Worcester

Worcester is a mid-sized city in central MA. Worcester is best described as a city that has all the things you don't want in your city(i.e. crime, bad schools, bad roads, filthy industrial areas, numerous liberal arts colleges etc), and none of the things you do want in your city (i.e. nice restaurants, safe parks, culture, a downtown, something to do, etc). If you want to get an idea for what Worcester looks like, drive into a major city. There's a good chance you'll find yourself driving through a run down urban neighborhood that has an alarming number of sketchy looking take out places, far more bars than one would think could stay open and an uncomfortable urge to lock your doors. Imagine an area the size of a city like this. Toss in a dozen or so colleges, a few industrial areas, a couple sketchy parks and a "downtown" consisting of a half-dozen medium sized office buildings and an alarming number of drug dealers. Congrats, you're picturing Worcester. Now all this doesn't necessarily add up to a bad thing, far from it. Worcester can actually be a wonderful place to live for some people. The key to being happy in Worcester is knowing what's wonderful about it and not minding what kinda sucks about it. If you're the kind of person who loves cheap and dirty apartments, cheap and dirty bars, cheap and dirty restaurants (especially diners, Worcester literally invented them), and cheap and dirty college students, well Worcester is just perfect for you.