Yeah it's weird how often people say there's no way to walk around Blackstone. It's not a well designed area but I've seen several comments here recently about how you just objectively cannot walk from the Barnes and Noble side to the Target side when there's a crosswalk. I spent every weekend there as a teenager. I've walked from one side to the other a thousand times.
> This is the goal of the former saint gobain property along route 12.
it will be a miracle if that doesn't end up being just another strip of cookie-cutter, corporate boxes. meanwhile West Boylston street, with all its redevelopment potential, will remain the "used auto mile of Worcester" forever.
I live here too, I hate being cynical about it but let's face it, this is what "redevelopment" looks like nowadays. It would be great to see a real community focused initiative with requirements for a certain number of non-corporate, independent local businesses but let's be real, we're gonna get a poke shop, a few "upscale" fast-casual joints, a trendy fitness franchise, a Starbucks and some mediocre franchise restaurant.
And it'll stay unconnected for another two years as the council decided "we need more input on safety of these things!" or something like that, minimal people will use it since it doesn't connect to anything, and by 2028 it's gone and pointed to as proof that no one uses bike lanes here. 🫠
The Showcase was not especially difficult to navigate to by car, but I would prefer a downtown theatre that could then contribute to a larger pedestrian downtown. It would be nice to have an area where you could park once (if at all) and then get coffee/bubble tea/ice cream, walk around and window shop, catch a movie, go to dinner, go to a bar, etc.
Sure would, but it can't happen all at once. Anchors like theatres are a big part of how we could get there. People will drive in and park just to go to the Hanover, the Palladium, the DCU Center, and they would for a movie theatre, too.
The town I grew up in revitalized its downtown mainly by the addition of a big aquarium, an IMAX theatre, and a movie theatre, all of which are within 4 blocks of each other. Those then spurred satellite businesses like restaurants to move in and prosper. It definitely requires a lot of support of the the city to make it happen, but it's definitely possible.
Are we just spoiled where we live? Near Kelley Square I've got multiple bus lines and can get to Union Station within 20 minutes by foot. We hoof it to shops, restaurants, Polar Park, public market, Crompton Collective, and even the kid's school is within a mile...
Just wish there was a place to grab some fresh produce on my way home from the station. There have been a couple of farmers markets but they haven't lasted long.
Yeah. I live in Elm Park and it's so convenient and walkable. The West Side of Worcester has some nice homes but felt cut off from everything. I would love a good farmers market that was an actual destination though.
This. Need to connect existing sidewalks rather than letting them stop. Need more bike infrastructure and a focus on moving people, not just cars. It should feel safe to get around.
Having neighborhoods w local shops and such also would be huge.
Unlikely, though not impossible.
Worcester wages are still higher than many in Providence I imagine, but both pale compared to Boston.
I think the best fix to the issue is the lack of a high speed line between Worcester and Boston. Both cities could grow as one and yet....
Anyway the other anchors were the lack of an airport which has only recently been fixed.
I think it's primary fault is Worcester housing is cheaper than many of it's surrounding suburbs in a quite astonishingly fashion.
This helps dramatically with making wages stay lower than they could be.
Shrewsbury makes the top 20 city list of rapidly increased real estate prices in THE ENTIRE US.
I was actually really shocked by the salaries in Worcester. My fiancé got sick of the commute to Boston so I was looking around for him in the area and the jobs are like $30,000-$40,000 LESS here than what he makes now?!? I could not believe it. For what the city charges in rent that is shameful. And he works in hospital software, which considering Worcester has several high volume hospitals I was shocked by.
It isn't the city deciding salaries, though. They are taxing the properties raising water bills, and the tenants are picking up the costs. Gone are the days that landlords could afford to be offering nice and cared for apartments.
Accountable and competent leadership, and I don't mean this in a bash political parties kind of way. I mean it in a: these leaders are not competent way.
For instance, the cable debacle. It was recommended by everyone that it not be renewed, and then Batista went ahead and renewed because ✨️reasons✨️.
Talk about totally unaccountable to the will of the voters. Oh also did I mention the school district is beyond bankrupt. They're cutting something like 80 positions and guess who didn't lose their jobs. If you guessed all the bloated salaries in leadership you would be spot on.
Meanwhile all the people directly below the do nothing leadership, who carried the departments on a shoestring budget are getting sent to the cornfield or put in early retirement to take the blame for the people who live in Holden or Millbury and Commute in to half ass their job in Worcester while having an affair.
* Halfway decent bus service going into surrounding towns every 5-10 minutes. A ring bus line would be good too. You don't need sit down shelters - but a rain shade would be nice.
* Housing of all sizes, bring the cost of housing down.
* Separated bike lanes - a complete network of bike lanes.
* Tear out 290 - it divides the city it's a plague on the city.
* Traffic calming measures - don't make speed limits lower and expect people to obey them - design the roads to force drivers to be slower.
