Not reliant - they kicked my wife and me out of their practice when our doctors retired and left us on our own because they have no one accepting new patients. Avoid that place - working conditions must be pretty bad since no doctors seem to want to work there.

Less money to the cops. More money to the bus system. Simple and effective.

We have plenty of cops. They just spend all their time scrolling their phones and collecting overtime at construction sites instead of doing their actual jobs.

This is wrong. Worcester drivers suck.

Oh yeah, low income people notoriously hate affordable housing, safe sidewalks, and reliable mass transit.

Landlords need to be okay with making less profit.

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With all due respect, if you don't drive, you should not take a job in Hopkinton. Not many jobs are worth totally transforming your lifestyle to such degree as a move from NYC to a car dependent suburb would entail. If this is a unicorn job for you, you need to learn to drive before you move to the area. If it's not a unicorn job, and you really want to live in Massachusetts, you should look for work in Boston or Cambridge instead.

It's always pizza soup, a dreadful soggy mess, by the time it reaches us, even if we're picking it up. Dreadful stuff, hard to imagine people willingly pay those prices to get it regularly.

Yeah, I'm sure there are exceptions when the workers are simply being inconsiderate and do things that are out of line. But, accounting both for safety and the fact that they have a ton of ground to cover and need to work their asses off, this is one of the few things about our overall terrible trash system that doesn't upset me. If they need to leave the truck in a certain spot to maximize their efficiency and/or safety, I'm okay with that.

I don't know for certain, but I would imagine that they do this for their own safety. People here turn into deranged maniacs when they drive, so having them zooming past workers who have to be in the street is pretty dangerous. Blocking the street with the truck protects the workers, and I don't blame them if that's their aim. Much better for drivers to wait a minute or two than for a collector to get hurt or killed.

Oh yeah, I do that regularly. And I'd like to patronize Maker to Main more, too. But their prices are just really tough to pay. The food co-ops in Western Mass (and Brattleboro, VT) sell the same items from many of the same farms for a whole lot less.

I agree with all of that, but it sounds like you're talking about the stretch through Main South, not the recently renovated downtown, which is what the original discussion was about, stemming from the Maker to Main proprietor's comments.

Why do you think it is a nightmare to drive down? I'm genuinely curious.

What do you mean? Almost all of the public space in the area is devoted to the movement or storage of cars, and hardly any of it to anything else.

Maybe now they'll stop charging $6 for a single carrot.

The rent is too damn high

Doesn't make it any less enjoyable to use.

Agree with all this except the Chinese and sushi slams. There may not be a ton of good options for either, but Red Pepper for Chinese (specifically sichan dishes) and Miyazawa for sushi are about as good as you'll find outside Boston/NYC.

As for beer, Tree House makes fabulous beer and being so close to it is a perk of living here. Armsby Abbey has an exceptional tap list with rare and wonderful beers, but their prices for both food and drinks are outrageous. Redemption Rock always has a good variety of beer styles, unlike so many breweries that are IPA dominated, executes them all well, and is a very friendly, community oriented space.

Haha, your list is exactly why I specified well made clothing. Those places all sell junk that wears out after one season at best.

Lots of similar sized cities to Worcester have kitchen stores, whether chains like Williams Sonoma or better yet, independent shops that carry similar products. I really wish Worcester had one of those, an REI or similar, and a couple clothing shops that sell higher quality items than the kohls, tj maxx, and millbury outlet stores do.

The lack of retail in Worcester is truly astounding. There are 200,000 people here and literally zero stores where I, a pretty normal sized person, can buy well made clothes that fit me right and look decent. There are also no places where I can buy camping gear, quality kitchen tools, or lots of other things. We have way too many barber shops and smoke shops, and not enough basic retail where stores sell the things people need to buy.

Less money on cops, more money on schools and busing. Easy.

I grew up in the Midwest. We started hugh school at 8:15 and finished at 3:15. Sports etc. ran 3:30-5 or 5:30. Winter sports are indoors anyway (swimming, basketball, hockey) so it didn’t matter that it was dark by the time practices ended.

That is a much better schedule for students, teachers, and parents than the outrageous 7:10-1:45 schedule Worcester has.

And the gloominess is often combined with entitlement."Wah wah wah I get to park on the sidewalk because I want to and have always done it and it would be toooooo annoooooying to have to find a parking spot that's actually legal."

No. The sidewalk is ours to walk on, not yours to park on. That's how it works and the fact that Worcester has let you do stupid crap like this for years doesn't mean they were right or that we will let the city let you do it forever.

We are coming for our sidewalks. We are coming for safe streets, and yes, we are coming to make the city give you traffic tickets when you put our lives in danger with your reckless driving and entitled parking.

Holy crap, have you watched those guys work? They literally run and jump and bend over and lift heavy loads all day long, in all weather, while exposed to horrendous noise and odors.

Say whatever you want about the city's crappy collection programs, but the collectors themselves work their asses off. I couldn't do their job. This issue is not about them.