Worcester Now, Then, and Later
Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus, Jr. is optimistic about
the development of Worcester. He has said the following:
“Worcester has seen close to $3 billion in investment over the
past five years. This year, home prices are up 5 to 8 percent. Rental rates are
up 8 percent. And how could you miss the new hotels already redefining our
skyline? Those hotels are being built for a reason. Our hotels are consistently
full.”
Mr. Augustus is right to be happy with the new developments such
as hotels and luxury apartments. This development has been a long time coming
and is part of a historical cycle for the City.
Immediately before this cycle of hotels and apartments and entertainment
there was the Worcester Center Mall Galleria and then its remake called the
Worcester Commons Outlets. Many in the City had same glee expressed by Mr.
Augustus with his proclamation “Worcester time is now”
Unfortunately Mr. Augustus still sees Worcester Downtown in the
rose colored glasses of the 1940s, a time when people did not have many cars. The importance of downtowns to cities started its
decline with the opening Shoppers World in Framingham in 1955. It was the first
shopping mall.
Today many shopping malls are abandoned ghost malls. The
Greendale Mall in Worcester is near that state.
Development in downtown Worcester is based to a large extent on
the transfer of the operations of St. Vincent Hospital from Vernon Hill. The
transfer was subsidized by City taxes. It is not certain yet if the City will
recover this money.
The new apartments and condo being built in Downtown is a new phenomenon
for Worcester. To some extent it will be a bedroom community for the commuters
going by trains going to Boston.
More importantly it will be a neighborhood, like Main South or
Vernon Hill. This is new and it seems to have gone unnoticed. Services for this
new neighborhood, like a food store, will likely be established.
Since the early 1800s Worcester’s industries have been cyclical.
With the water power of the Blackstone River textiles and clothing were manufactured
until the factories moved south in search of cheaper labor.
In the later 1800s the metal industries developed in the City.
Barbed wire was invented and manufactured in the City, as well as cables and
processed steel. I worked at USS Steel as a young man and made oil well
cables. As we know the metal industries
moved overseas.
For a while the computers, such as the minicomputers, were
manufactured in the Worcester area. The personal computers signaled the death
knell for computer manufacturing in this area.
Today it is biotech that is the major industry here.
I suppose you can see the issue. Industries come and go. The Worcester
area is not an exception to this rule.
It is worrisome that Mr. Augustus did not mention what is being
done regarding the industries of the future. There question of whether his
vision incudes the next cycle of industry. His proclamation of “Worcester’s
time is now” is not a vision for the future.
