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Notes from last nights City Council Candidates’ Forum

Last night was the City Council Candidates’ Forum hosted by Clark University that I mentioned a few days ago. As public forums go it was a bit of a bore. But I figured I might as well hand off what I observed.

Doug Chapel, who is not running for office, sat with me and must have ripped out a dozen drawings capturing the night. ~~Hopefully I can get a copy of a few and throw them up here.~~ He was also quick to point out that not a single council hopeful has made hovercrafts or lasers a part of their campaign, an obvious shortcoming for any public official.

Hermis Yanis, At-Large candidate, may be insane. He spent most of his time ranting about dead hookers like he was auditioning for a slot on Law & Order: SVU. Not that I don’t care about dead hookers, hookers are some of the few people who give Worcester character. But the hookers he’s most concerned about are dead. I like to think there are 200,000 or so not so dead people that could use some looking out for in Worcester. Leave the dead hookers for the DA’s office Hermis, that election’s not till next year.

Bill McCarthy, At-Large/Mayoral Candidate, seemed a little perturbed that many of the students in attendance didn’t share his concern for crime rates in the neighborhood surrounding Clark. This is something that some of our ‘older’ residents/leaders are going to have to get used too. Sure, my mother, like much of her generation, believes that if she goes anywhere in the city after dark she will be raped, murdered and eaten by roving bands of republicans. But most people from their 30’s on down just don’t find Worcester to be that scary. Sure there are jerk offs anywhere you go who will be happy to ruin your day, but they are the exception and not the rule. It seems that Clark students are bright enough to recognize that the issue of crime in the area surrounding the school is an issue of population density which will obviously lead to higher numbers no matter what issue we’re studying.

Lynne Simonds, running against incumbent Barbara Haller in district 4, seems to have been doing some work on the campus. She had a large, relative to the small crowd, turnout of supporters from the student body. Hopefully she has worked equally hard wooing residents who actually vote.

Incumbent Mayor Tim Murray answered my question, sort of, before I had a chance to ask it by giving a speech on integrating the Cities college student population into the city as full time residents. No easy task from a historical perspective. Having spent a good part of the last decade showing college aged females’ around the city (with the best of intentions of course), I feel comfortable stating that it’s not too hard to get them to stay. You just have to show them a good time. Contrary to conventional wisdom, for cats just graduating jobs are often secondary to enjoying oneself. I’m sure you could convince a newly graduated electrical engineer to live with the Amish, if the Amish knew how to party.

On a similar note Barbara Haller, incumbent in district 4, offered up the One Love Café as place for Clark students to go to make the most of their time in the city. Hmm, I thought the Blarney Stone had that market cornered.

William Colman, At-Large/Mayoral candidate, told the story of his life condensed into 3 minutes. Amazingly he didn’t have to skip a single detail.

At-Large Incumbents Dennis Irish, Mike Perroto, Juan Gomez and Joe Petty were also along for the ride but didn’t say anything requiring a snarky comment.