As if she hadn’t had enough adventures in the course of winning the Telegram & Gazette’s 2nd annual Worcester Selfie Scavenger Hunt, Claudia Snell had to brave a Liam Neeson shootout on the way to discuss the challenge on the Worcester Culture Watch Podcast at the T&G office.

“It’s in the neighborhood where I normally work,” said Snell, “Liam Neeson is apparently having some gunfights and things that’s making the whole area difficult to get around … there’s a movie shooting going on, I just didn’t feel like being a part of it.”

As surreal as that might seem, it’s sort of indicative of how dynamic things in Worcester seem to be right now, with everything from becoming a regular location for Hollywood movie shoots to development-driven changes that might bring new business and potentially shutter others. It’s a time of change, and a good excuse to explore, which is what Snell wanted to do when she learned of the Scavenger Hunt.







“It just looked like a lot of fun, and a list of things that you should see,” said Snell, a web developer who also runs the Worcester Turtle Boy blog, which details interesting things about the city (not to be confused with a more controversial website with a similar name.) “It just made it easier to make a plan and go out and look at stuff.”

She certainly did: Snell managed to snag photos at The Bean Counter, The Burnside Fountain, the mural on the wall of WooBerry Ice Cream, Coney Island Hot Dogs, the Factory of Terror, the Table Talk Pies store, Comedy in the Cabaret at Nick’s Bar and Restaurant, the Dirty Gerund Poetry Series at Ralph’s Rock Diner and Bancroft Tower. She also tried to snag a picture at BirchTree Bread Company — while also visiting the new Bedlam Book Café and the new location for Seeds to Stem in the Crompton Collective building — but it was too crowded that day.

The bustling activity she encountered in that neighborhood underscored what a flashpoint Green Island and Kelley Square are for the city’s changes, with some speculating that the expanded “downtown revitalization area” might encroach on what is already an increasingly thriving neighborhood. The Cove Music Hall, for example, is closing its doors on Dec. 20, although it is unclear how directly that is tied to the city’s development plans, or if it will move to another location. Whatever the reasons for the closing, though, it’s another sign of change, and it lends some urgency to the idea of exploring the city’s hidden treasures before they’re gone.

Snell, for her part, feels she barely scratched the list of 40 locations in the Scavenger Hunt.

“I had a great time,” she said of the experience, “I got to see a lot of things, and the most I spent anywhere was The Factory of Terror, and that was 20 bucks. So I’m thinking, you can get out there, you can have a great time, do all kinds of fun things and meet people and really not spend a ton of money. It’s really affordable to do these sort of things … We have so much, and it’s really accessible to everyone. For now.”

Email Victor D. Infante at Victor.Infante@Telegram.com and follow him on Twitter @ocvictor.