Why Worcester Needs a Whole Foods

Bring Whole Foods to Worcester

As Worcester strives to become a thriving city, it faces some challenges along the road. Some of these, like the revitalization of downtown, will prove challenging, while others could be solved much more easily. One of these seemingly meager problems facing Worcester is that the city does not have a Whole Foods Market or really anything comparable. The "modern city" prides itself on attracting an environmentally conscious, socially and politically active and sustainability focused populace. These people are the champions of gentrification that are bringing cities back to life. But, these people subsist on a diet of organic food; without it, they will stay away. 

As you can see from this screenshot, it currently takes 35 minutes without traffic (usually 45) to reach the nearest Whole Foods Market. It is nearly impractical to drive this far to the grocery store. 

Okay sure, I have made a case for theoretical reasons that communities would benefit from Whole Foods, but why Worcester specifically? Does the city really have enough people to support a large upscale grocery store? Yes.

First of all, many New England cities that are much smaller than Worcester have at least one Whole Foods Market, and so do many small towns. The following is a list of places in New England by population that have at least one Whole Foods Market. Keep in mind that Worcester, with 181,000 residents, does not make this list.

Boston: 625,000

Providence: 178,000

Cambridge: 105,000

Newton: 85,000

Brookline: 58,000

Andover: 33,000

Wayland: 13,000 Hmm....

This is not by any means a full list. But it already seems that Worcester is lacking given that it is the second largest city in New England. 

One may also try to make the "Worcester is poor" argument, but actually that's not true. Comparing cities by median income, Worcester is actually relatively high, at $61,000 compared to Boston at $32,000.

For these reasons, I strongly feel that Whole Foods Market should open a location in Worcester.

Worcester Should Take Cars Off Main Street

Main Street Worcester Should Be Pedestrian Only

Downtown Worcester

If you have ever driven through Worcester, MA, you have probably experienced many frustrations. Roads seem to twist and wind in every direction, traffic lights change colors seemingly based on their moods and pedestrians largely ignore crosswalks and walk signals. It can be really challenging to get between any two parts of the city, particularly if you are traveling from West - East as highways tend to serve North - South traffic. Sure, the city is old and has made plenty of mistakes over time, but it could do one thing to help improve the current situation: take cars off Main Street!

Downtown Worcester Map

Okay so fine, not all of Main Street, just the portion that runs between Highland Street and The Hanover Theater. This ten block area really represents the downtown portion of the city that is shown in the first picture at the top of the page. While this may seem just like a whimsical idea, I feel that I can present a solid case for why this is a good idea.

Main Street Is Inconvenient For Cars

If you are a car, you probably have no desire to drive along Main Street anyways. The main reason for this is that Main Street tends to have one lane of traffic in each direction, at least in the area that I have flagged for closure. Making you way down this narrow street brings you just about nowhere in either direction; it does not connect well to highways or other routes for getting through the city. Just one block to the East, Major Taylor Boulevard is a higher capacity street that readily brings traffic to I-290 and Route 146. If you are trying to get on the highway, you would normally be directed this way. West of Main Street is a primarily residential area where residents can either walk to work downtown or will likely take the highway out of the city. The North end of the street is meaningless; you have to navigate a six-way intersection to enter the street and sometimes when you try to turn off Main Street you are forced to make a U-Turn. To the South of The Hanover Theater the neighborhood deteriorates a bit and you are no longer in downtown.

Main Street Is The Heart of Downtown

Most areas in Worcester really could not support pedestrian friendly development because they are not dense enough. But Main Street actually has more than a handful of mid to high rise residential and office buildings. There is enough of a critical mass of people and businesses here that it would be feasible to be within walking distance of most everyday needs. I'm not trying to say that you could be fully car independent here as you could be in Boston, but you could free yourself from needing it to get everywhere. If only pedestrians were allowed to walk on the street, they would be more likely to actually do so without having to fear getting run down by a vehicles that notoriously run red lights!

Walkable pedestrian friendly zones tend to increase property values and encourage new businesses to move in. Worcester is in the midst of trying to recreate it's image and attract new commercial and residential tenants downtown. It's CitySquare project is trying to build mixed-use development just off of Main Street. Bringing pedestrians to the area is a great way to increase the likelihood of the success of this project. 

If Worcester wants to really become the world-class city that it aspires to be, it should adopt some forward thinking measures such as creating pedestrian only zones downtown. 

Worcester City Square

Worcester Redevelopment Effort

Despite having spent most of my life in central Massachusetts, I always thought that Worcester was one of the worst places to go. I viewed it as a run down, shrinking and lifeless city where nobody would want to live. To my own defense, for most of my life Worcester really did not have a lot to offer. It's train station served no trains, it's mall had more rats than stores and despite being the second largest city in New England, it was difficult to access from almost any highway.

