The Globe resurrects the idea of reopening Washington Street to traffic as if that would solve all the problems related to the lack of stores - and let's not forget the question of where all those people would park. Hmm, but you could solve the parking problem by turning the Filene's Memorial Hole into a garage, although that would still leave you with no reason for people to drive down there. But maybe if they also shut down the Downtown Crossing and Park Street T stops, we could force people to drive there.
The Outraged Liberal is no fan of the car idea, either:
... Retail. That's what would bring the area back.
That and taking back bad decisions such as building an urban fortress on Washington Street that housed the uninviting and ill-fated Lafayatte Mall and is now home to an Eddie Bauer outlet and taco shop and heaven knows what else. ...
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Comments
I think an urban Shaws like
By ShadyMilkMan
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 9:00pm
I think an urban Shaws like the one in Back Bay in the same building as an Urban Target would be ideal if someone could make it work.
Heck you could make it a vertical mall and include one of those Ikea mini stores where you can pick stuff out and have it delivered from Ikea Somerville (for the extra fee of course.)
Oh, god...
By independentminded
Sun, 03/01/2009 - 4:19pm
Downtown Crossing needs more cars and a Wal-Mart like a hole in the ground. No way would either these things benefit the Downtown Crossing area. Re-opening Downtown Crossing to vehicular traffic would be a disaster. it's too congested down there, and there's too much foot traffic, which is why they closed it off to vehicular traffic in the first place. Wal-Mart, with its lousy work policies and poor wages, would also be a disaster.
Bring Cars back to Downtown?? NO WAY!
By Craig Caplan
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 1:39pm
Saying that shop owners are willing to try just about anything to make their businesses more successful during a recession and opening up the area to traffic is just another thing to try, without even making one point in your article how this would create more business is rediculous. Bromfield is open to traffic all day and it doesn't create more business. Temple, West, Franklin Streets are all open to cars and after working in Downtown Crossing for 20 years I can tell you does NOT create more sales for anyone. It does create more car exaust(pollution), more traffic accidents, more illegal parking, danger for pedestrians and general problems created by the inability to cross the street, clean the streets and help the area. Downtown Crossing is in the state it's in because all of the people involved are on different pages. An UPSCALE outdoor pedestrian mall worked for many many years. I know I was part of it. The city needs to completely block the street so no trucks, ambulances, UPS, garbage trucks can drive through or park. They need to buy nice, stationary kiosks with electricity to be put out on the street and a festive atmosphere must be created and maintained. It must be safe which means the BPD must have zero tolereance for any riff raff which is clearly not the case now. Anyone who thinks these pedestrian landscapes don't work should visit, Fremont St in Vegas, South Beach, Miami, or remember BaySide Market or South Street Seaport? Our own Faneuil Hall would still be a huge destination if not for the economy and poor management. The city spent $250,000 to come up with a branding strategy for the downtown and I all I see to show for it is a picture of lots of people on the side of the empty Filene's building. Come on Mr. Mayor what about the rest of the plan? Outdoor cafe's, constant music, and fixing the broken down pushcart marketplace? Why not spend money on what will make people stop and spend? I understand there is a giant hole in the ground and many empty, vacant stores but until the landlords like Mr. Druker lower rents so unique and interesting retailers can afford to take a risk down there and until the city invests in the people who work there like they invested in the Big Dig, the Charlie Card and other things, nothing will change in downtown. They supposedly spent 100,000 dollars on the Christmas promotions in DTX. I don't see how that much was spent personally but everyone knows the Christmas season lasts two weeks at best for a retailer. What about the other 50 weeks we are open? Until the city of Boston takes a serious interest in fixing Downtown with everyone involved, vendors, store owners, developers, property owners, residents and consumers, NOTHING will change. And opening it up to cars will just make it worse. Much worse.
If you want people to read that ...
By Ron Newman
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 2:02pm
... could you please break it up into a few paragraphs? Thanks.
Oh, I dunno
By Spatch
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 3:04pm
It has a certain "standing on the Common just hollering at random passersby" charm to it this way.
Isn't that what blogs *are*?
