Sometimes I wonder how many Worcester residents have never been inside that building.It's accessible enough for those who are often downtown, anyway. But what about people who never even go downtown at all?
The idea of elected officials engaging the public in any manner is something that, whenever I focus my attention on it, makes me feel like I'm staring into a bottomless abyss...
Y'see, the thing of it is... it's this low voter turnout thing.
I look at City Hall and I think, "Less than 10% of the population votes, and of those registered to vote only 22% of them bothered to vote in this last election."
Why is that? Is it because the physical center of local government is a place that 80 to 90% of the population doesn't want to visit?
And even if they did want to visit the place, where would they park?
5 comments:
So long as they had business there, they could park downstairs for 1/2 hour.
Or, they could take the bus! Or, I suppose, a cab!
I do think, though, that we all need to start to think more like a city. I mean, no one expects to park RIGHT THERE in Boston; you have to park and walk. We need to start thinking like that in Worcester.
(sorry, not to monopolize the comments!)
Also, the mayor gives away cookies, so it's worth a visit to her office!
the library parking lot always has spaces and isn't a bad walk to the common or City Hall.
PS. I love the blog.
I would just like to salute cascading waters. When you break it all down it is all about comparisons and expectations. Why would anyone live in a city of nearly 180,000 people people and expect that they should be able do go downtown and just park right out in front of City Hall and stroll in and do their business. There is parking o plenty in downtown. You just might have to walk a little or risk life and death and park on a side street.
Well, mostly... heh...
I wasn't particularly drawing any direct cause-effect relationships between where anyone might find parking downtown and how disconnected the overwhelming majority of citizens in Worcester are. Rather, the ending comment about "where to park" was just a touch of sarcasm... that's probably all it would take for someone who's disconnected, disinterested, and apathetic about civic affairs to begin with.
Same thing with voting... "Oh... now I have more I gotta do today?..." or, "Well, it's raining and I don't want to get wet."
It's about how disconnected City Hall is from that apathetic majority in the city. When I looked at City Hall and took that picture, that's what I was thinking about: the apathetic majority who are completely disconnected from what goes on in that building.
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