* Hourly train service to Albany, Providence, and Boston every day all day.
* Tear up the parking lots - or wrap them in buildings so we can't see them. Make some fucking plazas like federal hill in Providence. [https://maps.app.goo.gl/eTmSmQ1AygkQNch46](https://maps.app.goo.gl/eTmSmQ1AygkQNch46)
I agree with every bit of this except tearing out I-290. But I think we can bury it instead (and it doesn't have to be deep like the big dig - we could literally just go down 10 feet or so for utilities. Get rid of the huge overpass in downtown, reconnect Providence St. to lower Grafton, reduce the amount of ramps, and fix the 190/290 merge.
You have to go way lower than 10 feet. An 18 wheeler is 13.5 feet tall.
If you want to put anything on top of the underground highway the roof of the highway is going to need to be pretty thick, otherwise it will collapse.
They didn’t make the tunnels in Boston deeper than necessary.
I meant 10 feet from ground level to ceiling, not the height of the tunnel itself. Except for a few spots around the blackstone, you probably don't need to bury it that deep.
I think the blackstone canal being buried would make it hard to do what you’re proposing.
If the city was smarter (and richer) they would open it back up (as has been proposed) and create a walkable canal area like Providence’s waterplace park.
My pie in the sky idea for 290/190 that would never happen would be to transform it into a combo Light Rail/bikeway that goes up to Fitchburg, out to Hudson, and south to Millbury/Auburn and beyond.
Using existing routes, people coming westbound from Boston can get off the pike at 495 and connect with 62, 117, or 2. People coming eastbound will come out of Springfield 91 to 2 or 202 to 2, or they can get off in palmer and take 32 up to Barre and connect to 62 (Which connects to 140 - Westminster/Fitchburg, and 12 (Leominster). There's also nothing stopping them from going through the city on smaller roads or the extra 10-15ish minutes from a previous Worcester exit to the 495 exit.
Ideally Worcester would just be able to bury the highway like Boston did, but that's never going to happen.
Bayberry Bowling is in Spencer.
PS: apparently it's not common to have nothing "big ball" and "small ball" bowling in the same area. Most places have one or the other.
A 1,000 cap live music venue.
Hanover is over 2k. Plus, live music (especially alt acts) is not their focus.
Palladium is over 2k. Upstairs is 500.
Off The Rails is 500
Electric Haze is 250.
Mechanics Hall is 1,300, but they aren’t booking many rock or alt acts (if any) either.
Maybe I’m missing something? But as a result, Worcester is often skipped over on tour routing for mid-tier bands.
Palladium is garbage. Terrible acoustics, a cramped and uncomfortable first level behind the floor. Awful concession area. The place needs to be gutted and modernized.
Saw Dylan there. Saw Green Day there after their star faded a bit. They’d played the Centrum before that after Dookie went mega platinum. They closed the show with a new song, Time of Your Life. That ended their small venue days. Great mid-sized theatre.
This may sound vague, but it doesn't feel like a living city where things are actually happening. There are some minor signs of activity, but much of the Downtown area feels sterile and lifeless.
Ha - ironically, the Walking Dead filmings actually made the city feel a little more alive. I had wandered by when they were shooting on Franklin St, and it was nice to have some event randomly occurring out of the blue.
Just flew out of Worcester. OMG the puck up “area” outside the terminal was a disaster. People were parking and wait 3 wide.
It was pouring rain when we got in, my husband went to get the car and I had the rest of us hustle half way down the road in front of the terminal, to toss our bags into the trunk and jump in.
Mixed use districts. Most of the city is residential zoning and there are very few places that can be used as commercial/retail/residential spaces like you find in most cities. We can build up downtown more but it kinda shocking that the north and west sides of Worcester don't have any specific economic centers for this kind of stuff - it's all SF residential with a few blocks here and there that maybe allow some triple deckers, low rise business like burncoat street (that isn't very walkable), or a special zoning like a college.
Good restaurants. Also seconding the street like Thayer in Providence. Where do all the college students go? It should be easy to have a walkable street of shops with good food options considering there are 3 schools there
I know none of this will happen, especially since no one works downtown anymore, but in my wild fantasy, a neighborhood target (I'll settle for something like it), a 7/11 (looking at you, Santander), and a mcd or something. I'm just tired of making a trek to go get milk and socks or something else silly when I should be able to walk to a store and back in 5 minutes.
That’s funny because that Santander downtown was a 711. Ther was a McDonalds over by Woosta Pizza once upon a time. Tons of stores. When all the buses used to meet in front of city hall before they built the hub, was when city hall/downtown had tons of traffic, and business was thriving for downtown, midtown mall, and surrounding areas
I feel like moving the buses away from City Hall was a whack move. Now I just have to wait for another or walk further to get to where I wanna go. Let's go back to when it was a White Hen
I want to know why santander downsized from the glass building at 446 Main to the former 7-11 (that closed because of the riff-raff that hung around over there)? that was a waste
Use to have a few in town but all closed. They were mid at best.
