As others have said, it's not as easy as deregulating some 1925 zoning law and the problem is solved. I'm all for assisting homeless and those trying to manage some addictions but I'm weary of just turning a residential house into a boarding house willy nilly.

There is a residential halfway house in my neighborhood that most neighbors want to evict. Other folks in Worcester are quick to call you a NIMBY when you speak out about it but the problem is that it brings a lot of baggage with it. The house/yard are absolutely littered with trash and cigarette butts. There's constant traffic and activity late into the night that disturbs neighbors including frequent arguments. Strange men sleep in tents on the lawn/steps on occasion because its a women's only house. When somebody moves out, they will frequently just leave all their trash and unwanted belongings on the sidewalk. Some tenants simply don't care about the people next to them because they will move on in 2 months and leave a mess for us to deal with.

Zoning change sounds like a nice idea on paper but thus far, from what I've seen in my neighborhood, I'm not sold.

Why would anybody (whether it's business or city) take on additional liability for free? The city would then be on the hook for potential maintenance, access, public transportation and snow plowing. I can understand why they might require one time compensation.

I think people generally aren't drinking as much coffee after 4pm and hours reflect that. I'd bet the money they save from not staffing late offsets the fewer cups sold.

Gen Z isn’t complaining about their mortgage debt, they are having trouble even buying a house because they can’t climb out of student loan debt. I think that’s a different point though.

It’s possible the benefit from the $40 a year doesn’t materialize in any significant way but personally I think it’s a small fee to pay to see if we can improve the city. Aside from buying trash bags and cleaning trash off the street, how do you think you could better contribute $40 to improve Worcester?