Fast forward 20 years. From the time I was born in the early 90's until now, Worcester has begun to make a dramatic turnaround. Some major steps: trains now use the train station, JetBlue is operating at the airport, the horrible empty mall has been torn down and the city now connects to another highway. If you are not from around here, you may read these things and think "what's so exciting about that?" Let me tell you, it's exciting because nobody ever expected it to happen in a city that was once so bleak.

Over the next three to five years I expect the city to continue it's transformation, moving from it's current shall I say average status to an ideal place for young people. But why you ask? A project called CitySquare is planning to revitalize all of downtown Worcester. By the way, its going to cost over 500 million dollars... But it's going to turn this

Into This!

In all reality, the city is tearing down the decades empty mall to build a mixed use and pedestrian friendly development area. At first, I did not believe it would happen, but many buildings have actually been completed. So far, the hospital downtown has opened a state of the art cancer facility and a brand new huge office building has gone up for Unum. 

Looking towards the future, the city has plans to continue this buildout over the next 8 or so years and fully demolish and rebuild about 12 acres worth of land, which explains the high price tag. Even outside of the immediate downtown area, Worcester continues to build many new buildings and employment prospects are looking bright, particularly in the health sciences field. 

I really hope that my predictions are accurate and that CitySquare continues with it's great progress, because this will make Worcester a really great place to live.

If you want to learn more about Worcester, check out some of my other articles about the city!
Worcester or Boston: Space vs. Appeal
Why Does the Mass-Pike Avoid Worcester
How Worcester is Keeping College Students

Building Up or Building Out

The most common category of complaints that I hear about cities is regarding crowding vs. spread. Some cities like New York seem just too tightly packed while others like Los Angeles spread across vast distances and become extremely inefficient. These are two extremes, but cities tend to fall all along this spectrum and rarely do cities seem to achieve perfect balance.

So which is better? Build massive skyscrapers in a tiny area thereby crowding streets with pedestrians and blocking sun from roads or designate hundreds of square miles for sprawling cities where most builds are detached and less than four or five stories tall? Let's start by examining the issue with both types of cities.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong can easily be designated as a crowding city. The population density is about 16,500 per square mile. To put this in perspective, the average population density across the United States is 88 per square mile. Notice in this picture of Hong Kong, almost all construction is in the form of skyscrapers. Looking out of a window you are very likely to be looking into an adjacent building rather than into the sky. Despite the fact that the city is so built up, not all land is used. The higher elevations around the corners of the photo are virtually undeveloped.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles on the other hand can be seen as a city of sprawl. It is still tightly packed, but because of the low density development, the population density is about 8,000 per square mile. At this level there is plenty of open space, but travelling from place to place can be a nightmare. Cities with such a spread cannot support the vast public transit systems of more dense cities and car traffic can overwhelm the roadways as a result.

Both types of cities have clear problems and may seek to emulate the other type of city. It is relatively challenging for cities to achieve a balance between the two extremes and I do not have a perfect solution to these problems.

My favorite ideal solution is one that I so far have not found in any city. I envision a city with a medium / high density residential urban core, something where the buildings average perhaps 15 stories. Within this central area, cars would not be allowed and so all roadways would be fully open to pedestrians. These walkways would be wide so that the sun would never be blocked by shadows. Around the residential core would be three or four separate downtown areas that are high density. Each of these clusters of downtown would be grouped by industry; for example, one cluster may include banks and financial services while another may be pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Essentially this city would look like a bowl from the sky. This may seem a strange idea, but I would like to see it put in place as an experiment.

American Food Deserts

Today is Sunday and as usual I was running low on food. Conveniently, Sunday also tends to be the day that I am able to go grocery shopping. So I made the simple decision to get dressed, grab my keys and head to Whole Foods. I live in Worcester and the nearest Whole Foods is in Framingham about 40 minutes away. I had plenty of time to think about food during the long car ride and at first I felt annoyed that there is no Whole Foods in Worcester. I know that the food there is expensive, but I really think that it is worth it to pay a little extra to make sure that you are getting great quality food. And then I thought more about how many Whole Foods are in the country in general. This is what I found.

I know this map may seem cluttered, but notice how huge sections of the country are missing a Whole Foods location. I am not suggesting that Whole Foods locations are the only measure of nutritional value access, but this figure hints at a broader issue.