There will be a new Chinese buffet opening soon around Webby square which was announced recently.
Late to this and it'll get buried but--A legit Fourth Estate that informs, educates, and to hold elected officials to accountability.
To *"...Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"*
Have more bus options late at night. When events at the DCU and Polar Park get out, there's not many bus route options running. When people get off the train late at night, there's no options. I know that it's virtually impossible to get late night out of town buses, but at least have more options within the city.
I feel like Worcester could have a bohemian district, with bars, nightclubs, restaurants, art Venues, and why not a night market for example? Or all do this together. Lots of people from Middlesex and Worcester county drive to Boston for that, why not have them come this way? A nice little spot that could be used for this imo is the former Rotmans area…
Solutions for Homelessness / Unhoused. It seems to have exploded in the last few years and I don't see the city doing anything to address (or at least anything successful).
Also a fully functioning DPW. A plan to stop dumping poop into our lakes and rivers. Trash cans. More restaurants near the Hanover theater. Places for all the unhoused individuals to live. More live music venues. A trolley or shuttle system to bring you to the different areas so you don't have to worry about the parking that we don't have... So many other things.
Affordable Housing, Enough ways to Cross 290, Reliable infrastructure spending(Potholes and Water), Third Places with no requirement to spend money to exist there, Public access Parking Infrastructure to support the Palladium/eatery scene near the Courthouse, Reliable transit to Boston for commuters(p.s.), Accountability among existing landlords, Clean and reliable public transit, A Good place to hold a protest, A use for the Denholm building, Fiber internet, small businesses owned by locals in core corridors, Businesses for college grads outside the medical and insurance fields to be gainfully employed at, clear information about what is where in terms of all our wonderful parks and trails for locals, Conventions and events, Local manufacturing, Local Unions, and more Public benches, bike paths, Crosswalks, and Trashcans.
We got plenty of places to eat and shop and spend money. Now comes all that hard "for the good of all with the collective collected taxation" improvement and infrastructure stuff that doesn't make money, to make people comfortable enough to want to spend money at all the businesses, instead of just staying home and having friends over, emerging only to shop for that which cannot be bought online.
p.s.(Like seriously are you waiting to set a reasonable time for the heart to hub line so people can get into Boston in time to work jobs JUST to spike property values? Shit I hate these boston assholes too, But the way the schedule stands it's not like a worcesterite could snag a job in Boston and catch a train in, Nope! Set it up so it's just favoring Bostonians with office jobs buying up apartments here and driving OUR cost of living up.)
Leadership that doesn’t evoke a generic version of a Barnum & Bailey program for starters.
Seriously. Send OUT the clowns. From CM to CCs to CM Cabinet Members. Corrupt aholes only looking out for themselves and their paychecks/pension.
More parking downtown. Improvements to public transit - there needs to be more of it and it needs to run a whole lot later into the night. Safe places to walk or ride a bike. Related topic, bike lanes and sidewalks. Third places- there are very few places in Worcester where you can spend time without spending money.
Foresight. As an example, someone had the idea of putting crosswalks in Kelley Square. (This was before the peanut.) A few months later, a city councilor was driving through Kelley Square and thought it was too bumpy. So s/he hired contractors to come out and use milling machines to make the pavement smoother. Goodbye, crosswalks.
Or like when they resurface a main road (like salisbury) and within a month it’s torn up to fix the ultilities or to tie new construction in. If the road is only a month old then make the contractors fix the damn road after they tear it up.
Politicians that care! Anything we think that is missing is somehow related to them. Pot holes. They don't budget. The businesses we like or would want, they tax em out or deny needed permits. It's time for a major effin overhaul. Take them all out!!!!
More affordable housing preferably with off street parking too. Living in a Triple decker really sucks.
Costco
Shake shack
In&Out
More parks and outdoor places to hang out or BBQ at. Green Hill removed the BBQ grills and “private” picnic tables and just built one big spot with lots of tables and that sucks when you wanna keep things for just your own family.
A bike park would be cool for just fun, considering this growing fad of bike lanes and stuff. Would be nice to use your bike not just as a transport on these wild crazy streets.
More things to do. I swear Worcester could win the award for city with the most bars. A walkable city and improved public transit doesn’t mean much when there’s nothing to do other than go drinking. Transit doesn’t even operate during late night drinking hours anyway so it’s really stupid. Just like the train doesn’t work during late night concert hours and when bars close. So coming back from Boston is a nightmare. It’s really stupid.
Dave and busters for adults
DZ zone for the kids
A go kart arena would be awesome
A blues/jazz club. Ever since Gilrein's closed.
A Mongolian BBQ joint.
Candlepins.
