Updated list:
1) Parker Companies
2) Pressmet
3) Woodmeister
4) Tatnuck Boookseller
5) Morgan Construction (sold)
6) O'Coins7)
7) TiNova (I have a gift certificate)
8) Allegiant Air
9) Salter School
10) Barbers Crossing
11) EB Luce
12) DeScenza Jeweler
13) Bancroft Tire and Car Sales
14) Applebee's downtown
15) Mayfield Plastics to Millbury
16) Palsons Office
17) Union Station Restaurant
18) Blues Club at Union Station
19) Vincent Jewelers
20) Bob's at Webster Square
21) Sh'Booms
22) Parker & Harper on Dewey Street
23) Manoog Plumbing
24) Fidelity on Belmont
25) Sheraton Lincoln on Lincoln
26) L Hardy
27) Shaws on Grafton Street
28) Java Hut
29) Marshall's Greendale Mall
30) FDR Library
31) Plumber's Museum
32) Emilia's
33) Luciano's
34) Elks
35) Struck Cafe
36) KB Toys
37) Friendlys on Lincoln Street
38) Blackstone Harvest
39) Bancroft Liquors
40) 80's Club
Same Time Next Year
-
It’s been nearly a year since I wrote about the problems that come from
having 11 bosses who are not on the same page about anything, as well as
suggestion...
4 months ago
36 comments:
The Elks havent spent a dime on that dump in 35 years. There are so many more choices of venues to hold the kind of events that they cater to. Also, the middle class people who were members of these fraternal organizations have either died off or moved out to the surrounding towns. Shed no tears, thats what happens when you fall behind the times.
woorat:
I am not passing judgement as to why an establishment may or may not have closed. My point of keeping track is out of fear our commercial tax base is decreasing even faster then we al think.
Bill
What ever happened to the "Mill St Corrridor Group" that was formed in the last year or two?
Their purpose was to take an in depth look at business closings in that area......guess they took and look and then moved on?.........add to the list of MIA??
Today I learned that Marlboro is(was)in the Worc Regional Transit Authority and state senate has voted to let them move to the Metrowest RTA. I was surprised to see they were even in WRTA, given that Marlboro is defintely the Metrowest area.
Augustus stepping down from his state senate seat after only 1 term in office and it's reported that he claims he has no other occupational prospects at this time. Very Unusual? Residency issues or maybe another shoe to drop?
When I said here last week that I wanted WOmag do a good dirt story.......what i meant was something that was a City of Worcester issue.......and not nec. the Animal Rescue League and a paltry $20K alleged embezzlement/mismanagement. That story hardly required any shoe leather. How about a piece on the Canal District CDC funds that are alleged to be missing or how about a piece on CDC's that spend $600,000 to rehab a 3 decker and then turn around and sell for $160,000......it may be legit........but my God it looks like a squadering of my federal and state tax dollars to me.
YOu want to a see comm. tax base that just disapperared......take ride my the Old Sheraton Lincoln/Holiday Inn........gone.....FWIW, its been reported that was built (in early 70's) on leased land and the lease expiration may have been an issue? Demolition of the building is a $55,000 loss of commercial tax revenue to the city.
We're being razed and low income housing'ed to death.
House on the corner of Mason and Pleasant Street, check it out. I swear there was something like $450,000 invested in it maybe 4 or 5 years ago.
Instead of vinyl siding, it had to be painted. Check it out.
Bill, I recall that house and I am about 99% certain it was 1998 that I went to an open house there when it was all re-habbed. It was a hot summer day. For some reason it sticks in the back of mind.
I just wanted to scope where all my tax dollars were going.......certainly a beautiful job..............but God at what obscene cost I dont know .... $450,000.........wow...unreal..
I even partook of the free buffet that day along with the Comm Gas guys who were also touring the place. The Hot Dog express never got my business that day
Bill, if Uncle Sam gave you $450,000 to re-hab a 3 decker..........i trust you'd spring for an open hose with a free buffet.......and it would be lobster........and not meatballs and chicken !!!
If memory serves me correctly, that was another Worc Common Ground Project.
...don't forget to add KB Toys on Grafton Street & Friendly's on Lincoln Street to the list...
Harry Tembenis
Worcester, MA
I am not likening one situation to another, but How wold you like to have sunk millions into a facility only to have the city build a similar facility that always operated deeply in the red and that facility then competes directly with you and hurts your business.
