Instead of maintenance on roads for cars, just invest in better infrastructure like trams

Infrastructure for people instead of cars: bike lanes, sheltered bus stops, denser housing

Better weather. And palm trees.

Better commuter trains to Boston, better train service to points south (ct, ny). Also tech companies.

I grew up here in the city, and my parents didn’t make all that much. Most of my childhood/early teen years their household income wasn’t above $$85k, but (back then in the 90s and early 2000s) that was plenty to live a decent middle-class life. Today, teachers with their Masters and a few years in will earn $80k alone. Most Worcester fire fighters and cops make around $100,000 or more with OT. While that won’t go too far with inflation, there are indeed lots of jobs that will pay at least $60k plus. Insurance industry is big here as well.

That's a fair point! I only know about my field and the pay is way lower here than in Boston.

I could eat my weight at NERB

Reliable public transportation.

When it is not? Serious question

Employees have to pay to park in the employee lot too, which is absolute insanity.

YES! Please yes!

Covid prolly would’ve killed it

Playoff Entertainment to come back. 24/7 arcade

Summer yes, go to a ball game and go out to dinner after and you’ll have a good time. Don’t come here during the winter unless it’s just for dinner. Anywhere on Shrewsbury street is good and there’s a lot of top notch dining in the area.

This. If people want kids off devices and to stop gaming there needs to be a place for them to go that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and dare I say.. free. It's not fair for everyone over the age of 30 to screech at them "get off your devices!!" and then give them nowhere to go. Spare me the "but but but back in my day I just got some friends and.." I know old people love to imagine the world is still like the Sandlot but it isn't anymore you can't get a soda at "the general store" for a shiny quarter anymore.. everything is expensive.

So I just moved to Worcester a little over a year ago. I am moved from Fort Wayne, IN. When I first moved to Fort Wayne it was fine, had some decent restaurants, and 2 big malls (one being an outdoor mall). It was a college town as well. But during the 8yrs I lived there was tons of effort put into improving the city. It was awesome!

Honestly, when I visited Worcester several years back, the little area where Birchtree Bread Co is was just taking shape. I felt that Worcester was a similar size to FW and hoped it would end up taking steps similar to FW. I live here now (not really by choice) and I'm disappointed in the lack of, well, everything. In my opinion at least.

-The city paid to fix up the exteriors of houses in several rundown neighborhoods. Neighborhoods where I was once afraid to walk to my car with a group of friends I was suddenly able to walk to my car by myself because the area went from meth lab chic to having working street lights and dedicated parking with nice looking homes.

-The city had a really nice farmer's market and it became huge. The city would shut down like 4 blocks in the downtown area, there were tons of vendors, live music, and lots of food trucks. The farmer's market was the most hoppin' place on a Saturday.

-Parking was free mostly everywhere downtown. And there were lots of parking options. It was rare to struggle to find decent parking.

-There were events that the city would throw a few times a year that encouraged people to visit restaurants, small businesses, and neighborhoods that didn't get lots of traffic.

-The city had more festivals than I've ever seen in a city. Every other weekend in Fort Wayne would be the GreekFest, GermanFest, Hobnobben movie festival, Middlewaves music festival, Buskerfest, Pride Festival, the county fair, Taste of the Arts. Pretty much if there could be a festival about something, Fort Wayne would make it happen. There was an event called "Be A Tourist in Your Own Hometown" where a lot of local businesses, museums, etc would have discounted or free options and host events to get people to come check them out if they hadn't before.

-Food Trucks!! Man, I miss the food trucks so much. They are a big part of Fort Wayne. There's SO many food trucks offering amazing food. I don't see any of that here in Worcester. Every day of the week had dedicated places where food trucks would be so they could serve different areas of the city. Like, the food trucks would always be in the downtown town square area around noon and then in the evenings they'd be in one neighborhood one day and another neighborhood the next day. Some of the best food I've ever had. There was a huge food truck culture in FW.

-The outdoor mall started hosting outdoor concerts with local artists on Fridays. It brought them a lot of traffic. Honestly, the music scene in FW was pretty awesome. Lots of good bands and tons of events to support them.

-There were tons of random events like the Le Tour de Fort where people do a bar crawl across the city on bikes. It's a big event that raises money for charity I believe. And also brings a lot of business to all the local bars and breweries.

-Right before I moved Fort Wayne renovated this whole rundown area near downtown and turned into a safe walking area, playground, and a place where you can shop and dine at locally owned places.

-Fort Wayne also had a minor league baseball team. During the colder months the buildings/stadium/parking lot are used to host a farmer's market and, you guessed it, food trucks.

I do have to say that I feel Fort Wayne did a really good job supporting locally owned businesses in general. I would love to see Worcester make strides like FW but I won't hold my breath.

100%

Do you remember where you read about this?

Yes, but this time I’ve actually seen them doing the work and talked to the employees about it coming.

Good thing you are here to change that.

I’d recommend a few days with all there is to do here but if I had to pick a ludicrously packed one-day itinerary of greatest hits:

• 8AM: breakfast at one of Worcester’s famous and historic diner cars
• 9AM: walk around Crompton Collective and Worcester Public Market and grab a coffee and pastry at Birch Tree Bread Co.
• 10:30AM: visit the incredible Worcester Art Museum
• 1PM: lunch at Armsby Abby
• 2:30PM: quick brewery hop from Redemption Rock to Wormtown to Greater Good
• 5:30PM: dinner at Mercantile or Bocado
• 7:30PM: ice skating on the common
• 9PM: cocktails at Steel & Wire which you might recognize from American Hustle
• 10:30PM: games at Free Play
• 12:30PM: a few beers at Ralph’s or Vincent’s to end the night

You can also catch a Railers game or show at the Hanover if those are happening while you’re here.

There are people below who think there aren’t good things in worcester. They’re miserable and don’t leave their house and would have the same complaints anywhere else, don’t worry about them.

places to hang out! like public lounges for teenagers and older not to mention ROADS THAT YOU CAN DRIVE ON. dirt roads like mine are going to be the death of me also better schools. east middle sucks ass and worcester tech needs a staff overhaul after the shitshow that was my 4 years

I am trying really hard to not go off on a charging to park rant here. Yes, I have paid repeatedly here at UMMHC when a loved one was hospitalized. It is shameful to charge so one can be beside the bed of someone they love while they are hospitalized.

I also hope there is a special place in hell for whomever decided that I have to pay to park at the university (not UMass) that my child attended and I was paying $50k a year for.

There aren't many hills that I will die on. This is one.

It is indeed a mystery.

I have lived in a few different states and every time I move and someone finds out I'm new to the area they inevitably say, "Welcome to [state]! We have the worst drivers you'll ever see here." This has been said to me in every state, even when I moved back to my home state someone said this to me. And I never really thought the driving was too bad in any of those areas.

I move out here and no one made that comment to me about the drivers. And the drivers/driving around here is by far the worst I've ever experienced in my 35yrs.