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Old 08-27-2020, 06:35 PM
 
Location: Washington DC
853 posts, read 693,687 times
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Last week I started college in Worcester. On previous visits, I have felt like it is it's own city (it has it's own downtown, minor league teams). However, I have realized that many people here treat it like it's part of the Boston area.

Is it part of the Boston area or is it it's own thing?
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Old 08-27-2020, 06:40 PM
 
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Yes.
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Old 08-27-2020, 06:58 PM
 
Location: Bergen County, New Jersey
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Increasingly, yes.
Historically, no.

To me? I think so.
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Old 08-27-2020, 07:02 PM
 
Location: Boston
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Corey the Otter View Post
Last week I started college in Worcester. On previous visits, I have felt like it is it's own city (it has it's own downtown, minor league teams). However, I have realized that many people here treat it like it's part of the Boston area.

Is it part of the Boston area or is it it's own thing?
I'd say it is its own area, for many of the reasons you state. Yes, some people commute to Boston from Worcester (sounds painful) but there's people from Providence to commute to Boston (also sounds painful) and I wouldn't consider Providence any more a part of Boston than Worcester.

My cut-off for the Boston MSA is the 128 loop. Beyond that are towns considered part of the Boston CSA, but not MSA.
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Old 08-27-2020, 07:14 PM
 
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Not part of the Boston area. It is its own city.
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Old 08-27-2020, 07:49 PM
 
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It’s tied to Boston in so much as the healthcare and higher ed within overlaps somewhat heavily.

Culturally, it’s independent of Boston ... Providence less so.
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Old 08-27-2020, 07:56 PM
 
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When I went to school in Worcester it certainly wasn’t, and I guess I’d be surprised if that’s changed.
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Old 08-27-2020, 08:17 PM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
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In WMass we consider Worcester to be in Central MA and Boston is EasternMA. But maybe it's changing if Worcester people work in the Boston area.
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Old 08-27-2020, 08:39 PM
 
Location: Central Mass
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Legally yes. Greater Boston CSA contains Boston-Cambridge MSA, Providence MSA, Worcester MSA, and Manchester-Nashua-Concord MSA.

Culturally? A Little bit. Big concerts and events are in Boston. The Worcester MBTA line is the busiest line (but lots more people get on and off in Natick and Framingham than Worcester)

If I were to make a DC analogy: DC is to Baltimore as Boston is to Providence. DC is to Annapolis as Boston is to Worcester.
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Old 08-28-2020, 07:12 AM
 
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As this map shows the eastern heavily populated part of MA includes Worcester, and I believe this is why Worcester is considered part of Boston CSA. So as scorpio said is technically part of Boston metro. And I am sure there are plenty of economic data showing that Worcester gravitates more toward east than toward itself.


(from wikimedia)

If you are not talking about the big picture things are more complicated. I have met at least a person from Worcester that had never been to Boston by age 18 (or something). And the majority of people that I know in Worcester that work around it very VERY rarely go to Boston.
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