By neilv
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 4:16pm
Isn't that what blogs *are*? :)
it's a shame you guys are dismissing content, due to form
By zbert
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 4:35pm
Not everyone's as clever a writer/editor as the highbrow regulars. What I see there is someone who reminds me a lot of the local merchants I used to work with (elsewhere). .. to mock someone who's got potentially valuable information and experience, because you can't take your time to read slowly, well, the whole discussion suffers... and in part that's why the city and country sort of suck right now - critiques of form over substance.
Here it is again, paragraphed for the short-attention-span crowd, and edited for form but not for content:
I was not 'mocking'
By Ron Newman
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 4:44pm
Just making a friendly suggestion. Thanks for breaking it up. I actually agree with much of the message, but it won't help if people don't read it.
I read the entire thing when
By neilv
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 4:48pm
I read the entire thing when it was originally posted, and found it worthwhile, if difficult to read.
But everyone in the growing online community has to learn the basics of participating. A Lord of the Flies public lynching is not as welcoming as a gently admonishing private message, granted. :)
okok
By zbert
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 4:54pm
i was too bitchy. Sorry. That's my empathy showing for small business people who aren't experts at every little thing, and who in particular, suffer constantly in dealings with cities because of sincere-but-not-conforming-to-marketing-style communications, and because city officials (everywhere) are much bigger suckers for well-crafted PR phraseology than the general public.
I learned that lesson hard when my alma mater ran a front page story on its PR mailing (going to, dunno, 50K people, and picked up by the student paper and other official media) about a huge national vendor contributing $10,000 worth of gear (costing the vendor perhaps $5,000) to a small department at the school. My own tiny company had just before that donated about twice that much real value in services, cash, and discounts to the school. I asked why they didn't put my company on the front page. Answer: "You didn't send us a press release."
Anyone who thinks these
By NotWhitey
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 5:33pm
Anyone who thinks these pedestrian landscapes don't work should visit Fremont St in Vegas, South Beach in Miami
Bwahahaha!
Stop, your killing me!
Now hold on...
By neilv
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 5:55pm
I believe strongly that core Boston should emphasize pedestrians more than it does already.
But invoking Vegas or Miami as anything other than a cautionary tale is confusing to me. :)
it's just another "downtown" for boston
By zbert
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 6:04pm
South Beach has a decent pedestrian area. So does Santa Monica, for that matter... and Denver, and Portland (last time I was there), and lots of other places.
I think it's an error to think of DTX as anything but another core area, like Central Square cambridge, Inman Square, Brookline Center, and so on. The difference is that DTX is all-commercial.
Also, there will be complaints that it's "outside" compared to indoor malls usually found in cold places, or that the outdoor-focused areas are in warm town. I think the density of DTX, and its proximity to so many POTENTIAL centers of interest, means there would be hope for its revival, if only there were some vision and leadership, which are both sadly lacking in Boston.
DTX is more or less directly connected to: Chinatown, Theater District, The Common, Faneuil Hall and is a major transportation hub and one of the easiest places to reach on the T.
It should be a massive crossroads, and I don't mean for taxis, garbage trucks and confused tourists in cars.
Agreed on DTX. But I think
By neilv
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 7:01pm
Agreed on DTX.
But I think Bostonian general audiences associate "Vegas" and "Miami" with vice, organized crime, and the superficial, which is not what they want for Boston.
Vega$ and Miami
By zbert
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 4:27pm
Fine then, it can be like one of those new "Lifestyle Centres" that have popped up all over the midwest.
For the uninitiated, these are outdoor shopping malls where people walk from store to store by going outside, and then entering the next store... and then walking to a restaurant in the same outdoor shopping mall area for some food...
.. you know, just like Soho, or, egads, just like what Downtown Crossing was before it began to cave in on itself.
apparently the model is fine. there's an execution problem in Boston due to neglect, lack of vision, and a leadership void.
I believe the phrase you're looking for is ...
By adamg
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 5:25pm
Patriots Place.
lifestyle center
By Ron Newman
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 5:30pm
or [url=http://www.waysidecommons.com/info.html]Wayside Commons[/url] in Burlington, which has LL Bean as an anchor store. I'd love to have one of those stores in downtown Boston.
