Submitted by Puzzled-Owl-290 t3_z88zih in WorcesterMA
Many of the comments I hear about Worcester is that its not as good Boston. And its constantly compared to Boston.
Most places in the US wouldn't hold up to that standard. Is 95-99% of the US bad because its not Boston?
If Worcester is a decent place it should be celebrated in its own right rather than compared.
They also exist at 2 different price points so its not a fair comparison.
I love Worcester. Grew up there, then lived in Boston, and would choose living in Worcester over Boston any day of the week.
What up fellow ex Bay resident. Woo has way more character than anything in the Silicon Valley. It's turned into Diet L.A.
Yea, I’m actually in college rn and it’s nice having variety in the people I interact with. It’s not all tech bros and soccer moms. And because ur from the bay I’ll say I grew up in Menlo park
I love Worcester, and I’ll always advocate for it. I like not having to drive all the way to Boston for a city excursion and nightlife.
Same, and i do!
That's a good place to be from, I suppose, lol. I'm from SJ, tho I used to work in Palo Alto and in Los Altos, had a lot of customers from the Park (I was in auto repair).
Lots of the same type of people in Menlo Park. The Peninsula was definitely the worst of tech culture with all the heavy hitters being there.
I'm glad to be here, but I miss nicely paved roads.
Yea it definitely wasn’t bad, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a privileged upbringing. But it’s easier to see that out here than back in CA where every other car was a Tesla
I was pretty lucky too, the tech booms really helped my family even though my folks were in education. Hard to deny that reality.
Same, absolutely. I am a Worcesterite, through and through.
​
Minus the the living in Boston part. I am Worcester born and raised!
Wait isn't Springfield pretty big?
Yea facts
Agreed comparing Worcester to Boston is apples and oranges
Springfield has a slightly bigger student population
I would agree that it's not a fair comparison.
However, I'm a recent transplant from the Midwest and even comparing Worcester to the smaller city I grew up in (pop 50,000) in WI it's lacking a lot of things that are very basic in all of the other cities I've lived in. Basic things like sidewalks that don't just end or have trees growing straight through the middle of them. Garbage and recycling bins at all residences, reliable public transportation, a Mayoral government etc. The list goes on. It's not that I find Worcester boring it's just incredibly dysfunctional.
These are basic things that most other places I've been in the country are just the standard and Worcester is lightyears behind even my humble hometown of Sheboygan, WI not to mention Milwaukee where I moved here from. The thing that bugs me the most is there are still people out here who consider Wisconsin "flyover country". Well to that I say at least back there I had sidewalks and trash bins. Even comparing it to a nearby city like Providence it's severely lacking in terms of basic infrastructure.
Yup. As another transplant, I can say there's plenty to like about Worcester, but we are also far behind the curve on tons of basic stuff, especially infrastructure. How a city can proclaim it's in a "renaissance" and is "up and coming" when it doesn't even provide usable sidewalks, prevent drivers from parking on the sidewalks that exist, bother to plow its ONE bike path in the winter time, or offer semi-reliable bus service is beyond me. As the previous poster said, much smaller cities in all other parts of the country have figured these things out, but Worcester just doesn't seem to care.
Don't you think discussing the city's problems on a site like this is part of the process of making change? People have to know others share their concerns before they'll invest time and energy into organizing.
Also to piggy back on this don't you want people to want to stay? especially those who want to enact changes that will make the city better?
Yes, its 4th after Boston Worcester and Providence
This is like comparing Trenton to NYC
>Well to that I say at least back there I had sidewalks and trash bins.
The trash situation in this city is genuinely unforgivable. There's a weird dearth of public trash cans and the city's trash collection policies are fucking insane.
If you're going to insist that all my recycling goes into a bin you need to make that bin big enough to hold at least a moderate amount of recycling. If you get one item in a big box you basically cannot fit anything else in that bin. I got a new monitor on Black Friday and put the box out with my recycling today thinking, "Eh, maybe I'll get lucky and they'll pick it up." Nope. Literally stood there and watched the guys just ignore it and leave it on the ground. And they wonder why people just dump their trash.
ChanceTheGardenerr t1_iyapczy wrote
I love Worcester! Second biggest city in New England! ;)