up every college student onto mass transit and shuttling them downtown is the easy part. But when they get down there and find absolutely zero to do, they won’t be going back. We have some spectacular commercial real estate that has been sitting vacant for years. Property perfectly suited for cafes, bookstores, music stores and nightlife. You know, the stuff college kids are actually into. Providing buses and cabs downtown so college students can stand around on the common waiting for something, ANYTHING to happen is silly. What we need to do, is partner up with property owners in the area and work with them to attract meaningful business and then start bringing people down there; which would have the horse placed appropriately in FRONT of the cart.
A little aside to help tie this together.
This past weekend I was out with three couples for a birthday. We started off for dinner at TiNovo, which was quite possibly the most amazing thing I have experienced in Worcester since the first time I got drunk at Logan field back in ‘91. After dinner we headed down to Irish Times on North Main for a drink and then shot over to Club Blue on lower Pleasant St for a few more, sealing the night down at the Dive bar on Green St. If you’re familiar with the venues I just listed, you know they are all within a half mile of one another. A few city blocks at most. Six people, in two cars, driving around like fools to cover a distance that would be an easy walk if not for the stiletto heels (I wasn’t in heals). Why did we drive? Because it’s what we’re trained to do in Worcester and there were no cabs to hail. But here’s the thing, there were people in my party that had we taken a cab, would’ve been noticed taking a cab. When people notice new behaviors they start to get deprogrammed and as new behaviors become more regular, more people start to pick up those behaviors themselves.
What does that little rant have to do with anything? Councilors Petty, Toomey and Rosen don’t need to tell college students to start taking cabs and buses, they need to start using them themselves, everywhere they go, no exceptions. And when they do, people will notice and they will start considering the option for themselves. Especially Petty, the guys like 18 feet tall, everyone within three blocks will notice. Once a momentum starts to build and demand increases, then we can start addressing any service issues which may come into play.
TiNovo’s location on Pearl St is very significant in that it helps bring together the rather fractioned night spots throughout the city. From north Main to Green Island to Shrewsbury St we’re only talking a short distance which seems like miles due to the vacuum in between. The Pearl St location helps build up the existing lower Pleasant St destinations and makes things seem just a bit closer. It also serves as a great platform to show would be business owners the potential that exists in the Downtown area for well run establishments. If we can keep that kind of redevelopment going at the same time we ramp up the need for more transportation options then we can truly be comfortable inviting our students into the heart of the city to show them a good time. Bring on the cabs, hell bring back the rickshaws (said by some to have been invented in The Big Woo), but time it all appropriately, it could take years, but one misstep and city transportation will be worse off than when we started.
Dear Mr. O’Brien, please consider the above as my application for the position of Transportation Planner for the City of Worcester (I work cheaper than a Thai hooker).
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3 Responses to “Hello…is this thing on?”
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It’s true. He works for pizza (way cheeper then a Thai hooker).
and by cabbing you wouldn’t be drinking and driving!
Also if you get the job, you can wear heels to the office.