By Scott Zoback

• COMMUTER RAIL: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE? With the Rail Summit coming quickly (May 9 at the DCU Center), Councilors Phil Palmieri, Paul Clancy, and Joe Petty continued their assault on poor commuter rail service on Tuesday night. The biggest gripe this time? Lack of information. Palmieri and Clancy went on the offensive against "secrets," saying everything needs to be out in the open. The trio asked the city manager to "communicate all issues to the City Council concerning the expansion of commuter rail, including but not limited to capacity issues at South Station." That's a pretty wide-ranging set of information. "Let's get all the issues on the table. It shouldn't be a secret that South Station is at capacity," said Clancy. Actually, that may have been the wrong secret to key on. BostonNow, among others, ran an article on the capacity issues in December; a South Station Capacity Analysis in 2001 showed the station was nearing its limits, stating "The capacity of the entire south side system is now constrained, particularly at peak load times by the number of available platforms at South Station;" and then-Gov. Mitt Romney's 2005 Transportation Plan read "Once the Greenbush line is operational, South Station will be at or near capacity in terms of accommodating additional commuter rail service."

• TRAIN TONE: Their overall tone and rhetoric, though — Paul Clancy called for Worcester expansion/improvements to be done before anything else on the MBTA agenda — was a preview of what we could be hearing at the May 9 summit. Phil Palmieri played his best enforcer role, saying that not everybody is going to like what is said at the gathering.

• NO JFK WAY, BUT PLAZA: The one-time proposal to rename Front Street after JFK — a petition originally brought by Paul Clancy and Tim Murray — is at a bit of a dead end. Instead, Councilor Clancy proposed on Tuesday that the plaza behind City Hall be renamed for the former president; that motion will now go before the Public Works Committee, which Clancy chairs.

• CITYSQUARE DREAMS: Remember that giant, $700 million-plus, city-saving, life-affirming development that was supposed to be well under way by now? Of course you do. Well, City Manager Michael O'Brien says that a revised project deal with developer Young Park will be before the Council in about two weeks, lending new hope to eventually seeing a wrecking ball. But there was even more optimism from an unlikely source: Phil Palmieri. Palmieri said that at a recent meeting with Park, the developer "expressed an optimism I hadn't heard in some time." Of course, those comments came about a minute after Palmieri said Park once exhibited "Drew Bledsoe-like feet" on the project.

• PHIL GOES SOLO: A small note — Phil Palmieri's order calling for a program that would allow residents to purchase tree limbs for firewood was his first solo order this calendar year. While he has co-sponsored a number of orders with other councilors (Most notably eight with Paul Clancy alone), he has not brought any on his own until Tuesday.

• EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS: Residents at Lincoln Village are facing a rent increase, albeit one half of what they were supposed to get. Tenants at the 1,200-unit complex will be getting a 3% rent increase, as opposed to the 6% that had been sought by landlord Cornerstone Corporation. According to State Rep. Jim O'Day's office, the tenants had been hit with a 9% increase in 2006 and a 10% increase in 2007. The 3% increase is equivalent to $19-$30.

• THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DIAL: Now you can get your Jordan Levy without switching over to AM. Late last week, 580 WTAG began simulcasting their entire lineup on FM 94.9. Until then, the FM station had been a mirror for Boston-based Hip Hop powerhouse JAM'N 94.5.

• MR. SMITH GOES TO LAW SCHOOL: Joff Smith really, really wants a law school in the old courthouse downtown, and he wants it now. Julie Jacobson told the Councilor on Tuesday night that there had been no outreach to a law school, because a final recommendation report for the North Main district hadn't been completed; Smith questioned whether the recommendations would have to be followed, or if we could just go after a law school. "The market will drive what goes in [all the buildings]," said Jacobson. Smith once again brought up his desire for a law school. What law school would it be? Privately, pols have mentioned several possibilities in casual conversation, the most intriguing being a potential University of Massachusetts Law School.

• SKATING ON SOME KIND OF ICE: We don't get this latest fixation on skating and hockey rinks in town, although we're assuming it has something to do with Michael Germain's hockey loyalties, even when he's not behind orders. The latest was a request from Councilors Phil Palmieri and Paul Clancy that the Sharks look at refurbishing the old Shaw's on lower Grafton Street into a hockey arena. In truth, Worcester does lack an easy-access arena, but it's still not known if that's even what the Sharks are looking to build. Germain said he's heard various things about the Sharks' plans for a new arena, including rumors of one rink versus two; and open access versus private practice. o