Imo, opening Moody St to outdoor dining in the summer would go a LONG way towards that. The last couple of summers it's made Waltham feel like a place to be. They're still deliberating about whether to do it again this summer and I hope enough folks turn out in support of it.

I tend to agree on the commute into the city being shitty, and I still use my car for grocery shopping and such, but depending on where in the city you're going it can actually be really doable without a car. Mine sucks because I commute to somewhere that's not very transit-accessible, so I have to drive, but a commute to Cambridge is reasonable on the commuter rail.