Which comes first, housing or Jobs? or Retail?

Another great article in the T&G discussing City Square and Downtown Worcester.

https://www.telegram.com/story...

This article talks about the 2 remaining parcels in Downtown that are ripe for development, and suggests that Residential Housing is what is needed.

We all know that Worcester needs more housing.

Here is where the real question comes.

When are the big employers going to come to Worcester?

Unum (Formerly Paul Revere Insurance, and Provident) has a big building downtown, but recently announced that their employees would no longer work out of the Worcester office.

We are all aware that Fidelity Investments moved from Marlboro, MA to North Smithfield, RI and Merrimack, NH.

Will providing additional luxury housing for High Earners lead these employers to open up shop in Worcester, for when they want their employees to come back to work?

Will Worcester get a MALL again?

Will Worcester get a Movie Theatre again?

People coming from outside of the area are amazed that Worcester, the second largest city in New England, somehow is unable to support either a mall or a movie theatre.

Perhaps it is because many of these high earners don't work in the City at present and live here and commute east to higher paying jobs.

When will Worcester amass enough high earners to justify a developer to make a Mall or a Movie theatre?

I think those people are here, but unfortunately the Dual Tax Rate system which unfairly burdens commercial investment has pushed these types of developments out of the City where they belong, to the suburbs with lower tax rates.  

This hurts the citizens of Worcester as they have to drive and hurts Worcester's appeal as a Walkable 18 hour city, where the only things one can do is go out to Eat and the WooSox.