Now that Downtown Crossing is perfect, what's left?

This piece reminds me of that story that the Globe had to pull about some city (Baltimore?) that sounded like something the Chamber of Commerce would have written. Aren't there still a bunch of vacant stores around where Strawberries used to be?

I wouldn't be surprised if this guy was on the payroll.

What does it cost to get a puff piece these days?

Hey, downtown crossing was also exciting in the 1980s as one dodged a stray bullet here and there.

I guess I am not seeing (feeling?) all the excitement he is of having to look at another upscale coffee shop. The tacky but-in-a good way carts, which I liked, are gone now along with the fun of pushing people to get that bargain in Filene's Basement. Macy's is a sh*twhole. The other stores are "meh" (Roche's sells only the "freshest cuts of meat?!" Riiight.) and so, now wow, we have more upscale restaurants that sell $50 steaks from cows that eat only grass and marrow bones or fish in tins and expensive cheeses on boards with the wine du jour and we can sit on stairs that go to nowhere (the metaphor fits) as we ponder how we got so f*cked up.

According to Bill Linehan that area is the "Midtown Cultural District."

I wasted one of my free articles on that crap!

As someone who personally remembers what Downtown Crossing was like circa 1995, and knows many people who recall how it was in the 1960s, 1950s and 1940s; I would say that 2017 DTX barely breaks even compared to its glory days. What good is the "revival" if you can only enjoy it if your income is $50,000+ per annum? How can we talk about moving past the grime, filth and sketchiness when between dusk and dawn Winter Street is one of the few places in city limits where I mentally and physically prepare myself to beat a potential assailant into submission as a matter of course? How "world class" is a place where a single segment of Washington Street has seen its population of the homeless and destitute people living in doorways, alleys and discarded Old Navy shipping crates not diminish but skyrocket? What good are coffee shops at which two people must throw down $18 before they can enjoy a coffee and scone? (Fuck the artisanal bullshit with a broom handle! Nary one of the staff at George Howell's has been apprenticing under a master baker since they were 12!) How is the ideological handjob of an interview with a developer (who looks back fondly upon his days working with Ed Logue) a fair and legit take on what urbanism is?

Tragic that I can now count the number of good and great writers at The Globe on both hands...

A lot of negativity in these comments, so I'll post some positive thoughts.

The DTX ambassadors do a good job of keeping trash off the sidewalks. The Gordons wine store is really nice. Ruka is a beautiful restaurant. The Millennium Tower looks good and livens up the sky line. On a nice day tons of people are outside on the tables and the big stairway on Washington street, showing that Boston needs way more pedestrian zones. The coffee at Ogawa is expensive but damn does it taste good and give me a jolt.

... Common and most of our parks would go a long way to making it a cleaner, safer, and more pleasant area to visit.