The Worcester City Council won’t be debating rent control anytime soon. No point in it right now, but an errant headline made us wonder, would rent control make sense in a city where rents may become unaffordable for seniors and others on fixed incomes? Matt Wally says rent control won’t do what proponents think it will, he is dead set against it and cites several examples where it has been tried and hasn’t worked. Gary Rosen says he is against it, just as he was ten years ago when it was brought up to the City Council. He says it goes against our free enterprise system. He does feel, as Matt Wally does, that the city does need more affordable housing. Rosen feels we need to go vertical, taller buildings. Randy Feldman looks at it as two issues, the philosophical and the practical. Housing is a basic human need and if rent control is a tool to make that happen so be it. He says rent control may be inadequate but that the market approach has failed us. He says the Human Rights Commission, on which he serves, has put forward two proposals. That the City of Worcester should take the abandoned properties that it owns and should build housing for people. They also feel the state should put resources towards developers reserving 15% for affordable housing. The Roundtable also looks at safety measures for City Hall and in schools. Rosen wants metal detectors in the schools. Stolz, Feldman and Wally do not. No one feels that they are needed right now at City Hall.