MEET THE NEW WORCESTERITES: THESE PEOPLE CHOSE NEW ENGLAND'S 2ND LARGEST CITY
Photo by Aviva Luttrell
Travis Duda: 'We got far more bang for our buck here'
When they would drive up from Connecticut to see shows at the Palladium, Travis Duda and his friends would lock the car and hide their valuables under the seat.
"We'd only go straight to the venue because we'd heard all these horror stories about Worcester," he said.
But that's all changed.
Give years ago, Duda, 32, and his wife bought a home in the city. He says he's never felt as connected to a place as he does to Worcester.
"We got far more bang for our buck here than somewhere else, and then once we were here, we started getting tapped into the culture and found there were so many people that really care about this city and are trying to make it a cool place," he said. "I keep hearing there's a renaissance going on. I couldn't identify it, but overall, if you compare it to where we were 10 years ago in Worcester, there are leaps and bounds."
Today, he said there is so much going on in the city that he can't keep up.
Duda runs a graphic design company - Hunchback Graphics - and also makes popovers on the side with Asylum Coffeetorium. He said the city has become increasingly supportive of that type of "gig culture" and is giving opportunities to artists that they never had before.
