This. I spend more money outside Worcester than I do inside Worcester. Marlborough has retail, Shrewsbury has retail, but Worcester not so much.

The mercantile garage definitely isn’t empty during the week. When I’m in my office (right behind city hall) my lunch options are a giant ziggy bomb, $25 sandwich from 110 grill, or sub-rate falafel from Shwarma Palace. CVS is the only place to buy anything that’s not lunch - have you been in that CVS? It’s utterly depressing and not well stocked.

If there was more in the area I might spend more time in my office. And downtown is suffering, but Worcester in general is pretty sad when it comes to places to spend money.

When did she ever profess herself to be Latinx? I looked back through the articles published when the school committee was hiring and all that was ever said was that she was bilingual.

A group of parents met with her in the fall. I was there and she was quite clear that her husband was Latino and she spoke Spanish. There was never an ounce of confusion or any misleading statements that would leave one to believe anything other than what she said.

She received an award in CA for her work advocating for Latinx students, which makes sense since her district there is almost entirely Latinx. If she was a member of CALSA (CA Latino superintendents and admin) then one would think that she met the criteria for membership.

FWIW, as a parent, I have a vested interest in who fills the role. I liked her, I liked what she has to say. She spent a LOT of time in her first 6 months listening to parents, teachers, and students. I’m eager to see if she can put into place her plans and effect positive change and I hope she succeeds.

I would definitely recommend her,

The new superintendent is certainly talking the talk. I REALLY hope the school committee supports her so the district can make the improvements parents and educators are clamoring for.

OP - I have a kid in WPS. He has ADHD and has friends who are autistic. If you choose WPS you will get plenty of services IF you are a good advocate and you choose the right school (some are better than others). Lining up a solid treatment team goes a long way to getting the right services and accommodations. And I would recommend that for any district. I have friends in Newton, one of the best districts for SpEd services, who still had to fight for what their autistic kid needed.

An example of WPS progress - Flagg St added a classroom this year that accommodates high needs K and 1st graders, they installed a fence around the playground to minimize elopement risks, and they brought in several paras and a couple teachers specifically for that room.

But WPS still has a lot of room for improvement in general. So hopefully Dr. Monarrez is able to effect some positive changes.

Dave Wyman

I work for a state agency and it is incredible Boston-centric. Work meetings and events with the higher ups are always in Boston. One of our benefits is discounts to stuff but everything is in Boston - none of the museums in central MA are on the list. Worcester is an after-thought at the state level.

It might be more expensive to live in Boston but there’s SO much more to do there, especially if you’re a new grad.

For new grads looking to settle down they will quickly discover that Worcester is not really a kid-friendly city. There aren’t a lot of great options for daycare inside the city (there are a couple fabulous daycares/preschools but most are on the west side). There’s very few stores left in the city so you have to go to Auburn or Fitchburg or Millbury to buy sports equipment, party supplies, teachers gifts, kids clothes, etc… And good luck if you need baby gear or a last minute birthday present for a kid - its Walmart or the Worcester target, which is shit compared to Westborough or Millbury.

We only have one pediatric emergency room and there are very few peds beds. Waiting lists for pediatric mental health services are miles long. When my kid needed a pediatric occupational therapist there were very limited options in central MA so we had to drive to Hudson once a week.

It might be more expensive to live in Boston but not much more nowadays with rent and real estate being as expensive as it is, and there’s more opportunities there that simply do not exist anywhere in central MA.

How does not putting them out at night resolve the issue? Our garage is the same temp as the outside air, so the bin is cold no matter where it sits at night.

We had FAR more issues in Boston with congestion and wonky street parking and 3 deckers. And, get this, there are hills in Boston too! It seems crazy but each 2 or 3 family in boston gets one rolling bin to share and the 2 or 3 apartments all put their recycling in it. Overflow could be placed next to the bin in brown paper bags or cardboard boxes. Larger landlords (4+ units) are required to provide dumpsters and the city routinely takes landlords to housing court to deal with trash tickets. They expect the landlord to provide adequate space for trash bins and to hold their tenants accountable.

It wasn’t an issue in any neighborhood (outside of beacon hill/north end where larger landlords provided dumpsters and the rest used clear bags because there was legitimately nowhere to store bins).

I wish Worcester would move past the whole “we’re so special our tenants couldn’t possibly figure out how to roll a damn bin to the curb”.

One neighbor’s zip tie is intact, the other lost their lid despite the zip tie because the bin handle was cracked in half.

Plastic being thrown around in cold weather is just a stupid idea. The city needs to tell casella to upgrade the trucks and get us stupid rolling bins aleady. Enough is enough.

Also, if the city had to pay to replace destroyed bins I guarantee casella would treat them better. Passing the cost onto us negates any incentive casella might have to keep the city happy.

We have FAR worse rates re: foster care placements and DCF interventions than many red states. Our state is renowned for having an abysmal child welfare system.

We do great on children’s welfare in general, but horribly on metrics involving children in poverty and children in foster care and family reunification.

https://friendsofchildreninc.org/failing-our-kids/

Edit: if you don’t want to click the link the basic message is that children in foster care would be better off in ANY other state than in MA.

Her stuff is soooo good. I was happy when I learned she opened a physical location.

The old Rutland hospital site is probably inaccessible at this time of year but it super creepy

I’m specifically talking the west side.

I guess maybe what I miss about cafe espresso was that it was consistently good and that parking lot made it far easier for take out than trying to get takeout from Mare or Russo’s.

We tried blacksheep over the weekend. We did take out and everything was cold (despite prompt pick up and a 3 min drive home. Serving sizes are small. The carrot cake was abysmal.

West side bbq is equal to if not better.

I’m sticking with my original thought that we now have 3 mediocre options for BBQ on the west side - feels a bit saturated.

That would be nice but at the same time even worse because some kids would get that added enrichment and many others would not. I get the idea behind it but it shouldn’t be a thing. If they want to offer additional learning opportunities there are better ways to ensure they are delivered effectively.

There is NOWHERE to take kids that’s not a park or the Ecotarium (which is lovely but gets old after 5 visits a year).

We have to leave Worcester for every single birthday party and to keep them busy on weekends and holidays. Yesterday we just sat inside because going somewhere to do something for our kid means driving to Westborough or Leominster and we don’t always feel like doing that. It’s a constant conversation with other parents about how crappy Worcester is when you have kids to entertain.

No. Nope. No. NEVER again.

Right now if my kid is off for snow and I have to work I can send him to the Y or JCC. I can’t do that if he has to be online, which means taking the day off.

NEVER again.

So now we have BTs and West Side BBQ and Black Sheep. 3 BBQ places on the west side feels kind of ridiculous. Maybe I’m missing something, but are we really eating this much BBQ?

FWIW, I miss Cafe Espresso and would have loved it if another Italian place went in there, but whatever.

It really is…the apple sweater, acting completely insensitive during a speech about racism and injustice, looking fairly uncomfortable throughout…

I believe wormtown has one.

Second child health associates. We go to the Shrewsbury location, but have been to Auburn for sick visits. The docs are all great and the nurses are awesome.

Mare e monti and get the almond torte and hazelnut mousse for dessert. You’re welcome.

Of course they are. So many reasons to cut routes and they never bring them back.

Nope

I have had very few complaints over the 7 years we’ve had spectrum…my main complaint is their pricing is highway robbery due to lack of competition. I want options, even if I ultimately stay with charter, because being able to switch providers can bring costs down