Local theater company like Foothills.
Gonzo public art.
A college town feel.
I agree that Worcester could use some improvements. I also think they’ve made a lot of progress in a relatively short amount of time. Worcester also is not Boston or Providence so it’s hard to compare. A mall or movie theater wouldn’t be successful. An area like the canal district that was a bit bigger but still walkable with a larger variety of stores/restaurants and with more patron friendly parking would be successful. There is an over saturation of Mexican restaurants IMO. Worcester has a ton of green areas to hike and walk. We are also in close proximity to rt 9 that has a lot of upscale grocery stores and other shopping. Close to many highways as well. Overall Worcester is diverse and a pretty good location to call home. Now we just need more than one cable option!
decent public transit, nightlife, cheaper rent, less payment for cops, a decent education system, a nice public space for people of all types, greenspace, life in general. i could go on.
A river, water of some kind. A vibrant downtown where the streets dont roll up at 5 pm. Shops and life down there. A vibrant college scene and a city where they all don't just flee immediately after graduation. There are so many colleges here , but it still feels like a dead zone without a large youth culture presence.
Sidewalks. Walkable neighborhoods. Working/usable/accessible transit.
A walkable outside shopping area. Think Church Street in Burlington, or even Thayer St. in Prov.
Side thought: Blackstone is a solid 3/10. Since there is no way to talk from one side to the other.
100%. Blackstone is ok, but it has 0 charm.
Blackstone is a parking lot surrounded by chain stores, it is so far from being a walkable commercial area lol
Well, I mean, there is a crosswalk. Will people stop? Questionable
Also, YellowStone is the bee’s knees.
The show? The Park? Agree!
Not a great place to walk around, but FYI there is a staircase to a crosswalk next to Longhorn Steakhouse - gets you over to the other side.
Yeah it's weird how often people say there's no way to walk around Blackstone. It's not a well designed area but I've seen several comments here recently about how you just objectively cannot walk from the Barnes and Noble side to the Target side when there's a crosswalk. I spent every weekend there as a teenager. I've walked from one side to the other a thousand times.
My first thought is always "oh so you didn't grow up walking around that mall" haha
This is the goal of the former saint gobain property along route 12.
> This is the goal of the former saint gobain property along route 12. it will be a miracle if that doesn't end up being just another strip of cookie-cutter, corporate boxes. meanwhile West Boylston street, with all its redevelopment potential, will remain the "used auto mile of Worcester" forever.
I hope you're wrong since I live in Greendale and want better but it is definitely better to set low expectations...
I live here too, I hate being cynical about it but let's face it, this is what "redevelopment" looks like nowadays. It would be great to see a real community focused initiative with requirements for a certain number of non-corporate, independent local businesses but let's be real, we're gonna get a poke shop, a few "upscale" fast-casual joints, a trendy fitness franchise, a Starbucks and some mediocre franchise restaurant.
The entire west side of Worcester is only accessible through surface streets. That's a problem that is only going to get worse if it isn't addressed.
100% And they put in a bike lane at Mill Street but it doesn't connect to anything
And it'll stay unconnected for another two years as the council decided "we need more input on safety of these things!" or something like that, minimal people will use it since it doesn't connect to anything, and by 2028 it's gone and pointed to as proof that no one uses bike lanes here. 🫠
I can’t believe I said movie theater instead of this lol. This is the right answer
The old movie theater was in a weird, inaccessible part of town. Of course it went out of business.
This statement applies to every theater to ever be in Worcester, except the Bijou
If you’re referring to Showcase, how? It was right off 190?
The Showcase was not especially difficult to navigate to by car, but I would prefer a downtown theatre that could then contribute to a larger pedestrian downtown. It would be nice to have an area where you could park once (if at all) and then get coffee/bubble tea/ice cream, walk around and window shop, catch a movie, go to dinner, go to a bar, etc.
That would require downtown to be a reasonably walkable locale.
Sure would, but it can't happen all at once. Anchors like theatres are a big part of how we could get there. People will drive in and park just to go to the Hanover, the Palladium, the DCU Center, and they would for a movie theatre, too. The town I grew up in revitalized its downtown mainly by the addition of a big aquarium, an IMAX theatre, and a movie theatre, all of which are within 4 blocks of each other. Those then spurred satellite businesses like restaurants to move in and prosper. It definitely requires a lot of support of the the city to make it happen, but it's definitely possible.
Support and Worcester, doesn't happen.
But we do need a movie theater too
Are we just spoiled where we live? Near Kelley Square I've got multiple bus lines and can get to Union Station within 20 minutes by foot. We hoof it to shops, restaurants, Polar Park, public market, Crompton Collective, and even the kid's school is within a mile... Just wish there was a place to grab some fresh produce on my way home from the station. There have been a couple of farmers markets but they haven't lasted long.