Union Station, DCU center and Hanover Theatre, are all examples of the above.
just got back from Hyannis...my biggest event of the year is happening in Hyannis on the 24th
Hyannis Marathon..got 3700+ coming..anyway it is incredible how far downtown Hyannis has come along in the past few years..also on the edge of extinction just 5 years ago...it's quite hopping now and lots of downtown housing being built and the business tenant base is slowly growing..gonna sit on the market a wee bit but it looks good down there
My Hyannis event which covers 26.2 miles cost me about 7K for police details..I'll have 3700+ and the event goes on for 6 hours in a location no longer bucolic but quite bustling now with year long residents..in contrast to a 5Km (3.1miles) that had 500 I did in downtown Worcester in September..the Worcester cop rate cost me $6,700:>)..$300 less in Worcester:>)...the Worcester event lasted 1 hour and was 23.1 miles shorter:>)
Every aspect of doing business in this city is not difficult but impossible...the economic benefit to Hyannis will be 1000+ rooms rented, restaurants packed, coffee shops booming and residents getting shifts they normally wouldn't get in February..they fall over backwards to keep the event..
Last week I observed the Worc DPW workers cleaning catch basins .....5 or 6 of the specially outfitted trucks all in a row each doing 1 catch basin at a time............NO POLICE detail...NONE.........
Now if a private contractor was doing that work there would be multiple police officers posted with the crew.............under the guise of providing public safety...............yet when city workers do the cleaning with city equipment.........safety is somehow not an issue???........so either city workers safety doesnt matter at all or there really are no safety issues to begin with......which one is it???
Ditto for the citys tree crew(s)....vs........private tree crews working in the street
Intresting idea keeping track of this. It would be cool to keep track of places opening too.
Bill I may rip your idea off a bit on my blog but just for Downtown and Green Island.
better yet..how about a list of cats who have recently invested here that are losing their shirts!
To name a few...
McFaddens
Castelllano's
An Cu Liath Irish Pub
Gilreins
On the flip side closer to LaLa Land bettah known as the west side
We have a bustling little area down here from Elm to Chandler on some nights..if we could get that lot behind Walgreens developed something could finally flip down here
From my house on Chandler I can walk in less than 5 minutes to Living Earth, Ed Hyder's, Bahnan's, two suschi joints, Walgreens and CVS, BankNorth, Ther Pet Barn, Baigio's, Foley Stadium, Beaver Brook Park, see the tip of Newton Hill from my kitchen, the Spanish joint on the corner of Piedmont and Chandler, a paint store, John & Son's, a light store across the street, Dunking Donuts a donut throw away, a new Suney's a few other nice restaurants between Elm and Chandler, CC Lowells when I want to frame something, the CD store and YET I still have a hard time enticing folks here..if my house had these amenities in Greater Boston I would be commanding $1800 a month..why doesn't anyone want to live in the urban core of this city??? Why, Why,Why
new business that doesn't get it...we have two new business run by mom & pops at the cornah of Dewey & Chandler Street across from the MLK Bldg on same block
Anyway, on a regular basis the pole basket is overflowing and trash all over in front of the store and the metal flower basket is at an angle and bouncing from end to end of the sidewalk..I just sent my worker over to empty the basket as we do the one in front of my house and John & Son's weekly but here is an example of a typical Worcester business..no regard for street appeal and it will be no wonder when they go out of business.
Seems a huge % in this city are always waiting for someone else to do something
you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your neighbors
I thought there was Chandler St Business Association that looks out for the interests of area businesses?
we have a small organization down here but we aren't responsible for new or old business making the front of their business more attractive..the biz group supplied that corner with the basket and flower pot..yah can meet a property/business owner half way and I think our group has:>)
Point being one can lead the horse but one can't ...well you know the rest
The MLK Empowerment center has hardly helped to empower Chandler St. Whats up with them?
I think the only ones being empowered over there are the MLK employees pay checks?
Ah yes....the true face of worcester.
glad my name ends in "ian"
From my perspective I would disagree on the MLK..I am not really in touch with them but they have done a nice job with the bldg. and the clientele going in and out is positive. They keep the ground nice..I would like to see more streetscape from all of us down here and from me included.