One difference between a lifestyle center and Downtown Crossing: a lifestyle center is completely owned by a single landlord. Downtown Crossing consists of buildings with many separate owners.
So the solution
By anon
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 5:35pm
Is to turn Downtown Crossing into a suburban mall?
I think that's about the only thing that could make Downtown Crossing even worse.
Where did I say that?
By Ron Newman
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 5:44pm
But I do think an LL Bean would be a tremendous draw -- and it's a New England local store, too.
It just hit me... a Trader
By ShadyMilkMan
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 6:10pm
It just hit me... a Trader Joes , nuff said
Trader Joe's
By Ron Newman
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 6:18pm
I'd love to see one, but they may think it is too close to their Back Bay store.
Not too close
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 10:22pm
It is not too close to their other store. I have seen them this close together in Seattle and in San Francisco, and it works because people flock to them to save money on eating out for lunch while at work and the hassles of carrying stuff.
If you think in terms of "not car" and in terms of how many people work within a one kilometer radius of the site, I think it would be viable.
The thing with LL Bean, though, Ron, is, that,
By independentminded
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 6:49pm
from what I recall, they've not been doing well at all, really. If my memory serves me correctly, LL Beans, at one point, offered some 400 employees severence pay if they'd leave voluntarily, rather than issue pink slips to specific people. Not a good sign, imho.
I didn't mean that literally
By zbert
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 6:42pm
sorry, i certainly did not mean that literally
what i was trying to show was that the (hideous, IMO) "lifestyle centers" that ARE drawing people are just plastic imitations of what DTX really is.
People will go to outdoor places, even if it's in a cold city
With the number of subway and bus crossings there, the city can deliver lots of people to downtown crossing veyr easily. they just need reasons to go there.
DTX and Soho, NYC are good things to compare... think of an AFFORDABLE Soho district...
Much of what you say are points well taken, ShadyMilkMan.
By independentminded
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 6:57pm
However, this:
is something that I take issue with. Here' why: There has to be an allowance for ambulances or other emergency vehicles to enter, in case of some sort of emergency. Delivery trucks, if they're delivering lots and lots of stuff, or stuff that's huge, need easy, immediate access, and garbage trucks have to be able enter easily to pick up their garbage.
Deliveries shouldn't be made in the middle of the day
By Ron Newman
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 7:00pm
and garbage collection shouldn't be happening then, either. Limit those activities to 10pm-7am and keep the street for pedestrians the rest of the time.
What about having garbage collection between 10pm & 7am,
By independentminded
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 7:51pm
and having the deliveries during the early-morning hours?
Emergency vehicles, on the other hand (i. e. ambulance, fire, police), imho, should be allowed access at all hours of the day, for obvious reasons.
Necessary vehicle access is rare
By neilv
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 8:17pm
Fire needs to get engines and ladders in immediately on rare occasions.
Police with a constant foot/bike presence need cruiser/wagon/etc. access only on rare occasions.
Ambulance needs to get in only on rare occasions, ambulance does not need to get right to the door in the worst case, foot/bike police will be first on the scene and can do some EMT things.
You could even get creative with a regular EMT "foot presence" and camping an ambulance right on the edge of the pedestrian area. Maybe keeping an AED and EMT kit in the police booth or similar. Or have a booth that doubles as a community health satellite center and for keeping EMTs/nurses nearby.
With an EMT "foot presence",
By independentminded
Wed, 03/04/2009 - 8:46pm
suppose a person has a heart-attack or a stroke? Shouldn't the ambulance be right there?
If an EMT runs up to you in
By neilv
Wed, 03/04/2009 - 9:05pm
If an EMT runs up to you in 30 seconds and an ambulance is en route from where it was idling 2 blocks away, I think that's faster response than you'll get most places.
That's probably true, neilvandyke, but
By independentminded
Wed, 03/04/2009 - 9:32pm
how is it possible for an EMT who's on foot going to be able to carry a heavy de-fibrillator or other stablizing equipment in the event of a heart attack or stroke, for instance? That's why I favor letting a fully-equipped ambulance into the area....because then the patient can be loaded into the ambulance and the stabilization process begun immediately prior to rushing him/her to the closest hospital around.
