Dotted with tumbledown relics of urban Americana—empty storefronts with faded signs; vacant lots and factories; the occasional retro diner—it might be surprising to learn that Worcester, Massachusetts, is New England’s second-most-populous city; the once thriving industrial town was largely abandoned when its manufacturing jobs dissolved or migrated elsewhere in the decades following World War II. But amid this blight, a robust downtown core shows signs that things have been changing; tech and biomedical businesses have established a foothold here, generating new construction and services in this affordable alternative to Boston, just a 45-minute drive to the east. Among a slew of publicly funded projects, a new visitors center embraces the city’s forward-thinking agenda, seeking to reclaim a rich legacy tarnished by years of economic and environmental freefall.