• WEATHERING THE STORM: As the nation attempts to navigate economic turbulence, Worcester’s largest development project, City Square, remains unaffected by the credit crunch, according to Tim McGourthy, the city’s director of economic development. In fact, McGourthy reported that all current development will “continue to move along.” Proposed projects, however, are a different story. “Developers of proposed projects will need to look at their financing and determine how that impacts their overall projects. This might mean developers seeking additional sources of private funds or adding more public components.” The economic director cites city resources that developers can take advantage of like historic and low-income tax credits as a means of utilizing some “public components” when financing projects. McGourthy couldn’t name proposed projects affected by the current market as doing such might jeopardize investment opportunities. He only mentioned that he has seen different people investing in properties who have put projects on hold to look at “financing structures.” Although unaffected, City Square continues to move at a snail’s pace as it struggles to secure tenants. “It’s all about securing the right tenancy,” McGourthy says. “Once done, everything else will fall into place. It’s not a question of if [development will move forward] but when.”
• SOON, NOTHING WILL GROW ON TREES: This week’s news that the ALB quarantine zone was expanding to over 60 square miles (more than 1,260 trees found so far) is just as devastating as it sounds. Even City Manager Michael O’Brien has called it “disheartening.” How do we stack up to the other cities that have dealt with the ALB? Not so good. Chicago, home to the largest infestation to date, never had as big a quarantine zone; the city also had a total of 1,551 total infested trees found between 1998 and 2003. Of those, 1,251 were found over the first two years. Still, Worcester may be saved losing a proportionally larger number of trees based on the protocol being used here, which calls for treatment of some non-infested trees rather than wholesale “scorched earth” tactics.
• ANDRE NO GIANT: Andre Thompson, the city man facing charges in connection with the murder of Becker student William Smith, is a well known quantity in Worcester over the past couple of years, with a rapidly expanding rap sheet for a guy who is only 19. In August 2007, Thompson was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Later that month, he faced charges of driving without a license and driving improperly. He was later found responsible on the license count, and fined $100. Earlier this year, his cocaine charge was continued without finding, pending several conditions; at the same hearing, charges breaking and entering in the daytime with intent to commit a felony, malicious destruction of property over $250, and four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon (rock, beer bottle) were dismissed.
• PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT:The next phase of business regulation in Worcester? Hookah bars/lounges. The communal flavored tobacco pipe smoking establishments, long a favorite in metropolitan areas, have quickly grown in popularity in the city (at least half a dozen businesses now offer some form of hookah), and have garnered the attention of some pols. Not hard, considering one lounge is located across the street from City Hall. On Wednesday night, Mayor Konnie Lukes asked the City Manager to “draft regulations regarding the definition, eligibility, permitting and siting of Hookah Bars/Smoking Bars,” following up on a concern she had raised a few meetings ago about the lack of regulations.
• NEWMAN’S OWN?: Following the death of movie great Paul Newman, we visited worcestermass.com’s list of “Famous People Who Once Lived in Worcester” to determine if any local actors had ever performed on screen with Newman. We came up empty, except for one glaring exception that had us scratching our collective head. The site lists the burly character actor George Kennedy as having a connection to the city, but doesn’t give any details. Aside from Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Kennedy may have been Newman’s most memorable co-star, winning an Academy Award for best supporting actor as the rough-edged, illiterate convict in Cool Hand Luke. That’s all well and good, but we wanted to know how many Coney Island hot dogs he could pound down. Unfortunately, a search of George Kennedy biography sites — the traffic there was, er, minimal — turned up no Worcester mentions. Another Kennedy, Worcester’s own Arthur Kennedy (Lawrence of Arabia), is also on the list, but he never acted with Newman.
• SPELL CHECK: The accuracy of worcester.com is a little suspect anyway. Famed Worcester screenwriter S.N. Behrman (Anna Karenina) is listed as “S.H. Behrman, and local actress Irene Ziegler as “Irene Zieler.”
• A WRITER’S LIFE: Former Boston Globe columnist and author Alan Lupo died of melanoma Monday at Kindred Hospital in Peabody. Fans of his writing will remember Lupo’s street-level reporting and clear, incisive style. According to his obituary in the Globe, Lupo’s 1977 book Liberty’s Chosen Home, about the roots of the racial rift in Boston during the school busing controversy, served as the template for later books on the subject, including J. Anthony Lukas’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Common Ground. Locally, Lupo left his mark at Clark University, where he taught feature writing in the 1980s. “I remember Alan well,” said Virginia Vaughan, Professor and Chair of the English Department at Clark. “He had a wonderful sense of humor and a sort of rough-cut, ironic view of the world that came across in his columns at the Globe - but they were in his teaching as well.”
• GETTIN’ THE BANNED BACK TOGETHER: Hard to believe, but there are still people who want to de-wand Harry Potter, sink Huckleberry Finn’s raft and take the (Judy) Blume off of young adult fiction. The Worcester Public Library, along with libraries across the country, is observing Banned Books Week through Saturday. It’s a chance to recognize there are still people — yes, in this country — who would rather burn certain books than have you read them on the grounds that the words are an affront to their religious beliefs, contain too much sex and/or violence (but never not enough) or are just icky. Among the perpetual transgressors are The Color Purple, The Catcher in the Rye and The Chocolate War by Leominster author Robert Cormier. If you’re feeling really subversive in the next couple of days, crack open In the Kitchen by Maurice Sendak and read it to your kids. o