Throughout the country, there are many places that are located 20, 30 miles or even further from the nearest grocery store. People living here need to drive upwards of a half hour to shop for food! I know that on a hot summer day like today I worry on my 40 minute drive that my food may not all last in the car, but imagine what it is like to have no other choice. Not to mention that in some of these areas, many people also do not have car access. In such areas, sometimes the only possible sources of food are found at gas stations and convenience stores that are usually stocked with expensive snacks and few healthy options.

These areas are known as food deserts. Most people that I know cannot imagine that this is possible because Massachusetts is so densely populated that most people need to travel no more than 3 or 4 miles to the nearest grocery store. But here is a map of the United States from the US Department of Agriculture showing areas formally designated as food deserts. 

Areas highlighted in green represent food deserts. Notice how the two maps compare. Areas with Whole Foods Markets tend to be far away from designated food deserts. And again notice that in New England there are almost no food deserts compared to most other parts of the country. The more rural the area, the more likely that residents do not have access to supermarkets. This has dramatic implications when it comes to obesity, diabetes and just health in general. 

Stay tuned for a post about how access to food options is an important factor in reducing obesity rates.

Worcester or Boston: Space vs. Appeal

It seems that for every major city, people struggle with a major decision. Should I live in an expensive tiny apartment so that I can experience all of the great things about the city, or should I move to a cheaper area that has less to offer? Rather than discuss this problem in a broad sense, I prefer to focus on the Massachusetts version: Worcester vs. Boston.

I started thinking about this idea yesterday as I was climbing Mount Wachusett. It was a clear day and at the top of the mountain I looked and in the foreground I could see Worcester but in the same view further towards the horizon I could see the skyscrapers of Boston. These two cities are less than an hour apart, but they feel like two different worlds.

Boston:

Worcester:

Both are nice pictures, but even from these shots, it is easy to see that Boston is much larger. Worcester has about 175,000 people and Boston swells above 1,000,000 during the workday. Boston is a city with a strong history, great opportunities and a European flair not found in most American cities. Worcester also has a great history, but it is a city that is an emblem of the industrial working class.

For decades Worcester was a city in decay. Businesses and restaurants would routinely close and grand old houses would fall into disrepair. Recently the city has begun to make a comeback, but it is still a long way from a world class city. Boston on the other hand is a city known for being a pioneer of innovation and modern living, offering organic markets, upscale boutiques and modern high-rise apartments.

For these reasons, many people, particularly those in their 20's, choose Boston. This may seem a simple decision, but consider cost-of-living.

As a college student living in a nice three bedroom apartment in Worcester, my roommates and I paid a total of $1,160 per month. In many parts of Boston, it is difficult to find a tiny studio apartment for the same price. It may cost upwards of a million dollars for a two bedroom condo in a nice building in downtown Boston, but many large four bedroom homes in nicer neighborhoods of Worcester sell for $200,000. Unless you have enough money that money is not a discussion point, this earns Worcester a lot of value. In Worcester you may not have immediate access to the finer things in Boston, but if you live in Boston you probably cannot afford those luxuries. People living in Worcester can enjoy a higher standard of living for a lower price.

Personally I cannot decide what is more important. Affordability or Amenities?

Ending Suburban Sprawl

The American dream: go to college, get a job, move to a nice house in the suburbs. Like this.

Here is a picture of a Phoenix suburb. Houses sprawl endlessly into the desert taking up more and more space and moving further from the urban core. An even more dramatic example is this picture of suburban Los Angeles.

When will it stop? It has become extremely challenging to actually move between the suburbs and the city center. 

Suburbs are extremely inefficient and cannot continue to spread outwards from city centers. In Los Angeles, it takes 30 minutes without traffic to reach downtown from the outer edge of the city. Considering suburbs that extend outside of the city limits, commuters can often drive upwards of an hour to work each way. Not only is it annoying to spend two or more hours commuting a day, it is unnecessary. 

It seems that Americans are finally feeling fed up with the suburbs and beginning to move back to city centers. As cities grow from the center, they can offer more and better services to their residents. Living in a community like the ones pictured in these photos is becoming an unattractive venture. I hope that the trend of downtown urbanization continues over time.

Why Does the Mass-Pike Avoid Worcester?

Mass-Pike Does Not Service Worcester

A problem that seems to come up time and time again for residents of central Massachusetts is why when building the Massachusetts Turnpike did construction avoid Worcester? Being that Worcester is the second largest city in the state, one might assume that the primary highway in the state would cut through Worcester. However, when looking at this map, the Mass-Pike shown in red dips south just east of Worcester.