But that all being said..we need to flip the population we have down here..hooded men and pajama clad women on the street corners and in the surrounding blocks is what is keeping good folks away..few want their children around this element or for themselves to be around it
anyway..another loss to be added to the defunct business list
Blackstone Deli on Harding Street went under..got the word today at the Vernon Hotel weekly meeting
just last week Jordan Levy was whining about how he wouldn't go back into the downtown Dunkin Donuts cause of the layabouts hanging out..today he is telling some guy who called in asking guest Mayor Lukes about the gangs in the city and stating how he wouldn't let his kid's and wife go downtown get told by his Highness that he has nothing to worry about that his administration dating back to the pyramids and the current leaders take citizen safety #1
he won't go back downtown to buy a cup of Joe but the rest of us should feel comfortable going downtown:>) Oy Vey this guy doesn't even remember one week back what he states on the radio..no wonder Boston pols ignored this cat!
Paulie, Levys Logic is truly off the wall. His logic goes in circles and too often he s only talking to himself and his geezer buddies who call in complaining about their electric & heating bills
Also, what are you, a Chandler street gent, doing chillin' over in Green Island. Isnt that treason? Was R.T. there, too taking notes for the monthly?
OK, MLK has an OK looking building, but all these folks have to do is call up Washington when ever they need more dineros & pesos to further their agenda.
I know a beautiful, nicely rehabbed older building one or two blocks away on Chandler that looks nicer and was done with all private money and appears to be loaded with private businesses
I often wonder how many SBA loans are originated at MLK for so called minority small business entrepenuers who then go belly up 18 months later. What else do they do in there anyway? Rent space to budding entrepeneurs who would otherwise be renting from private landlords?
To my perceptionthis place is the beginning of what I shall euphemistically refer to as the "CDC'ing" of commercial rentals in that area.
One of the bigwigs over there allegeldly also has a bit of prior personal experience with business(es) failure. If at first ya dont succeed then start a non profit. Makes for great lifetime employment if ya got the right lobbyist.
Maybe Worc Airport should OFFICIALLY become a non profit???
Jah..I have owned 17 years in the city and lived here five years..I come from a totally diiferent culture ..it has been quite an eye opener in regards to who actually reaches into his own pocket in this city and who doesn't..there is very little real money in this city
Again, hearing Congressman McGovern grille Fed Chief Bernanke about more food stamps in the stimulus package really opened my eyes about what is happening in this city..this culture of living on others money is so deep in this city that it has driven the productive away..I was in-line to pay a Cambridge parking ticket last week and I chatted with a woman in her 50's who moved to Cambridge 25 years ago..she hasn't been back to Worcester since-one hour away and she hasn't been back in 25 years..
Pualie, like any city we have our urban problems...despite my constatn bashing of how this this city is run politically and esp, financially...........we arent as bad (yet) as a Lynn or Brockton of a Spfld ,etc.....................but if this baloney of purposefully inviting in more low income folks contiunes...we will soon attain a Brockton status.......however our major problem is the stronghold that city employees labor interests have on the city council.......and Mc govern is a problem too............McGovern is doing the city no favor by continually sending us money to build more low income housing or even a union station or an airport termnal....all these Fed'l money comes with all kinds of strings attached
We have to get back our middle class wage earners........families making 75,000+ annually.....and teh businesses that employ them.....w/o both we are dead in the long ruun
Layoo Levy. This is HIS town not yours.
If you don't like Worcester don't let the door hit you on the rear end on the way out
the 2nd post back is Jahn in case anyone couldnt figure it out......for some reason the name didnt take when posted
nobody gives a ****. you're irrelevant
"Lay off Levy..it is his city"....he left the city along time ago..living on the Holden line aint city livin' mate..keep tellin folks who have investments and are worried to keep leavin...you are getting your wish and the replacements aint that pretty:>)
Jahn;
Lynn has changed a whole lot the past few years..you may want to take a ride there..and being just above Brockton and Springfield is not wallet warming..
I own in the barrio.I know where the neighborhood has come from and it is like night and day since I invested in this city starting in 1991..I applaud the efforts of our City Manager and his administration which has made these changes happen..the WPD gets high marks from me to..that being said..it is very frustrating to have so many leading the city and the charge to change the urban core of the city not live in the urban core of the city..
Paulie, your Chandler street 'hood has not changed all that much since 1991.
Buildings may be re-habbed, businesses leave, other new businesses arrive. Sometimes Business and their buildings leave together (Mugsey's/Westside Diner) This normal.
However what people and esp. politicains do not realize is that erecting new structures, re-habbing old, opening new businesses, uncovering canals, is all good and well intentioned.
But, to change a 'hood what has to change is PEOPLE, not THINGS. All cities have "vibrant" neighborhoods that typically surround the downtown "core" (or As Mr Fletcher said this week: "would be classy downtown area"). This is part and parcel of urban living.