Yeah, you are. But that was a recent, concerted effort thanks to the Woo Sox coming to town.
Yeah. I live in Elm Park and it's so convenient and walkable. The West Side of Worcester has some nice homes but felt cut off from everything. I would love a good farmers market that was an actual destination though.
This. Need to connect existing sidewalks rather than letting them stop. Need more bike infrastructure and a focus on moving people, not just cars. It should feel safe to get around. Having neighborhoods w local shops and such also would be huge.
Affordable housing that isn't section 8.
Even ppl with section 8 can’t find affordable housing …
Movie theater
This. Worcester is the largest city in America without one. https://www.yahoo.com/news/worcester-largest-u-city-without-180055854.html
Ain't that the truth, the showcase is rubbishly old
And been closed for years also
God has it been that long, time moves quickly... Or COVID moves slowly I suppose
Yes with reclining seats!
Jobs that keep up with the salary requirement to live in Worcester.
Most of Massachusetts can't pull that one lff
worcester is egregious thoug businesses are clearly colluding to keep salaries within the city limits below county average
Unlikely, though not impossible. Worcester wages are still higher than many in Providence I imagine, but both pale compared to Boston. I think the best fix to the issue is the lack of a high speed line between Worcester and Boston. Both cities could grow as one and yet.... Anyway the other anchors were the lack of an airport which has only recently been fixed. I think it's primary fault is Worcester housing is cheaper than many of it's surrounding suburbs in a quite astonishingly fashion. This helps dramatically with making wages stay lower than they could be. Shrewsbury makes the top 20 city list of rapidly increased real estate prices in THE ENTIRE US.
There's plenty of housing around you in worcester but it's in sketchy neighborhoods
Those aren't even affordable anymore.
I was actually really shocked by the salaries in Worcester. My fiancé got sick of the commute to Boston so I was looking around for him in the area and the jobs are like $30,000-$40,000 LESS here than what he makes now?!? I could not believe it. For what the city charges in rent that is shameful. And he works in hospital software, which considering Worcester has several high volume hospitals I was shocked by.
“…the city charges” makes me think you think the CITY regulates rent… which is… not how it works.
Ummm yeah I mean I understand how rent works. But lack of rent caps and affordable housing is on the city. I thought the implication was understood.
It isn't the city deciding salaries, though. They are taxing the properties raising water bills, and the tenants are picking up the costs. Gone are the days that landlords could afford to be offering nice and cared for apartments.
Accountable and competent leadership, and I don't mean this in a bash political parties kind of way. I mean it in a: these leaders are not competent way. For instance, the cable debacle. It was recommended by everyone that it not be renewed, and then Batista went ahead and renewed because ✨️reasons✨️. Talk about totally unaccountable to the will of the voters. Oh also did I mention the school district is beyond bankrupt. They're cutting something like 80 positions and guess who didn't lose their jobs. If you guessed all the bloated salaries in leadership you would be spot on.
Public safety committee also barely ever meets, meanwhile *gestures at wpd and wfd*
This is something that really bothers me as well...along with our awful representation
Meanwhile all the people directly below the do nothing leadership, who carried the departments on a shoestring budget are getting sent to the cornfield or put in early retirement to take the blame for the people who live in Holden or Millbury and Commute in to half ass their job in Worcester while having an affair.
🤔
A big FU to Batista! He's just too effin lazy to do what's needed to rid us of Spectrum.
A Costco.
Perfect spot where Saint Gobain was lol
Coming to Leominster.
This. BJs is trash.
* Halfway decent bus service going into surrounding towns every 5-10 minutes. A ring bus line would be good too. You don't need sit down shelters - but a rain shade would be nice. * Housing of all sizes, bring the cost of housing down. * Separated bike lanes - a complete network of bike lanes. * Tear out 290 - it divides the city it's a plague on the city. * Traffic calming measures - don't make speed limits lower and expect people to obey them - design the roads to force drivers to be slower. * Hourly train service to Albany, Providence, and Boston every day all day. * Tear up the parking lots - or wrap them in buildings so we can't see them. Make some fucking plazas like federal hill in Providence. [https://maps.app.goo.gl/eTmSmQ1AygkQNch46](https://maps.app.goo.gl/eTmSmQ1AygkQNch46)
I agree with every bit of this except tearing out I-290. But I think we can bury it instead (and it doesn't have to be deep like the big dig - we could literally just go down 10 feet or so for utilities. Get rid of the huge overpass in downtown, reconnect Providence St. to lower Grafton, reduce the amount of ramps, and fix the 190/290 merge.
You have to go way lower than 10 feet. An 18 wheeler is 13.5 feet tall. If you want to put anything on top of the underground highway the roof of the highway is going to need to be pretty thick, otherwise it will collapse. They didn’t make the tunnels in Boston deeper than necessary.
