We're just being a couple a Sarcastic Sammies

What's that? Sorry, can't hear you over the sound of another police brutality victim cashing their settlement check.

People have been calling for a search ever since Augustus announced his resignation, pointing to the school committee's recent successful search process as an example of what to do, as well as the botched searches from the past two CM selections as an example of what not to do.

It's also just what normal, functioning cities do.

ALSO look at who the city councilors who have been pushing for a search are, and maybe reconsider if it's Batista's race (or anything about Batista, really, other then the process by which he was selected and the cronyism it demonstrates) that matters in the slightest bit here.

This is wildly ahistorical.

Not to worry, people were definitely complaining that the council was trying to spend entire *thousands* of dollars to make the single most important decision that they make.

Well it's not working because too many of the entrenched councilors aren't willing to do anything approaching "leadership". This might be an unpopular opinion, but I'm not sure that would necessarily change with a strong mayor system. We need better councilors before anything else!

Ah, classic Karen - what happens when someone's brain is so poisoned they can only communicate in trite cliches.

Unions are good when they protect workers from corporate greed, and bad when they shield public servants from accountability. Any questions?

Man's out here trying to get on r/bestof

Is this a serious question?

Except Birch Tree is also a popular pizza spot and was running beer and pizza deals before games this past season, so they actually are in the conversation.

Bay State has the advantage of a dedicated parking lot, so they're a natural fit to see a bump during game days. But they aren't, because the people who go to the games aren't going out before or after. They're driving in, going to the game, and leaving after.

Meanwhile, it appears as though people who aren't going to the games are also staying away during games, likely due to the perceived lack of parking. This is something the city can and absolutely has to improve. And too much of the public simply does want to park right in front, and that absolutely needs to change as well.

This idea that the Canal District is or was this shitty area that needed saving by the ballpark is fucking psychotic - did you not see how many different small businesses opened in the area before Covid hit? The whole Crompton building, the Public Market, the ice rink, a few dispensaries, gyms, and all those bars and restaurants? It's been one of the few places in the city that has enough dense, walkable commerce to function like an actual city. Again, I'm not even placing much blame for these closings on the ballpark, but the idea that each of these businesses have somehow fumbled the bag is just nonsense.

Dunno if they're the best pick style-wise, but Heartland Barber is trans-friendly.

Gotcha!

I feel like these closures are getting progressively worse. Hangover had some good ideas but never operated well, Buck's had some good food, Smokestack had a solid 10 year run, and Maddi's seemed like a beloved neighborhood spot (Worcester Eats is fucking *devastated*). Gotta be worried about who's next.

What is Urban?

Depends what you mean by "before the stadium opened" because the stadium opened in the middle of the pandemic. Before Covid? The area was definitely thriving and growing, that's *why* they put the stadium where they did.

I put the effects of Covid way above the ballpark as a cause for these closures, but blaming the restaurants themselves for the ballpark failing to help them when the promise was that they would is just silly. The Banner is literally the only place in the area I've heard of that gets a bump on game days, and they're also rumored to be for sale. And can anyone honestly say it's a better place than Maddi's, or Buck's, or Birch Tree, or Bay State Brewing? (The last two of which have both said they either get hurt or don't see a bump during games.)

Also, Maddi's was open on more weekdays and later on weekends only until the past year or so. The hours they had at the end are an effect of what closed them, not a cause.

Basically all of it can be tracked back to Covid, which led to the high costs/inflation and staffing issues, as well as a sharp drop-off in restaurant traffic, which is going weirdly underdiscussed.

The ballpark is probably getting too much attention as a cause of these closures, buuuut the city did pay $160m for something that is, at the very least, not helping the businesses we were told they would.

I mean it might not be parking specifically but restaurants in the canal district have been talking about business being bad during games ever since the park opened. The prediction that business would be flowing over from the ballpark is, with extremely few exceptions, not materializing.

Horseshit, they were regularly open longer hours on weekends, and on more weekdays pre-covid and even in 2020. For example: https://www.instagram.com/p/B11Xt0cnDie/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

EDIT: lol ok well since you've edited your comment from "Those have always been their hours", here's one where they posted about opening at 4 on Mon and Wed, and another about being open until 11 on a Saturday.

Those hours are an effect, not a cause.

The garage across from the stadium was open this year. Dunno if it was enough to alleviate the parking issue, but it's worth noting.

But more to your point - it doesn't matter if these restaurants weren't winning fuckin James Beard awards or whatever, three (going on four) businesses in one neighborhood all closing down within a two month period is a pattern that can't reasonably be ignored.

That chicken sandwich is a fucking steal though, I tell you what.

Cafe Neo, right across Kelley Square, also just announced that their landlord is looking to push them out to build apartments there instead.

I know better than to blame Polar Park exclusively (COVID and inflation definitely factor in) but yeah it's definitely not helping.

This wasn't the consensus before they closed but certainly is now after the fact.

Smokestack just announced they're closing, too. Gotta assume the commenters are about to piss on their grave too instead of interrogating why that one street is seeing so much turnover suddenly.

I'll second Birch Tree (best pizza in the city). Chashu also does jazz nights on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month.