[oliver]

Here another one. They light up the top floor at night, which is nice, it looks good from the I290:

This post has been edited by oliver: 30 October 2005 - 12:48 AM

[oliver]

OK. I am on the run now. The new courthouse in construction from Main Street:

This post has been edited by oliver: 30 October 2005 - 12:38 AM

[oliver]

Here another one. The Hilton under construction with the backside of the courhouse in the background:

This post has been edited by oliver: 30 October 2005 - 12:45 AM

[Cotuit]

Good stuff!

[nowyano]

Worcester has always been funny to me it has the potential, especially with its close proximity to Boston, to develop into a cool city. It could easily become like Providence, or even Portland, ME (which is another cool little city in NE) but to me it has just always been the redheaded step brother of Providence, Boston, Hartford, and even Springfield. I hope this downtown plan does something for it...

This post has been edited by nowyano: 11 November 2005 - 09:02 AM

[oliver]

nowyano, on Nov 11 2005, 10:00 AM, said:

Worcester has always been funny to me it has the potential, especially with its close proximity to Boston, to develop into a cool city. It could easily become like Providence, or even Portland, ME (which is another cool little city in NE) but to me it has just always been the redheaded step brother of Providence, Boston, Hartford, and even Springfield. I hope this downtown plan does something for it...

I am trying to figure this out since I moved here a couple of years ago. Worcester has beautiful neighborhoods, many of them are located on hills with steep roads and great views. All what is missing is a nice downtown and/or some nice walkable retail areas. The lack of development has a lot to do with the retarded attitudes of local politicians and interest groups. In potentially beautiful areas antiquated zoning laws are protecting blue color manufacturing instead of supporting housing and service/retail – wouldn’t manufacturing be better off in suburban industrial parks???
A great example of the ongoing struggle is a current neighborhood initiative to prevent full liquor licenses for new restaurants moving into Shrewsbury Street. The city did a great job in putting in nice street lightning and sidewalks on Shrewsbury Street. It is a real nice area now and of course attracts new establishments. It seems like many of the people here dislike any development and are afraid that things might change.
The current government is doing much better and things are definitely on the move. One can only hope that all these developments attract a new kind of people to the city. Worcester not only needs a facelift, it also needs fresh blood.

[Recchia]

That seems to be the New England attitude, the fear of change and fear that development will bring change, and for no friggen reason either. I've heard people in Providence that are LIVID about all the new condo projects, GTECH moving downtown, etc. Some people just don't get it. The most ridiculous thing I hear is "oh [insert name of new downtown development here] is going to cause so much traffic blah blah" Yeah, it will cause traffic, but hopefully foot traffic, cause it's in a city where it belongs. Get enough downtown developments and then maybe, god help us, transit can be improved and less people will have to drive downtown.

[Cotuit]

Recchia, on Nov 12 2005, 12:13 PM, said:

The most ridiculous thing I hear is "oh [insert name of new downtown development here] is going to cause so much traffic blah blah"

These are the same people who think nothing about sitting through three lights to make a left turn on Route 6 or Route 2 (or any random sprawl strip route) to shop at Walmart. Providence's traffic has nothing on sprawland in Attleboro or Seekonk or Cranston/Warwick.

[Recchia]

Cotuit, on Nov 12 2005, 03:22 PM, said:

These are the same people who think nothing about sitting through three lights to make a left turn on Route 6 or Route 2 (or any random sprawl strip route) to shop at Walmart. Providence's traffic has nothing on sprawland in Attleboro or Seekonk or Cranston/Warwick.

You got it! I have no sympathy.

[virgo20]

oliver, on Nov 12 2005, 12:05 PM, said:

I am trying to figure this out since I moved here a couple of years ago. Worcester has beautiful neighborhoods, many of them are located on hills with steep roads and great views. All what is missing is a nice downtown and/or some nice walkable retail areas. The lack of development has a lot to do with the retarded attitudes of local politicians and interest groups. In potentially beautiful areas antiquated zoning laws are protecting blue color manufacturing instead of supporting housing and service/retail – wouldn’t manufacturing be better off in suburban industrial parks???
A great example of the ongoing struggle is a current neighborhood initiative to prevent full liquor licenses for new restaurants moving into Shrewsbury Street. The city did a great job in putting in nice street lightning and sidewalks on Shrewsbury Street. It is a real nice area now and of course attracts new establishments. It seems like many of the people here dislike any development and are afraid that things might change.
The current government is doing much better and things are definitely on the move. One can only hope that all these developments attract a new kind of people to the city. Worcester not only needs a facelift, it also needs fresh blood.

Worcester desperately needs density...Shrewsbury Street is OK, but it's Way too wide. They don't need 2 lanes each way...It creates the sense of walking along a highway...The absolute best area for development should be the Green St. area/Kelly Square/ Millbury St. It's by far the most urban dense area in all of Worcester. There's some great new spots open there now , but the rest of the area lacks class. The retail is sporadic ,mixed in with dive bars that still serve Schlitz ( or at least advertise it )and low-income housing...

Worcester does have some great neighborhoods, but many look like suburban tracts that we have in R.I. They lack density and much of the development looks more like a cookie-cutter suburban strip-mall rather than in an urban setting. If you think RIPTA sucks in R.I., try Worcester for a day. CitySquare is a good project ...mix it with a good destination( museum, gallery, aquarium) ..open the streets up...and bang...couple that with the 146-290 connection almost complete and you got a winner....

