One of the efforts loosely connected to Occupy Wall Street is Bank Transfer Day, a proposal to observe Guy Fawkes Day (November 5, this year a Saturday) by getting your money out of a Big Bank and into a local bank or credit union.

Any suggestions of local banks and credit unions with decent websites? I need to enter a physical bank maybe once every five years. For me, and I assume many others, the online bank is the bank. And many banks, both Big and local, have websites that make you want to toss your laptop across the room. Worcester’s Commerce Bank, for example, has a website so hard to use it’s like they opened a branch at the bottom of a storm drain.

from the Clark Scarlet:

“It is most likely going to make crossing safer, but I don’t think that it is necessary to close the street. For as integrated as Clark likes to be in the community, the closure will make the school enclosed and will make the campus seem even more like a bubble,” says senior Hannah Cox.

…

Clark is set to part with close to $2 million for this project, $1.5 million of which is to be used for renovations to University Park. When told of how much the closure will cost, students had a strong reaction.

“I would hope that every alternative was looked into before the supposed $2 million was spent. That money could’ve gone to a lot of financial aid,” says freshmen Liam Kelly Fleming.

I have a few quibbles with the article — Clark hasn’t closed Downing Street, the city has; the project is still technically in review; and at least part of the money they will pay every year ($75,000) they were already paying in property tax.  But it’s still well worth reading.

In honor of the 84th anniversary of Worcester Airport (really), here are some news bits from minor news outlets:

Two disposable cameras in the Canal District.

The Holy Cross Crusader has a great feature called Meet the Neighbors. They’ve featured Ron and T Jablanski so far.

The Crusader has also outlined the new off-campus housing policy,

along with an op-ed from a young woman living off-campus (“For better or for worse, the off-campus party scene of 2008 has been buried and forgotten beneath the grass carpets outside Figge Hall; anyone not expecting this would be in denial.”).

The Clark Scarlet had what was quite possibly the most funny profile of Joe O’Brien ever (“O’Brien, whose claim-to-fame is that he shook Barack Obama’s hand”) and captured the best Lisa Wong quote ever (“I discovered that there were wonderful parts of Fitchburg.”).

The Daily Auburn covered a lecture by former Worcester mayor John Anderson (money quote: “the area is reverting back to the way it was [61 years ago]”; unclear whether that’s a good thing or not).

And the National Enquirer has discovered our sleepy hamlet.

From the St Peter’s parish bulletin:

In order to conduct a traffic impact study on the proposed closure of Downing Street between Woodland and Florence Streets, the city of Worcester will close off this section of Downing Street from September 12th through October 7th.

See also: Downing St. Closure: Will Firefighters Be Delayed Getting to Nick Cuba’s Apartment?

FYC, the skateboarding and junk shop at 420 Pleasant St, had a “grand reopening” Friday.

The used clothing boutique “Trunk and Disorderly” will be sharing 420 with them. Good luck to all!

(This is probably an appropriate time to fondly remember the previous tenant at 420 Pleasant, the visionary junk shop HBML.)