Robespierrexvii

Robespierrexvii t1_ja9fgjj wrote

I would advise against giving your contact information to strangers on the internet. I don't mean to come off as patronizing but it's becoming increasingly clear there are many people on the internet who are less than trustworthy. I don't only say this because you are young but I do think that can unfortunately make you a target for the unscrupulous people out there. This is especially true in a space like reddit where there is more anonymity than other platforms.

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Robespierrexvii t1_ja5fj7r wrote

I am new to the city and I moved here from Wisconsin. My first impression was that people in New England have no idea how to deal with snow. Judging from this though it seems like this is specific to Worcester. There has only been like two minor snow events and Worcester just can't seem to cope.

In Wisconsin the roads would have been pretreated and they probably wouldn't have even needed to plow for this, and we don't even have any major hills.

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Robespierrexvii t1_j56ocze wrote

I'm new to the area (coming up on a year in Worcester) and this was what floored me about this city. The lack of any coherent transit system, or in reality, the lack of support for any mode of transportation that isn't a car. I can't run more than like 9 miles uninterrupted in this town. I don't think I've seen a single bike lane the whole time I've been here.

Reliable public transit, bike infrastructure, or even just sidewalks that don't just end/have trees growing out the middle of them would be a great start to actually help this city achieve it's full potential. These are the kinds of things that increase opportunity for citizens in a city. More opportunities means more financially secure citizens, more people with expendable income, and in turn better economic health. Cars are expensive and often cause more financial hardship in the long or sometimes short term. I lived in Milwaukee WI, for about a decade without having a car. If I had needed one I'm not sure I would have made it through school. I really don't know how people make it in this town without a car.

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Robespierrexvii t1_j0c1ova wrote

Reply to comment by Kirby_with_a_t in meirl by whitehusky00

So I won't say you're wrong all of these are great options but you have to get there and that's the problem. You can drive there easily, but as someone who is a runner in this city, I can attest that the sidewalks are terrible and incomplete. So just walking out your door and taking a walk isn't feasible for a large number of people in this city.

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Robespierrexvii t1_izxlh6s wrote

I was listening to a podcast a few weeks ago about housing in America and they specifically mentioned that Boston has been behind on building housing since the 1970s. High speed rail won't fix that. They need to get more multifamily housing and make living in the city more feasible and affordable. I also don't see a highspeed rail working especially well until the T is in better condition.

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Robespierrexvii t1_iyd12bg wrote

I would agree that it's not a fair comparison.

However, I'm a recent transplant from the Midwest and even comparing Worcester to the smaller city I grew up in (pop 50,000) in WI it's lacking a lot of things that are very basic in all of the other cities I've lived in. Basic things like sidewalks that don't just end or have trees growing straight through the middle of them. Garbage and recycling bins at all residences, reliable public transportation, a Mayoral government etc. The list goes on. It's not that I find Worcester boring it's just incredibly dysfunctional.

These are basic things that most other places I've been in the country are just the standard and Worcester is lightyears behind even my humble hometown of Sheboygan, WI not to mention Milwaukee where I moved here from. The thing that bugs me the most is there are still people out here who consider Wisconsin "flyover country". Well to that I say at least back there I had sidewalks and trash bins. Even comparing it to a nearby city like Providence it's severely lacking in terms of basic infrastructure.

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