Miki, think for a second
By eekanotloggedin
Wed, 03/04/2009 - 9:40pm
If someone collapses on a pedestrian mall in DTX, they're closer to a street than if, say, they collapse on the 30th floor of an office building. Should we modify office buildings too to allow an ambulance to drive up to the 30th floor? Or does our current method of EMTs running to the person with a stretcher and medic bags seem to be working just fine?
FYI, the type of AED you find in most buildings (the kind on which people are routinely trained in civilian CPR courses) weighs about 5 pounds. Other types can be 10 or 20.
I was not talking about inside any of the buildings,
By independentminded
Thu, 03/05/2009 - 1:17am
but outside, in the street.
Holy geez...
By Kaz
Thu, 03/05/2009 - 1:31am
You completely missed the point.
Do what?
By Kaz
Wed, 03/04/2009 - 9:52pm
Hmm, maybe the same way that they would get to the center court at the Mall of America or the top floor of a 4-story walkup to save lives whenever it's necessary...walk and/or run?
There are indoor spaces with bigger footprints than all of Downtown Crossing (including the buildings). You'd be no further from help by EMT if they closed the roads there than a lot of other malls in America.
1. The ambulance can drive
By neilv
Wed, 03/04/2009 - 10:17pm
1. The ambulance can drive right in. In an emergency.
2. There are AEDs that are easily carried by an individual. If necessary.
You don't need regular car traffic past the front door to have timely ambulance response.
And, by thinking creatively, I think you can get *better* typical EMS response than you would if you were relying on an ambulance somewhere in the area fighting its way through traffic.
neilvandyke, Kaz, eeka, and everybody else:
By independentminded
Thu, 03/05/2009 - 6:22am
This:
is my whole point.
Then you're still missing the point
By Kaz
Thu, 03/05/2009 - 11:56am
In a bazillion emergency responses a year, the ambulance doesn't have any _need_ (and often it has no ability) to drive right in and people are saved just fine every time. Give up on trying to argue that EMTs need a drive-thru window for saving lives at DTX as part of the future plan.
This whole topic has gotten
By ShadyMilkMan
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 7:07pm
This whole topic has gotten so big... that wasnt me, I couldnt figure out who said that tho.
Thank you for the Criticism.
By Craig Caplan
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 6:30pm
I was angry and had 2 minutes before my promise of sledding with the kids would have rang hollow. I will use correct punctuation and paragraphs from now on. I do apologise.
My comparison of Vegas and other places wasn't to suggest we should emulate or copy them it was only to serve as a reminder that right now in those places there are crowds spending money. Having been to FL and Vegas this winter I can attest to that.
Downtown Crossing is an area that non-retailers have been trying to fix since the DNC which they also screwed up royally. The problem is they all have ulterior motives. The Downtown Crossing Partnership which was once called the Association wants to create a BID or Business Improvement District. That will give them power, control and money to do what they wish in DTX. The BRA deals with developers and property owners, the Mayor wants to be re-elected, (we assume) and the people who work, commute through, own businesses, shop and eat there want something else.
The last group count the most but are largely ignored. The retailers are struggling to make a living in a recessionary period next to a huge empty building/hole in the ground. There are very few retailers on the board of the DCA and none with a direct line to the Mayor's office. That's why you see no change and no smart money being pumped into the area.
It's time to get angry and demand a change. This is the center of Boston. It's a diverse area with infinite potential. They need to create a destination where people can gather, feel safe, be entetained, shop, eat and enjoy again and again. Those of us who are there every day know how to do this. Pumping classical music loudly out of the corner mall speakers to scare away kids was only one laughable way they missed the mark. The old ideas are just that, old.
It's too important to just sit and wait for John Hynes to build his building. I hope my paragraphs made it easier for all. Sorry.
Can you tell us more about the BID proposal?
By Ron Newman
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 11:49pm
Who would benefit from it, if not the retailers?
The dead center
By anon
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 11:37am
You say in the run-on above that something needs to be done about the riff-raff. Well, right now, "Downtown Crossing" is pretty much synonymous with "riff-raff."
