Tonight's City Council Meeting

Anybody who has any feelings, one way or the other, concerning the disposition of funds for WCCA-TV13 will probably be interested in tonight's City Council meeting. The City Dictator's decision about this, of course, is merely being communicated to the Council (agenda item 10.12). This is a done deal. All the opportunities for public input are over. I mean, you might expect that a huge crush of bodies trying to attend the Council meeting tonight, solely upon this issue, might effect some delay and possible change...

But from where I sit, it looks to me like the Public Access cable channel has already been rescued from being utterly erased. Really. I'd be very hard pressed to believe that complete erasure wasn't the initial impetus for this long period of dicking them around. In view of Question 1 possibly passing, the world economy collapsing all around us, and a tremendous push by hoity-toity white folks (who never watch) to simply pull the plug on ALL funding for WCCA-TV13... I'd say that the proffered plan is as good as it will ever get. ...and certainly nowhere near what the City Dictator originally had in mind.

Then there's the Providence Street Fire Station...

This one is much tougher to call (agenda item 10.16). I mean, if they close the station and then, over the course of the next year or two, somebody gets killed in a fire up on that hill... there will only be the City Dictator and the Fire Chief to blame.

But there's also City Councilor Paul Clancy, whose proposal it was to make a compromise and retain one piece of fire apparatus at the Providence Street station, and who is probably the only reason the decision was put off at all.

Will he be adding his name to this list tonight by saying nothing? Or will Councilor Clancy re-state his opposition to this decision?

I certainly can't fathom why anyone would risk being on the list of those responsible for closing that station.