I was just reviewing some population numbers for something I'm working on, and there's some places where the numbers just don't seem right. Like, I'll take their work for it, but I've been to these and they're ghost towns. According to census numbers they've got 100,000+ people who call them home and that feels like propaganda. I'll mention the two near me that got me onto this kick, but I figure we've got a national spread on this board and there's got to be plenty of places that feel more like Hollywood sets than places where real people live.
Worcester, MA - population 185,000
I've been to Worcester plenty of times and I know people from Worcester. So I know some people live there, but good luck finding people mulling around its downtown areas at any time of the day. Maybe there's a tunnel system. Maybe they've been social distancing for the past 35 years. And I've never heard of a festival there. They have venues which host events. Many years ago I went to a massive march to honor a group of firefighters who died (and ended up hanging around with Bob Backlund). Yet that all involved people coming in from elsewhere. When you're just travelling through the heart of Worcester, there's nobody. Even in my college days, the college campuses there (Holy Cross, Clark, WPI) were eerily silent. Never been caught in traffic in Worcester either. Feels like a quiet little burg.
And the downtown is distinctly unimpressive. Providence, Springfield (MA) and Hartford all feel like much bigger cities. Yet Worcester apparently is filled with snarks and grumpkins.
Stamford, CT - population 130,000
My dad used to work in Stamford. Lots of people work in Stamford. It's got office buildings and offices parks. In fact, it's all office buildings and office parks. Yet I've never met anyone who's lived in Stamford. Cos Cob (which is right next door)? Hell yeah I've met people from Cos Cob. And it's not just a case of maybe my middle class life didn't intersect with the working class folk of Stamford. I've met plenty of people from Bridgeport, Waterbury and Danbury. That's because people live in those places. I don't know anyone who's even been out to dinner in Stamford. I'm not sure you can do that there because it would involve people being around after standard working hours. Even Worcester has some restaurants. I think they're counting cubicles as people or something.
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