WRRB/Telegram District City Council Forum 10/18
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This forum is for all district council candidates; all candidates are here
today. Format: 14 total questions, 4 questions across districts (for all
candida...
6 months ago
6 comments:
This is the symbolic beginning for a new downtown Worcester!
CitySquare finally taking shape providing an economic east/west link via the new Front Street!
The Mayo Group’s continued private investment and build out of their Franklin, Portland and Salem Street properties.
The WBDC involvement with the new downtown theatre district (the WBDC has been a success with everything they’ve touched).
MCPHS is already looking for additional space downtown even with last year’s addition of the former Crown Plaza hotel.
Quinsigamond Community College is also rumored to be looking to double their downtown presence, and the list goes on and on and on…
aren't the colleges public/tax-exempt or non-profit
It's a trade off. If you get people downtown through the colleges, it spurs activity and vitality which in turn spurs business growth.
Besides, IIRC, MCPHS pays a yearly PILOT payment to the city plus some of the property they acquired in the Foster, Commercial, Norwich block is still on the tax roles even though the college purchased the buildings.
As for Quinsig, they currently lease space from Berkeley Investment who pays taxes on the property.
So if the rumor is true, Quinsig doubles their space downtown, the landlord is paying taxes, and we put people on the streets.
IMHO, a fairly significant investment of people and money in our downtown. Exactly what everyone agrees is missing from our urban core.
I was there in 1968-1969 when The Family Theatre, the Warner Theatre, Jobbers Outlets, and the old Trumble Sq on or near front St were deep sixed to create the Worcester Center Mall.
The CC's at the time, that may have included Joe Casdin, Izzy Katz, Geo Wells, Deedy, and others all were singign the same praises I have read of lately. Interestingly enough, CC Casdin owned the Jobbers Outlet which was razed to make way for teh new mall
I didnt know we had a theater district? One theatre a district makes? :).
I am not sure what QCC intends to do at City Sq, but it it's going to be a satellite campus, I am not so ilike that. Havent we pretty much run the teens off the city halll plaza bus stop over the last few years. Bringign more 18-19 year olds certainly brings more warm bodies to downtown. Problem is teeens (even myself included :) ) like(d) to be rowdy and hang out as we called it ... (it's called chilling today). I hate to see the Common overrrun with hordes of teeens, hormones running wild, exiting a college campus looking to blow off some stream on the Common. If QCC will just rent more office space.......thats great.
I didnt read the whole article today, but has anyone seen any mention of solidly middle class condos and apts being built?
Kudos to CM Obrien for saying it would come down this spring, as it is now T-Minus 4 weeks and counting until springs ends (it is spring...right :( ).
I hope it all pans out 10 to 15 years from now, with a good sized population of "quality demographics" living downtown. I say 10 to 15 years from now b/c I still think no one realizes how bad the housing and rental markets are right now.
Soooo I googled a few words and the result from Wiki is below. I'd like to be able to pull up atricles about Worcester center from aBOUT 1967 to 1971........see what was said about it. Hope it doenst have to entail a trip to Lyeberry...which BTW was the center piece of what was known back in the day as The Salem Sq Urban Renewal Project.
I will say the Worc Center Mall made the girl watching easier than hanging on Main St. All the goils were all in one place vs being spread out over a 1/4 mile stretch of Mane St.
From Wiki:
1971–1993: BeginningsThe Worcester Common Outlets opened on July 29, 1971 as the Worcester Center Galleria.[1] To be built, a large swath of Worcester's downtown was demolished to make room for the 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2) mall and two connected skyscrapers. The Galleria had a large open area with an arched roof that was supposedly modeled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy.[1][2] The design for the mall also included a 4,300-space parking garage, which, at the time, was the largest parking structure in the world.[2][3] Two construction experts from New York and California had called the original mall "the finest shopping center they had ever seen in the United States."[1] The original anchor stores included Filene's, Jordan Marsh, and Kennedy's.[2] By the late 1980s, two of the major anchors, Filene's and Jordan Marsh, had moved out, while other area malls such as the Auburn Mall and Greendale Mall began drawing away customers
Students attending MCPHS and the programs that Quinsig has downtown are not teenagers. They're 20 somethings and up. Just the type of students and activity we want and need downtown.
Worcester Center was a colossal mistake from the get go. Any urban area that thought a suburban style Mall would "save" their downtowns was sadly mistaken.
And most of the cities that built them are taking them apart and rebuilding their street grids and neighborhoods. A healthy city needs a neighborhood in its center city to promote activity and Malls in the urban core destroyed that fabric.
The WBDC has signed on to develop the theater district. They have been successful in bringing every one of their development ideas to fruition. They are using the Hanover Theater as a launching point to redevelop and reuse buildings in a large portion of the city in and around City Hall. This will dovetail nicely with the Mayo Group investments, the MCPHS and Quinsig expansions, and CitySquare. Yes it will probably take time especially with the economic realities facing development nowadays but finally I see the beginnings of a critical mass in downtown Worcester.
And this does even take into consideration the activity going on in the Canal District and the new CSX freight yards which in turn will increase commuter rail options for Worcester to Boston commuters and vice versa.
Again I do hope this all pans out years from now.
Please do not forget the Hand It Over Theatre would never have happened w/o millions in taxpayer subsidies. I would like to suggest those subsidies, if they are even available again, will be no where near what they were for The Hand It Over Theatre. Dittos for the money the WBDC gets for its projects. It's real EZ to be successful when copious amts of gov't money are flowing into your coffers.
Yes OK 20 something years old college students may be a better demo graphic than 18 year old college students....WHEN they are in grad school or the like...............HOWEVER 20+ year old QCC students, I aint too sure about. 24 years old and still at QCC....even if they are " non traditional students" I hope I am wrong and that you're right.
BTW, how long have we had MCPH students downtown and how many more M.T. store fronts have sprouted up on Main St. in that time? Dittos for Med City & the new court house, the most recent dev'ments on the donwtown scene...........that were going to be saviors. Again, throwing up new buildings hoping it will change peoples behviors does not work. Dittos for new school buildings being a catylst for smarter, better educated students.
Yes Worcester Center Mall was a collossal mistake, HOWEVER at the time there was 101 times more euphoria over it than there is now about a couple of new City Sq. office bulidings downtown.
So.........i am amazed how fast they punched a huge whole in the parking garage yesterday. At this rate it s/b reduced to a pile of 3/4" crushed aggregate in no time.
Sooooooooooooo let's say this demo job is Awl Dunne by mid Julio. Dare I ask the $64,000 question? When does the new constr commence? Immmediately I assume? I mean we're not going to punch a hole in the middle of the old mall complex and leave it that way for months or heaven forbid years?
Please dont call me negative. Just pointing the realities of Worcesters past.
Again, color me from Missouri.....The Show Me state.
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