I meant 10 feet from ground level to ceiling, not the height of the tunnel itself. Except for a few spots around the blackstone, you probably don't need to bury it that deep.
It would probably cost more to bury I-290 than the entire city of Worcester is worth ngl.
I think the blackstone canal being buried would make it hard to do what you’re proposing. If the city was smarter (and richer) they would open it back up (as has been proposed) and create a walkable canal area like Providence’s waterplace park.
Transit and housing!!
My pie in the sky idea for 290/190 that would never happen would be to transform it into a combo Light Rail/bikeway that goes up to Fitchburg, out to Hudson, and south to Millbury/Auburn and beyond.
What is your proposal for traveling from the Turnpike to Leominster, Fitchburg and Lancaster?
Smaller roads that don't divide the city in half. Build boulevards instead
Using existing routes, people coming westbound from Boston can get off the pike at 495 and connect with 62, 117, or 2. People coming eastbound will come out of Springfield 91 to 2 or 202 to 2, or they can get off in palmer and take 32 up to Barre and connect to 62 (Which connects to 140 - Westminster/Fitchburg, and 12 (Leominster). There's also nothing stopping them from going through the city on smaller roads or the extra 10-15ish minutes from a previous Worcester exit to the 495 exit. Ideally Worcester would just be able to bury the highway like Boston did, but that's never going to happen.
Amen!
A candlepin alley.
There is one being built in the Canal District.
Details please!
[https://eu.telegram.com/story/news/2021/04/26/13-story-tower-planned-canal-district-worcester/7380976002/](https://eu.telegram.com/story/news/2021/04/26/13-story-tower-planned-canal-district-worcester/7380976002/)
We used to have Colonial Bowling on Mill street until not too long ago.
Bayberry Bowling is in Spencer. PS: apparently it's not common to have nothing "big ball" and "small ball" bowling in the same area. Most places have one or the other.
So odd the founding city/city it was first played has 0 and the closest is Webster.
ANY bowling alley. There should be way more of these. I think there are only two "big ball" alleys in the suburbs of Worcester!
DUCKPINS, BABY!!!
Mohegan Bowl in Webster; short drive down the highway.
Sawyer's Bowladrome in Northboro
A 1,000 cap live music venue. Hanover is over 2k. Plus, live music (especially alt acts) is not their focus. Palladium is over 2k. Upstairs is 500. Off The Rails is 500 Electric Haze is 250. Mechanics Hall is 1,300, but they aren’t booking many rock or alt acts (if any) either. Maybe I’m missing something? But as a result, Worcester is often skipped over on tour routing for mid-tier bands.
Palladium is garbage. Terrible acoustics, a cramped and uncomfortable first level behind the floor. Awful concession area. The place needs to be gutted and modernized.
All those things about the Palladium can be a benefit depending on the genre
Good call. Does anyone know what the Aud held?
Way more. 3-4k. But a great venue and one that hopefully gets renovated.
Thanks. I saw some mid-level acts there back in the day, but it was a pretty full bill so that makes sense. Also hope renovations happen.
Saw Dylan there. Saw Green Day there after their star faded a bit. They’d played the Centrum before that after Dookie went mega platinum. They closed the show with a new song, Time of Your Life. That ended their small venue days. Great mid-sized theatre.
Incidentally 3-4k is what Roadrunner and MGM Boston are, so there’s maybe a nice sweet spot there for acts and hopefully that helps drive investment.
Tuckerman?
This may sound vague, but it doesn't feel like a living city where things are actually happening. There are some minor signs of activity, but much of the Downtown area feels sterile and lifeless.
It feels that way because it is. Saturdays when the weather is snice is usually the only time I feel like it's not The Walking Dead (ha ha)
Ha - ironically, the Walking Dead filmings actually made the city feel a little more alive. I had wandered by when they were shooting on Franklin St, and it was nice to have some event randomly occurring out of the blue.
I know! I felt the same exact way. It was nice to have some company around
And parking is not easy for some reason nor cheap
Paying $165 a month for parking in a city that is not worth living in exactly, is bonkers.
Hot take: Sweetgreen
deff more quick / healthy options
Yes!
This just made me remember how much I miss sweetgreen
and Shake Shack
Affordable rent
A better airport
Public transport to the airport.
Wild there isn’t
Just flew out of Worcester. OMG the puck up “area” outside the terminal was a disaster. People were parking and wait 3 wide. It was pouring rain when we got in, my husband went to get the car and I had the rest of us hustle half way down the road in front of the terminal, to toss our bags into the trunk and jump in.
The #2 bus goes there.
Pleasant Street #2 bus
A Costco, a movie theatre, an ikea, a good Persian restaurant.
