Email journal: July 6, 2006, Worcester My internship had been going well in the past few weeks. One thing that we have been doing is driving around District 4 and looking for areas where people have dumped trash. We then report these problem areas to CODE enforcement, which goes out and picks up the trash and tries to find the people who dumped it. I enjoy these 'drive arounds' because I feel that they are a proactive method to having a safe and beautiful city. Some people argue that in a city with serious problems like prostitution, homelessness, and drugs there is no need to worry about trash. I disagree with this and tend to agree with the Broken Window's Theory, a theory that I have learned about in many of my sociology classes that suggests that if the city takes care of things like trash and broken windows, then people will care more for their surroundings and be less likely to be involved in crime. I also went to a meeting on revitalization plans for Elm Park. I think that parks are very important and that it is very important that the city, state, and federal government takes measures to invest and protect our parks. For these reasons, I was excited to hear that Elm Park was receiving considerable funds from the city. I have started to brainstorm some plans to help revitalize University Park, a park right across from Clark University. I think that we can definitely get some of the clubs and organizations at Clark University to help with programming for the park and I look forward to leading this initiative. Another event I attended was a press conference calling for legislative action that would require convicted sex offenders to register as sex offenders upon conviction even if they were appealing their status. Right now if a person is appealing their sex offender status then they do not have to be registered. This seems like a frightening loophole and one that led to two young girls being exposed to by a sex offender who was going through this 'appeal process.' This legislation seems like a no-brainer to me and I hope that it passes. It's been an interesting past couple weeks…come back to read more especially about plans for University Park revitalization! Take care, Abby