One reason for the strange turn in the road may be simply economic. It is said that the construction of the highway was to run extremely over budget and that the amount of property that would need to be reclaimed in Worcester would outweigh the benefits. Simply, the increase in tax revenue that Worcester could expect from a location on the turnpike would not offset the cost to pay property owners to relinquish their lands. This seems reasonable, but the highway does go straight into downtown Boston, so it seems unlikely that this problem was not present there as well.

Another possibility is a bit more interesting. In the 1950's when construction was set to begin, Worcester had reached it's peak as an industrial powerhouse city; it's then population of more than 200,000 later declined by about 25%. Boston officials were worried about the growing importance of Worcester and thought that the city may eventually outperform Boston. One way to deal with this problem would be to suffocate Worcester by making it difficult for goods to be transported to and from the city by road. The solution: make sure that the main highway in the state did not pass through the city.

Which seems more likely?

How Worcester is Keeping College Graduates

I have lived in and around Worcester for most of my life and I used to think that when given a choice, most people would choose to relocate. However, Worcester has been undergoing a lot of changes over the past several years and I have begun to notice a new trend. As many of my friends who go to college in Worcester are graduating, I have noticed that many of them are choosing to stay put. I am about to enter my senior year and I am starting to think that I may want to as well because I have begun to see a lot of things that are actually attractive about living in Worcester.

Worcester is Cheap: Despite the fact that Worcester is the second largest city in both Massachusetts and New England, it has an overall cost of living about 15% below the state average. In particular, the cost of owning or renting a home is significantly less than in other areas. In contrast, Boston has a cost of living about 20% above the state average. Realistically, this means that the price of a three bedroom apartment in Worcester can equate to the price of a studio apartment in Boston.

Worcester Pays Well: I have always thought that many Massachusetts graduates move to Boston after college to find good paying jobs. I was wrong. I did some research and to my surprise, I found that starting salaries for college graduates in Boston are only about 2% higher than salaries for equivalent jobs in Worcester. When considering salary and cost-of-living, college graduates living and working in Worcester end up with between $5,000 - $10,000 more in disposable income on average per year. This is enough to feel significant for many college graduates.

Worcester Residents Work Everywhere: Even when graduates decide that they want to live in Worcester but would rather work elsewhere, they can. Worcester is approximately located between Boston, Providence and Springfield. This places four medium to large cities within commuting distance from Worcester, which greatly increases job opportunities. Worcester itself has begun to develop a base of biotech companies that tend to hire many graduates.

Worcester is a City in Transition: Worcester's importance as an industrial city peaked in the 1950's and then underwent a long period of decay. However, Worcester is starting to show new signs of life. Downtown is being completely redesigned through a long-term project called City Square. The project is a public-private partnership that is seeking to bring residential and commercial activity downtown by creating a new shopping district, better highway access and improved services. For a long time the project seemed to be going nowhere, but recently the speed has picked up and downtown is beginning to come to life. New businesses and restaurants are moving downtown and I have begun to feel an urban pulse for the first time while walking through the city. It seems now that Worcester is moving in a great direction and will continue to develop into a first-class city over the next several years.

As I begin my job search for after graduation, I think that I will strongly consider remaining put in Worcester.

Exploring the Urban Landscape

When I was a little kid, I remember sitting with my Aunt Judy and spending hours reading the Atlas. We would talk about all sorts of things and learn facts about all different parts of the country and the world. I would always wish that I could see all of the places that I saw in the Atlas. I spent months memorizing all of the states and capitals and later I moved to countries and capitals.

My interest did not stop here. After some time, learning about specific places was not enough to satisfy me; I wanted to know more about the people who lived in those places. I began trying to learn about demographics and I eventually became interested in sociology as well. I hope to be able to share some of my opinions as well as some of the information that I have gathered over the years. Perhaps I should start with some background on my own environment.

I grew up in the small town of Sutton, Massachusetts. I moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, a relatively small city, for college. I would say that these two areas really resemble all of New England in many ways. Worcester in particular was settled hundreds of years ago with little planning. As such, the city streets spread every which way causing traffic jams at seemingly every hour of the day. Interestingly enough, the city attempts to solve many of these traffic problems by constructing rotaries that can be fed by as many as six streets. Yet despite the relative disorganization in the city layout, there are some really interesting parts of the city. 

It seems that Worcester was built in a time before New England decided on it's now traditional style of architecture. As a result, one of the main residential sections of the city, the West Side, has a mix of Mediterranean, Tudor, Victorian and Federalist architectural styles all right next to one another. I tend to take a lot of pictures of the places that I visit, but unfortunately I do not have many pictures of Worcester that describe the phenomenon that I am describing. I will try to take some on a nice day and add them in.