Southbridge like many New England towns is a dead mill town. It was once home to the defunct American Optical Co, the town's only major employer. When AO folded so did Southbridge and to add insult to injury, Massachusetts opened a major welfare office there. I'm not going to get into what that does to a community but every negative statistic skyrocketted after that. Southbridge is for the most part an impoverished town with all the problems associated with poverty. It is like some of Worcester's worse neighborhoods.