Worcester Kelley Square

Notre Dame or Mount Carmel? Good Catholic you are, neither was a cathedral. St Pauls is. You have your opinion. I have mine. If ND or MC still had full pews, they would still be there.
 
We disagree. I think both are to be bemoaned as they were both things that made Worcester the place that I love.
 
Tallguy said:
We disagree. I think both are to be bemoaned as they were both things that made Worcester the place that I love.
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What is it about the layout of the square that you loved? Why is changing the flow of traffic detrimental to the soul of the city?
 
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To be fair to Tallguy, talking about the "soul of they city" is esoteric. Asking him to prove why he feels like something in the city's soul or character is lost by fixing the intersection isn't productive. It's like gentrification. Some people, especially locals, come to love and identify with the grit and imperfections that make neighborhoods unique, and give locals "sage knowledge" of their community that outsiders don't understand. It's a feeling. And one that's hard to hold a debate about.
 
Worcester is Turtle Boy. Things that make Worcester Wormtown?
The Boulevard Diner- The best diner left. The Miss Woo and the Corner Lunch are good but...

Lincoln Sq....Great architecture. The Auditorium. The Courthouse. Several great churches. The Worcester Womens Club building. The Salisbury Mansions ...The Armory. Lots of styles but it works.

The Plaza Club view. .tougher to see nowadays.

Coney Island Dogs. The three story neon signs is reason enough, but 80 years of initials, symbols etc. Carved into the seats...people whose great-great grandfather brought his kids there and every generation since. Oh, damn good dogs as well.

Bancroft Tower.

Vincents on Grafton Hill...best Meatball sandwich in the world!

Ralphs...Classic dive nightclub for 40 years

The old Worcester State Hospital. Scariest...building...ever. The ClockHouse remains..A classic piece of Victoria..Mansard roof Imposing view to the east.

Higgins Armory

Worcester Art Museum..amazing art.

The barely remembered place where Goddard undertook his earliest experiments.

Kelley Sq.

Spags

Elm Park. Oldest municipal park in USA

American Antiquarian Society.

Union Station
 
Tallguy said:
Notre Dame or Mount Carmel?
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I meant Notre Dame, but the honest answer is both.

I know that neither was technically a cathedral, but I always thought of Notre Dame as one.

George_Apley said:
To be fair to Tallguy, talking about the "soul of they city" is esoteric. Asking him to prove why he feels like something in the city's soul or character is lost by fixing the intersection isn't productive. It's like gentrification. Some people, especially locals, come to love and identify with the grit and imperfections that make neighborhoods unique, and give locals "sage knowledge" of their community that outsiders don't understand. It's a feeling. And one that's hard to hold a debate about.
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I really don’t care about holding a debate.

It’s a bit disingenuous to compare this to gentrification. In fact, the opposite is usually true about gentrification, where the physical representation of the city is preserved at residents’ expense.
 
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Blackbird said:
It’s a bit disingenuous to compare this to gentrification. In fact, the opposite is usually true about gentrification, where the physical representation of the city is preserved at residents’ expense.
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I don't think it's disingenuous at all. It's not about whether physical things are preserved or destroyed, it's about the pride and attachment locals have for things the way they are, warts and all. In Kelley Square's case, the pride that "I can navigate that fucking awful intersection because this is my town." I'm not saying that policy-makers should cater to that sense, I'm just saying it's a genuine feeling that some people have.
 
I understand the point that George is making (and very well stated btw) and the following humorous article about Kelly Square underscores that very point, perverse as it may be.

www.bostonglobe.com

Worcester’s Kelley Square: Terrifying. Woefully confusing. Peak Massachusetts. - The Boston Globe

It’s terrifying. It woefully confusing. It’s Worcester’s Kelley Square. Your best bet for getting through? Be a shark. Be a wolf. And don’t ever stop moving.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

On a personal note, having navigated that cluster fxxx of an intersection many times, there is nothing about it that I will miss.
 
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Tallguy said:
The Boulevard Diner- The best diner left. The Miss Woo and the Corner Lunch are good but...
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Strong disagree with this list. Corner Lunch is terrible these days. Boulevard is meh. I haven't been in the Miss Worcester for awhile so no comment.

1. The Parkway
2. The Broadway
3. Gold Star Diner

That's the top three in my mind.

Spags
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Long gone...
 
I won't shed a tear for Kelley Square which I drove through a number of times. It was a mess. That said I would agree Kelley Square meant more to Worcesterites than the Notre Dame church which was basically a useless hunk of stunk in the center of the city.
 
Both Notre Dame and Mount Carmel have been replaced by weed overgrown dirt lots. Even before COVID the plans to build residential units on the former have been scrapped. Those empty parcels will be there for a long time.
 
There's a lot that can be said about the fate of abandoned churches. It's a good discussion. Just don't say it here. Shift over to Worcester Developments to continue talking about ND or MC.
 
meddlepal said:
Strong disagree with this list. Corner Lunch is terrible these days. Boulevard is meh. I haven't been in the Miss Worcester for awhile so no comment.

1. The Parkway
2. The Broadway
3. Gold Star Diner

That's the top three in my mind.



Long gone...
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The Parkway? It calls itself a gastropub!
The Broadway? The Gold Star? Good food, but I fall on the side of the argument that it isn't a diner if it isn't IN a diner. And I haven't eaten at the Corner Lunch in a while.
 
I miss the Boynton, but it was never actually that good. Just good dive with passable food.
 
Aerial view of Kelley Square posted from Worcester's official FB page on 6/28.

74345984_3038041512939865_1829098940480621961_o.jpg
 
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