Hi Ira,

These are all excellent points and I agree with your sentiment. The indoor/outdoor dynamic is less important in New England because of the cold climate but the changing nature of retail and the service industry in general that you note is key. A lot of what was originally for sale at the mall has been replaced with online shopping, and nothing “new” has replaced it even though this location is good, is as central as possible in the city. So then the larger issue is the lack of pedestrians/shoppers downtown, which is a chicken/egg problem since there will never be shoppers until there is something to shop for, but the city also does little to nothing to support “pop-up” shops that could bring shoppers downtown for at least a period of time.

I’d really like to see more flexible and innovative city governance/management in all issues, but certainly including downtown redevelopment in a more incremental fashion. Why not encourage a super small cafe or bike shop to open with streamlined permitting and nearly free rent in a city-owned building? What’s to lose? And, regarding the mall, if the city wants to claim it through eminent domain to demolish or say turn it into something similar to what you suggest, more in line with contemporary retail desires, then they should just do so and not wait another two, three, five, or ten years. Until then downtown Worcester will remain stuck in the 80s…