Email journal: June 20, 2006, Worcester The first couple weeks of my internship have been very interesting. After spending the past few weeks discovering Worcester, I have certainly reaffirmed my beliefs that Worcester is a place rich in history, a place with a lot to discover, and definitely a city with a lot of potential. I am interning with City Councilor Barbara Haller. She is the Councilor for District 4 in Worcester, an area that includes Main South and Clark University. The district is the poorest in Worcester and is also the region with the densest population. The highlight of my internship, so far, was meeting Senator John Kerry and going on a tour of the MLK Jr. Business Empowerment Center. The center is a business incubator and has many programs to help local entrepreneurs. It was great to see the successes of many of the entrepreneurs and I was particularly inspired by the diversity of the people working at the center. As a long-time John Kerry fan, I was very excited to meet Kerry and tour the center with him. Kerry discussed the effects of globalization on many 'blue-collar' workers and spoke about how impressed he was with the center. Another interesting experience was walking near the railroad tracks in Worcester with a representative from the company that owns the railroad, city officials, and Councilor Haller. I learned that in many cities, including Worcester, homeless people often live along the tracks. After walking the tracks, we heard concerns from people in the neighborhood; their concerns included: trespassers on the tracks, noise from the trains, and graffiti near the railroads. There was some dispute between city officials and the railroad representative over who was responsible for maintaining certain areas around the railroad. The conclusion was that the railroads are responsible for 25 feet from the tracks. Now, the city is planning on taking some actions to help clean up the tracks beyond the 25 feet and the railroad company is going to work on its area of responsibility. I feel like just in the few weeks I've been interning I've learned a lot about how local government functions and I look forward to learning even more as I attend more meetings and travel around the district. I hope you will come back to learn more about my adventures in Worcester! Take care, Abby