Fiscal 2023 DIF Account

Old Story About A Downtown Restaurant

 

A guy we knew many years ago had a nice restaurant but struggled every year to survive.   Remember after the hospital opened commenting that how his business must have improved with the hospital.     In fact he told me it was the opposite!

 

  • Nobody ever left the hospital once they were inside.
  • It they wanted anything to eat they had the food court
  • In fact he was losing some customers to the food court

 

Reading story in MassLive today about some of the businesses around Polar Park, we could not help but  remember that conversation.    The tenants at Polar Park do not want fans wandering around the neighborhood spending monies in local businesses...     

They want to keep these patrons insider their confines spending their monies inside Polar Park...     Now keep in mind while reading column below, Polar Park is not at full capacity yet.   

 

 


 

 

Comments

Anonymous said…
If I am ever going to go to a sporting event whether it’s the woosox, bravehearts, railers, or pirates, I’m not going to think to myself at a 3:00/4:00 game “I’m going to be eating after the game somewhere.” Maybe I’ll eat beforehand but for a lot of families, dinner time is between 4-7 the exact time the game is going on. Very poor time scheduling by the woosox for that day. Railers, Pirates, and Bravehearts never moved the time of their games on Saturdays because they thought it was better for the surrounding areas (even though the brave hearts aren’t really in an area to benefit businesses). I also know for sure if a family of 3-5+ goes to a game and they have younger children, if they’re hungry, they’re not waiting till the end of the game to eat and they’ll make sure their parents know that. Even in Boston, if you go to a Red Sox, Bruins, or Celtics game and it’s a night game, the business might be closed after the game but before the game it’s extremely packed and busy.

The 4:05 game time is just a horrible idea because it kinda makes people either eat at the ballpark for dinner, or be hungry and spend tons of money on a snack until after the game. Honestly the woosox organization has been making a lot of poor decisions such as: timing of Saturday games sucks (especially for local businesses), deciding to not build the parking garage before the stadium opened and now it’s horrible especially since they want to “help” the local businesses around the Kelly square area but they’re relying on businesses to give up their spots for games and use places like Union Station to park, there’s no shuttles to the stadium from the parking garages/lots that are 10-15 minute walks away (have fun walking at night), they decided to go with a similar look of Higgins armory on the outside instead of the brick like originally planned even though the armory looks hideous now, left field is supposed to have seating on the hill just like the stadium in Pawtucket did but that’s not grown yet but they’re still selling tickets for that area. I seriously question what was the background with these decisions. Can’t forget too that they’ve promised that the stadium would be open for walking through as well if people wanted to exercise when it wasn’t a game day. Its bad now, Memorial Day weekend it’s only going to get worse with full capacity
David Z. said…
If your beloved slots parlor was built it would have been the same thing if not worse.

And the article does point out that they are getting slammed for meals before / after the games. It’s the regular restaurant traffic that is off. The problem isn’t Polar Park, it’s folks that believe they should be able to park right outside their destination. It’s been a Worcester thing forever. In lots of cities big and small, folks park sometimes blocks away and walk to their favorite restaurants, stores, etc.
Bill Randell said…
My beloved clots parlor would have cost $175 million less then Polar Park amd created jobs 24/7. Ever been to Lincoln?? Don't go down the slots road. That was a huge lost opportunity for Worcester.

Anonymous said…
First, restaurants live and die by their "usual" customer base during the prime dinner timeframe. When this base becomes eroded by a lack of parking it becomes problematic.
I will concede that I believe you are correct that a slot parlor may not have been the best use for the property across the street but at this moment in time I see nothing there but a road and the beginnings of a City garage, so I am not convinced at this time that the City's plan is realistic.
Conversely, the WooSox are in a competitive advantage with $175M ball park, financed by the City, which their lease is probably worth 45 cents on the dollar in terms of total construction costs. That is not a bad position to be in when your concessions directly compete with local restaraunts for both patrons and parking.
The excitement of opening day is now behind us and it is apparent that there are parking issues that should have been anticipated well before opening day. It is the City's responsibility to rectify these issue for the tax paying businesses in the Canal District whose investments were creation of the Canal District which the WooSox are now beneficiaries of.
Anonymous said…
Parking in the Canal District is a supply and demand issue. The introduction of this many baseball fans into the Canal District without increasing the amount of parking spaces is illogical and has had the adverse consequences one should have anticipated. I can not comprehend what the increased disruption of going from 25% to 100% occupancy will be.The garage should have been construction simultaneously with the opening Polar Park but even so a 300 space garage will only put a dent in what is going to be a bigger parking problem once full occupancy of Polar Park occurs. My hope is this does nor set back the success that the Canal District has become. These businesses tried to survive a health pandemic now they must try to survive a parking pandemic. I hope they can.
The City missed the mark on this issue immensely!
Anonymous said…
The city paid the WooSox $175 million to compete against local tax paying businesses. These small businesses will be rewarded for their sacrifice after a pandemic buy having their higher commercial tax rate raised yet again. Sewer/ water fees are going up, too.

What a blunder. Vote against anyone running for council that refuses to address this discriminatory tax burden that is only going to accelerate.