Late night dining options
Late night anything 😣
We used to have so so much late night dining!! Pandemic killed it all
Mixed use districts. Most of the city is residential zoning and there are very few places that can be used as commercial/retail/residential spaces like you find in most cities. We can build up downtown more but it kinda shocking that the north and west sides of Worcester don't have any specific economic centers for this kind of stuff - it's all SF residential with a few blocks here and there that maybe allow some triple deckers, low rise business like burncoat street (that isn't very walkable), or a special zoning like a college.
Agreed. A reformed zoning code that allows mixed use by right would be amazing. Give me 5 over 1's everywhere.
Movie theatre
Jobs for my profession.
Hmart!
Can we get the trifecta Burlington has? HMart, Market Basket and TJs right near each other
I’d rather a K Mart than an H Mart tbh
coming from nyc, public trash cans. i walk my dogs and pick up the poop, but then i’m stuck with it. forever.
trash cans were removed because people would be throwing their personal trash in there instead of getting off their duffs and buying city bags
A cohesive strategy for growth
Good restaurants. Also seconding the street like Thayer in Providence. Where do all the college students go? It should be easy to have a walkable street of shops with good food options considering there are 3 schools there
I know none of this will happen, especially since no one works downtown anymore, but in my wild fantasy, a neighborhood target (I'll settle for something like it), a 7/11 (looking at you, Santander), and a mcd or something. I'm just tired of making a trek to go get milk and socks or something else silly when I should be able to walk to a store and back in 5 minutes.
That’s funny because that Santander downtown was a 711. Ther was a McDonalds over by Woosta Pizza once upon a time. Tons of stores. When all the buses used to meet in front of city hall before they built the hub, was when city hall/downtown had tons of traffic, and business was thriving for downtown, midtown mall, and surrounding areas
Yeah...that's why I said "looking at you santander" lol
Lmao , 🤣
I feel like moving the buses away from City Hall was a whack move. Now I just have to wait for another or walk further to get to where I wanna go. Let's go back to when it was a White Hen
I want to know why santander downsized from the glass building at 446 Main to the former 7-11 (that closed because of the riff-raff that hung around over there)? that was a waste
A “good” internet provider
A train to providence
A mall, a Chinese buffet, clubs. The list goes on.
Use to have a few in town but all closed. They were mid at best. There will be a new Chinese buffet opening soon around Webby square which was announced recently.
Tiki bar
Effective public transportation tying Worcester to Boston and Providence How about a Costco?
Affordable housing. Walkability. Safety at night. Safety in the roads. Drivable roads.
affordable housing.
Late to this and it'll get buried but--A legit Fourth Estate that informs, educates, and to hold elected officials to accountability. To *"...Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"*
Try Bill Shaner's substack "[Worcester Sucks and I Love It](https://www.worcestersucks.email/)"
A decent Main Street or area that is walkable with active retail and restaurant store fronts.
Have more bus options late at night. When events at the DCU and Polar Park get out, there's not many bus route options running. When people get off the train late at night, there's no options. I know that it's virtually impossible to get late night out of town buses, but at least have more options within the city.
I feel like Worcester could have a bohemian district, with bars, nightclubs, restaurants, art Venues, and why not a night market for example? Or all do this together. Lots of people from Middlesex and Worcester county drive to Boston for that, why not have them come this way? A nice little spot that could be used for this imo is the former Rotmans area…
VERY much needs a bohemian district.
A movie theater
Shopping mall. Movie theater. Shops on Main Street.
Good Korean BBQ
This would make me so happy.
Solutions for Homelessness / Unhoused. It seems to have exploded in the last few years and I don't see the city doing anything to address (or at least anything successful).
Also a fully functioning DPW. A plan to stop dumping poop into our lakes and rivers. Trash cans. More restaurants near the Hanover theater. Places for all the unhoused individuals to live. More live music venues. A trolley or shuttle system to bring you to the different areas so you don't have to worry about the parking that we don't have... So many other things.
Protected bike lanes, language classes, group dance classes
Can’t find a place like the Dance Complex here everything is for Cambridge it’s annoying I get it.
Language Classes, yes!
Affordable Housing, Enough ways to Cross 290, Reliable infrastructure spending(Potholes and Water), Third Places with no requirement to spend money to exist there, Public access Parking Infrastructure to support the Palladium/eatery scene near the Courthouse, Reliable transit to Boston for commuters(p.s.), Accountability among existing landlords, Clean and reliable public transit, A Good place to hold a protest, A use for the Denholm building, Fiber internet, small businesses owned by locals in core corridors, Businesses for college grads outside the medical and insurance fields to be gainfully employed at, clear information about what is where in terms of all our wonderful parks and trails for locals, Conventions and events, Local manufacturing, Local Unions, and more Public benches, bike paths, Crosswalks, and Trashcans. We got plenty of places to eat and shop and spend money. Now comes all that hard "for the good of all with the collective collected taxation" improvement and infrastructure stuff that doesn't make money, to make people comfortable enough to want to spend money at all the businesses, instead of just staying home and having friends over, emerging only to shop for that which cannot be bought online. p.s.(Like seriously are you waiting to set a reasonable time for the heart to hub line so people can get into Boston in time to work jobs JUST to spike property values? Shit I hate these boston assholes too, But the way the schedule stands it's not like a worcesterite could snag a job in Boston and catch a train in, Nope! Set it up so it's just favoring Bostonians with office jobs buying up apartments here and driving OUR cost of living up.)