[cloudship]

There are some nice neighborhoods, but an awful lot of it is your old cheap tripple-deckers. It's not really a city in the common sense, more of a mass agglomeration of middle-income residents and a bunch of schools.

Therein lies the problem - the people of Worcester really don't have much interest in being a real city. It's not like they are hurting if they want culture - they can get into Boston pretty easilly. No matter what you do building-wise, you are not going to get anywhere until you change how the city thinks of itself.I really think the best thing the city could do is build a light-rail system - get the college kids actually moving through the city and create life that way, while convinving people that Worcester is something more than just a bedroom community.

[oliver]

Quote

Worcester desperately needs density...Shrewsbury Street is OK, but it's Way too wide. They don't need 2 lanes each way...It creates the sense of walking along a highway...The absolute best area for development should be the Green St. area/Kelly Square/ Millbury St. It's by far the most urban dense area in all of Worcester. There's some great new spots open there now , but the rest of the area lacks class. The retail is sporadic ,mixed in with dive bars that still serve Schlitz ( or at least advertise it )and low-income housing...

I agree. It was good that they redid Shrewsbury street, but I don't understand why they didn't widen the sidewalks, so the restaurants could establish outside seating. I guess Worcester people are afraid to drive on 1 lane roads. They have a sick relationship to cars around here. It seems like the biggest discussion point about citysquare is if there will be free parking available... And everybody blames the parking fees for the failing of the mall - it was $ 1.

Canal distict/Green St. Area area has great potential, especially if the canal on Harding Street would become reality.

[cloudship]

It was only a dollar IF you parked for under an hour, on a day when there was no other event going on at the centrum. Any longer, unless you made a purchase over like $20 or something like that, you would pay more. Plus nights with an ice cats game or something lie that they tried charging $10. They lost a number of people becuase the booth would charge people the $10 rate for an hour in the mall.

If you can either go downtwon and pay a dollar or two to viist some OK stores, or go somewhere else that is easier to get to and has better stores for free, what would you choose?

I'd rather see the extra space on Shrewsbury Street go to a light rail line.

[oliver]

They just finished the new bus station at the Union station. It is right next to the Union station on the Centrum Boulevard, facing what will be the citysquare. Greyhound and Peter Pan will move their Worcester station to this location. So Union Station becomes a transportation hub in the middle of the new downtown. They did a good job with the new bus station. Its design fits the Union Station very well. Behind the Union station they started demolition of an old building and will replace it with a parking garage for park and ride.

[Recchia]

oliver, on Nov 17 2005, 08:39 PM, said:

They just finished the new bus station at the Union station. It is right next to the Union station on the Centrum Boulevard, facing what will be the citysquare. Greyhound and Peter Pan will move their Worcester station to this location. So Union Station becomes a transportation hub in the middle of the new downtown. They did a good job with the new bus station. Its design fits the Union Station very well. Behind the Union station they started demolition of an old building and will replace it with a parking garage for park and ride.

Lookin good, will this become the hub for Worcester's local bus system? How is the bus system in Worcester?

This post has been edited by Recchia: 17 November 2005 - 08:35 PM

[jeepcj85]

The bus system sucks. Not enough service, and poor route planning. I have suggested 2 downtown area loop routes that are in city council now. I also suggested thest routed to the RTA recently while they were evaluating service but it fell on deaf ears. Currently every single line in the city runs past city hall. The RTA people are a bunch of morons if you ask me.

[cloudship]

Fortunately, no one seems to ride the bus here. So removing service from downtown isn't going to make a huge difference. But if they did ride it like they used to 15 years ago, that would be a signifcant setback to downtown.

Still, it will be real nice to see Greyhound/Peter Pan at Union Station.

[oliver]

Having the long distance bus service in a safe area in downtown provides good options for trips to Boston and NYC. If you live downtown you can take the greyhound to NYC in the afternoon, go to dinner, party and take an early bus back (bus service starts at 2.30 am from NYC to Worcester), without moving your car. I did this once for New Years Eve a few years back with friends, it was a blast. It’s an additional incentive for people to move downtown.

[Cotuit]

oliver, on Nov 17 2005, 08:39 PM, said:

They just finished the new bus station at the Union station. It is right next to the Union station on the Centrum Boulevard, facing what will be the citysquare. Greyhound and Peter Pan will move their Worcester station to this location. So Union Station becomes a transportation hub in the middle of the new downtown. They did a good job with the new bus station. Its design fits the Union Station very well. Behind the Union station they started demolition of an old building and will replace it with a parking garage for park and ride.

Wow, someone in Worcester actually looked up intermodal in the dictionary. As opposed to Providence where our "Intermodal Station" has buses, buses, and oh buses.

[Recchia]

Cotuit, on Nov 18 2005, 08:55 AM, said:

Wow, someone in Worcester actually looked up intermodal in the dictionary. As opposed to Providence where our "Intermodal Station" has buses, buses, and oh buses.

No no Cotuit, you're wrong, Kennedy Plaza IS intermodal, cause it has buses and you can walk or bike there too!..oh wait, you can walk and bike anywhere...thus making any bus stop intermodal...damnit RIPTA...