We need lots of mixed zoning and small shops / things to do downtown (besides bars), rather than large office buildings for insurance company headquarters or whatever. People like being able to walk to things and with the amount of housing units being built right now, we're not going to be able to have every person have a car and still have a downtown that's pleasant to be in. We should dedicate the bottom floors of a couple of the new buildings to supermarkets and then spend a bunch of money on incentives for local people to start the small, unique businesses that make people want to actually live in a city. Having a lot of telecommuters is great for the city (and much easier on our infrastructure) - we just need things that will compel people to leave their houses and spend money when they're done working.

If anything, telecommuting should be HELPING Worcester, as we’re definitely getting people moving here from Boston. The big issue is lack of retail. Someone mentioned that Maker to Main would fit in in downtown Hudson, which it would. Because that main street has enough retail where people could “make a day of it.” Worcester doesn’t have that

Downtown is already a ghost town and has been for a while.

This is like saying you're concerned about the automobile's impact on the trolley bus. Telecommuting has an impact on the amount of people entering downtown, but it isn't the root cause. Downtown is a pain in the ass. Parking is always difficult. If you're looking to open a business, services in downtown like banking are existent but poor.

Compare that to the biomed corridor running down Route 9. You're off the highway and pulling right into work. It's not telecommuting that's killing downtown, it's that downtown is an inconvenient place to do anything.

We really need to stop thinking things can 'go back to normal'. The old norm is how we got to the point were we have several impending climate, health, and societal crises with no effective organization or government to deal with them. Priorities and procedures need to radically shift in order to put environmental and societal sustainability before financial prosperity. If we don't change, then something's going to breakdown and if it's the environment or vital societal cooperation, then it's absolutely going to take the economy down with it.

i'm concerned about the city manager's impact on downtown.

Downtown Worcester needs a new indoor mall/food court like in kelly square. It gets cold here half the year. Make a good reason for people to go there to work and live.

It's a lost cause, and has been for 30 years. Downtown Worcester will never thrive. The Canal District was doing okay, but then we built that fucking ballpark.

Also: Reminder that Batista is City Manager due to old-fashioned Worcester cronyism and nothing else.

I used to work downtown for 8 years. I loved every second of it. I knew all the business up and down the lower part of main from city hall down to courthouse. It was a great place to walk during lunch- I was a city kid- so walking on my lunch never scared me. It was the place I grew up.

When the pandemic shut everything down- that was the last time I was able to really enjoy downtown and all the restaurants and little shops- mid town mall may have been abandoned in most stores- but it was still fun to walk through to remember earlier days when it was the place to go! There aren’t enough people to care about the city’s history- and all it’s accomplishments and successes- instead all That is focused on is crime and such- which is everywhere. But for some reason - this city has always gotten torn apart By its residents- more Likely that no one with influence or money to do something about preservation. Why remodel and save its history when you can just plow It over and pay lots of people lots of money to make it look like shit. Sorry- I just miss the beauty of Worcester- it’s there- it’s just long been forgotten.

Sounds like a convenient place to knock down some buildings and put up some low income housing.

Need higher paying jobs in downtown for young people in finance and (tech?) I guess .. even tho I believe there will be another tech bubble at some point

I moved to the Worcester area BECAUSE of telecommuting.

I dunno, I'd think just as many people would be staying in Worcester during the day because of their telecommuting as there would be keeping out of Worcester because of it, if not more. Worcester isn't exactly geared toward office jobs (even downtown), and there are plenty of workplaces in a half-hour radius of Worcester that do lend themselves to telecommuting. Downtown in particular may be struggling for other reasons (being less accessible than more spread out businesses, etc) but Worcester businesses as a whole should be seeing a net neutral effect from telecommuting.

I moved from Boston to the greater Worcester area specifically because I’m full time remote. This is such a tired lazy argument.

Make more available parking and people will want to come to downtown.

Parking is that subconscious decision on where you’ll want to be going for the night. If there’s no convenient parking, let alone safe parking at night, most people visiting the city or really just not from the downtown area won’t be willing to take a 10-15 minute walk from some random dark sketchy street parking.

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Plus there’s many homeless people begging when you come out, I hate it after dark

No commercial business is going to be investing in Massachusetts or Worcester! The state has destroyed small business. Nobody is going to pay the taxes here. We now have a state of the elite business class in Boston and it's not growing or going anywhere else. In fact you will have all you can do just to keep what you have left.