… have something to talk about. What I’m reading now (under my bedroom chair, top book on my read-this-stuff-first pile of books): THE DEATH AND LIFE OF AMERICAN CITIES, by Jane Jacobs. An old book (a classic) that’s written with such ballsy flare it just carries you along! I feel like I’m right there in Boston’s North End with ol’ Jane. Or in Greenwich Village chatting away with this chatty gal! I have only just begun this tome, but what Jacobs says makes good sense: The denser and more complex and diverse (economically, socially, racially, etc) a neighborhood is – the BETTER! Poor people, factories, bakeries, shops, rich folks – mix ’em all together – it makes a city so lively! The more intimate, the better!
Readers of this blog may have seen the photo I posted of the City Manager’s Housing Report, the photo of the report unceremoniously stuffed into a box, stuck between my oak bureaus. Sorry, city leaders, but the report is just so uninviting, so difficult to read … . Bureaucrat speak all the way! We are waiting for the Readers Digest version to come out – not the city’s executive summary that was also given to me – but something readable, something the people of Woo can enjoy in their local laundromat. But until then, it’s Jane Jacobs …
– Rosalie Tirella
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ALSO: Agenda for Worcester City Council meeting – Tuesday, August 20 , City Hall, Main Street. Meeting begins at 6 p.m. To see agenda, click here!