My problem is that we should not be purposefully saturating the city with more low income people. The heck with the Arts District and poor artists, let Shrewsbury, Holden, Paxton, Whisper Drive (maybe?) take more low income residents and let's get more solid middle class folks back to Worcester. We're dead in the canal-water with out them and we're dead in the air-port with out them and we're dead in the central business district without them.
Our so called urban planners are nothing more than schills for more low income housing
being from Somerville & Cambridge I have gone thru two gentrification...folks are moving back to the urban style of living..Malden, Everett, Chelsea and similiar cities have seen an incredible resurgence..I can't remember the last time I heard a Chelsea joke:>)
The two do not mix..blue collar and white collar folks are not going to invest in neighborhoods saturdated with three deckers full of section 8's, folks on SSI and endless supplies of food stamps...and yah those who walk around with hoods on in the summer time or their pajamas. This is where our esteemed pols come into place..our pols have cowtowed to this demographic and the crowd that makes it's living off of them for to long-example for the 109th time our Congressman grilling Fed Chief Bernanke about more food stamps being in the Stimulus Package-..reason that foolish group spoke out publicly about the park benches in front of the Hanover Theatre being pulled and the city drunks not having a place to lay their arses during the day....cause they could with little ramification from our leaders..elsewhere a Boston pol would have pulled them aside and said if you ever do that again regarding an important project like the Hanover Theater is to the city and you will find your group a pariah in the land of the Planet of the Apes.
Worcester can continue to be a urban city of past or it can become one of the new urban paradises sprouting up in New England and beyond..I'd prefer a urban paradise over this urban city of neighborhoods I keep hearing about from our reps but reps who refuse to live in them:>)
On the changing of my hood..I have to disagree Jah..when I first moved in 5 years back..it was not uncommon for me to be shooing away kids all day and adults from my prperties..folks walking thru like it was a sidewalk..many break-ins to my residents and office..the surrounding houses loaded with bad asses..Winfield Street being a real culprit..the City Manager, the Lt. Governor & the various city agencies have been very involved in helping us down here..they have closed down three problem properties that were killing us..
Anyway..on a very, very positive note...The ole White Cleaners bldg has some new office space rented (excellent Artie) and a graphic artist is moving into the Bldg on the corner of Dewey & Chandler..my tenant who owns the Store 16 on Park has signed a new residential lease on a apartment I have just renovated to the tune of 30K - good neighborhood synergy here in that he and his wife who both work 16 hour days walk to work and have a real desire to see the neighborhood prosper and then possibly two teachers moving into another in May:>) I dig teachers:>)
Worcester is neighborhoods and always will be.
The "gentrification " of downtown is a disaster.
I too listened to Jordan Levy show and even The mayor moved her offices because people were afraid to go downtown---in the daylight.
I believe too that the middle class is the backbone of any city...but I too grew tired of chasing indigents away, calling police for undesirables hanging around, intermediating with neighbors who have little regard for themselves let alone others. And no I'm not even talking about minorities.
Call me disillusioned
soeaking of minorities..we have a real strong Asian influence down here at Chandler/Dewey/Mason
New Chinese restaurant owned by Chinese:>) and they live in the same block..the Bhuddist Temple run by Vietnamese on Dewey and about 5 new Vietnamese Catholic families buying houses on Dewey..just found out the new graphic artist shop on the corner of Dewey & Chandler will be Asian owned..pretty interesting to watch these minority groups come in and be real responsible citizens, assimulating into American life yet maintaining their distinct cultures...and contributing to the "hopeful" new vitality of the hood-the Bhuddist Temple is something else
I gotta say Paulie, I agree with just about everything you have said here in this thread.
I fully believe that you are dead on with why the improvement of the urban core of Worcester moves at a snail's pace. People are just not living in the urban core. From politicians to just regular folk it doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of people living in the urban core that are demanding change, demanding a better urban environment than we have. Living outside of the urban core and talking about how nice it would be to have a better urban environment is alot different than actually living there and demanding it. Cheers to you sir for pointing that out.
Let's get real here folks
Paulie--you invested in the properties you have to make a buck period. You're going to attract the people who ACT and SPEAK first and think later if at all.
I do agree that the "urban core" is gone in Worcester but let's face it I lived in that urban core seven years, paid my taxes and finally left never to return.
Gabe, are you willing to move back into the "urban core " to help revitalize Worcester. Actions speak louder than words.
Worcester Taxpayer
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