Had a conversation the other evening with a gentlemen who has lived in Worcester his whole life. He knows the gritty details that I do not know of the city. The conversation came to gentrification.
I am not sure it is a bad thing, if only because the median household income in Worcester is a pitiful 18k a year. Individuals making this amount of money are not homeowners, they live in a floor in a triple decker. Homeownership produces pride and involvement in the community. So is it bad to have multiple loft or condo conversions that will bring in the 20-30 somethings into a neighborhood that could use people who are proud of being there.
I know from first hand experience as I owned in the lovely Main South Neighborhood, but that never stopped us from going to the local bar down on Cambridge Street for an Obama Rally, we were involved with the Main South CDC. I felt like I lived there, I felt like I was part of the community. Did I want to see more business in the neighborhood-yes. Did I want the mill on Grand Street to be converted for open loft spaces, coffee shops and retail/office space- Yes.. But I also thought it would have been great to offer dining and retail space to local business people. A really good Cambodian or Thai Restaurant or Soul Food eatery. Keeping the neighborhood alive and growing.
I was asked where I expected all the poor folks to go? Well I think Worcester needs to do a better job on attracting business to Worcester, companies should want to be here. The cost of operating in Worcester versus the Metro West/Boston area is a huge savings. There are what, 13 colleges in this city. There is no shortage of people willing to work, and if a person can make a decent wage close to home, even better.
I was looking on the Gothamist where they linked to an article about the gentrification of The Lower East Side in NYC back in 1984 and here. The story of the Lower East Side/East Village reminds me of the Kelly Sq/Canal District scenario.
I watched Providence change within the time I was younger to current days. I remember when the biggest issues that there was not enough housing in Down-city Providence, now they are auctioning off The Waterplace Condos.I remember when you did not walk or drive on the West End and then it became the Armory District and I moved there.
I remember when Five-Points in Denver was the hood and now it is filled with high end lofts, condos and boutiques.
I get it, but the greed in this country, the constant need for better does make the poor-poorer and the rich-richer. But in the same time in order to draw people to a city, to get the folks of Worcester out of the mentality that Worcester (other than the West Side) will always be the slums. To get everyone on board to better the city, it can change. I personally as a resident of Worcester for 3 years still feels that Worcester has great potential.
Currently I live downtown, I love living downtown, I love the pigeons outside my window, I love the Common across the way, I love the sound of sirens and people. I am a city gal, just wish there was a little more for me downtown so I wouldn’t ever have to move my car. I have tried out all the small shops and bought groceries at Compare Foods (not a bad selection I might add) but a coffee shop in one of the store fronts of building would be amazing. Does no one realize that there is roughly 400 apartments on my block and more around the corner. You have young professionals, grad students, MCP students, small families. There is a market!!!!
I guess the take-away is that gentrification as a concept is not bad, but it is getting people moving into those neighborhoods and becoming PART of neighborhood instead of never exploring and reaching out. Really get to know your neighbors, they may surprise you. But honestly with housing prices already high in the established neighborhoods, where are those who are lower-middle class and middle class suppose to get their start? You buy in neighborhoods that are cheaper, and hope to improve them. I understand the implications of doing this, I understand that rents could rise their landlords could sell the property. In Worcester you are not getting yuppies buying up this space, you are just getting young professionals and empty nester’s. Many of us personally can not afford to live in Boston, so priced into a Worcester housing market. You want to encourage homeownership, the more dollars in Property taxes the more resources that our public schools can have, in turn helping disadvantaged youths have a chance to be able to have an education and give back to their community.
Husband works in a pretty big data center in the metro-westy area, a data center that needs to expand. The guys who work there live everywhere up and down 495 all the way to RI, all over central Mass, and West out towards Palmer.
Where are they looking to locate the next data center? Boston! With the semi-depressed real estate market, the company sees this a chance to get into Boston at prices they haven’t had before.
Now, did they even think about locating it in Worcester, especially considering the human resources? Why, yes, they did consider Worcester. For about a minute. While the parties agreed that Worcester certainly had lots of big empty spaces that would work, what it didn’t have was – POWER! Yes, quite literally, Worcester doesn’t have the juice needed to operate a big data center.
Worcester might want to consider updating its infrastructure if it wants to remain a viable location for businesses, and then the people will follow.
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