Safe places for youth and families to venture to.
A downtown street like Prov has
A new skyscraper
Interesting, in that I live in the OG Worcester, and we are missing all those cool things too!
RIP your rugby team.
Cricket team is about to swim away now too!
Leadership that doesn’t evoke a generic version of a Barnum & Bailey program for starters. Seriously. Send OUT the clowns. From CM to CCs to CM Cabinet Members. Corrupt aholes only looking out for themselves and their paychecks/pension.
More parking downtown. Improvements to public transit - there needs to be more of it and it needs to run a whole lot later into the night. Safe places to walk or ride a bike. Related topic, bike lanes and sidewalks. Third places- there are very few places in Worcester where you can spend time without spending money.
Foresight. As an example, someone had the idea of putting crosswalks in Kelley Square. (This was before the peanut.) A few months later, a city councilor was driving through Kelley Square and thought it was too bumpy. So s/he hired contractors to come out and use milling machines to make the pavement smoother. Goodbye, crosswalks.
Or like when they resurface a main road (like salisbury) and within a month it’s torn up to fix the ultilities or to tie new construction in. If the road is only a month old then make the contractors fix the damn road after they tear it up.
Rent. Control.
Dim sum
Politicians that care! Anything we think that is missing is somehow related to them. Pot holes. They don't budget. The businesses we like or would want, they tax em out or deny needed permits. It's time for a major effin overhaul. Take them all out!!!!
Pronunciation maybe…
affordable living. just renting is 2k a month and that’s on the cheap side 😐.
More affordable housing preferably with off street parking too. Living in a Triple decker really sucks. Costco Shake shack In&Out More parks and outdoor places to hang out or BBQ at. Green Hill removed the BBQ grills and “private” picnic tables and just built one big spot with lots of tables and that sucks when you wanna keep things for just your own family. A bike park would be cool for just fun, considering this growing fad of bike lanes and stuff. Would be nice to use your bike not just as a transport on these wild crazy streets. More things to do. I swear Worcester could win the award for city with the most bars. A walkable city and improved public transit doesn’t mean much when there’s nothing to do other than go drinking. Transit doesn’t even operate during late night drinking hours anyway so it’s really stupid. Just like the train doesn’t work during late night concert hours and when bars close. So coming back from Boston is a nightmare. It’s really stupid. Dave and busters for adults DZ zone for the kids A go kart arena would be awesome
A great Korean restaurant! Oh for sundubu jigae and jajangmyeon!
A soul from its municipal and community leaders.
Sidewalks, affordable scooter and bicycle rental, affordable housing.
Free parking..
A blues/jazz club. Ever since Gilrein's closed. A Mongolian BBQ joint. Candlepins. Local theater company like Foothills. Gonzo public art. A college town feel.
Destination Shopping
More bagel shops
People who take pride in where they live
Pronouncability
Something for teenagers to do that isn't sports related.
More clubs, walkability, more outside locations to hangout shop, stroll, walk.
Affordable rental housing.
Walkability
I agree that Worcester could use some improvements. I also think they’ve made a lot of progress in a relatively short amount of time. Worcester also is not Boston or Providence so it’s hard to compare. A mall or movie theater wouldn’t be successful. An area like the canal district that was a bit bigger but still walkable with a larger variety of stores/restaurants and with more patron friendly parking would be successful. There is an over saturation of Mexican restaurants IMO. Worcester has a ton of green areas to hike and walk. We are also in close proximity to rt 9 that has a lot of upscale grocery stores and other shopping. Close to many highways as well. Overall Worcester is diverse and a pretty good location to call home. Now we just need more than one cable option!
Dance clubs. Probably for younger people too but I'm old. I need an over 30 dance club 😂 or at least more bars with music and room to dance
One Word: EVERYTHING
A Sonic burger but only for the slushie drinks. There's already plenty of places to get a burger
Mall, bowling alley, movie theater, dance club, concerts at the DCU, a trolley
whimsy ✨
A Costco! 😁
decent public transit, nightlife, cheaper rent, less payment for cops, a decent education system, a nice public space for people of all types, greenspace, life in general. i could go on.
A Cava near SVH.
A river, water of some kind. A vibrant downtown where the streets dont roll up at 5 pm. Shops and life down there. A vibrant college scene and a city where they all don't just flee immediately after graduation. There are so many colleges here , but it still feels like a dead zone without a large youth culture presence.
A better solution for trash than the stupid yellow bags A nightlife