Sure, Downtown Crossing is close to the center of Boston (though geographically it's neither at the center of the downtown peninsula nor at the center of the city itself) but I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone (besides the aforementioned riff-raff) for whom it is the center of Boston in terms of emotional geography. It's the dead center only in the sense that it's dead. It's more like an outpost, an out-of the way place, as in "I think I'll go over to Downtown Crossing and get one of those great Chilean sandwiches." (And of course take it back to somewhere civilized to eat it.)
It's really not a problem one department store more or less is going to fix, or one year is going to fix. It'll get fixed a generation from now, after it falls so far (a la the Kenmore Square of old) that rents come down enough to induce a usage change, and it becomes a cool place to make art in abandoned department stores. And then we'll start complaining about gentrification.
Riff Raff
By The Cappy03
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 1:20pm
One of the main issues is snobs like the person above focusing on whether DTX is in the center or not.Assuming people go there to buy lunch and eat it somewhere else hasn't really been there.
Chacarero, Falafel King, Sam LaGrassas, Silvertones, Herrera's, Finagles and yes even the corner mall have lines out the door every day.
If the "Riff Raff" scares you, have your lunch under your desk.
I maintain DTX is very fixable and would be if a broad discussion of ideas led to some spending on the part of the city to get people to really stop and spend.
City spending?
By neilv
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 2:29pm
What kind of spending should the city do, as opposed to what it would be in the best interests of existing businesses to do?
Where the money should go.
By Cappy
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 3:02pm
The City of Boston should do the following:
1. Bring back Summer Stage. Put the stage back in between Macy's and Filene's and have a large free concert every weekend in the summer. Have smaller jazz or Berklee student concerts every Tues or Wed. and advertise them.
2. Buy all new puchcart kiosks and put them in key locations selling pre-approved merchandise so there is an interesting mix. Make the employees wear a hat, shirt, uniform or something to let people know every kiosk is part of the same market.
3. Create an outdoor food court with food from around the world. All clean food vendors with unique differing food or even satellite locations for local restaurants.
4. Uniformed police and security present and taking away anything deemed illegal.
5. Cover up the Filene's mess with a larger fence. Make it so you can't easily see the hole in the ground and REALLY wrap the building with Art and colorful signage. Make it look fun. The whole thing not just the bottom.
6. At night and at dusk light the place up and have night time events in conjunction with stores, bars and restaurants.
7. Make it easy on a web site/ talk boards to get input from the people of the city.
8. Lower the rents until the empty stores are filled. If not paint them and put more Art or kiosks in front of them. No more unpainted eyesores like Barnes and Noble.
9. Constant activity, events, sales, art, music, food and color.
10. Major ongoing promotions in the papers, on the radio and on TV.
11. One last one which may not be possible but would help. Run the freedom through DTX instead of down School St and add a few of the historic landmarks to the trail that are in DTX. There are many.
Lower the rents
By Ron Newman
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 3:10pm
That's really the key to fixing the problem, and it's not something the city of Boston can do directly, since it doesn't own the commercial property. But the city needs to push the landlords into doing the right thing and getting the spaces occupied.
I'll add one more:
12. Make it a true pedestrian mall except during late nights and early mornings. Deliveries should take place only between 11 pm and 7 am. Ditto for garbage collection. Taxis should not intrude into the pedestrian mall. Neither should police cars -- this area should be patrolled on foot or bicycle.
This would allow restaurants to set up outdoor tables, theatres to set up outdoor stages, and so on.
Most all those things are
By neilv
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 3:26pm
Most all those things are within the power of local businesses to do.
We want businesses who are willing to invest a little. This needs to be a cooperation, not handouts.
ummmmm
By zbert
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 4:32pm
I've been the president of a downtown business association concerned about heading off similar problems (but in a small town, and also dealing with the arrival of a mall and a Walmart, and the Internet, and other table-tipping events)...
You're missing that (a) the merchants are first of all caught up in trying to survive day to day, and (b) no merchant has the authority to cause any of those things to happen. Merchants don't own the streets, can't move cops out of cars and onto their feet, can't do lots of things. They need a lot more help than the city is giving them.
This is not about handouts. This is about the city paying attention to the merchants and LISTENING, and then doing something constructive.
The problem is made much worse by the overlapping interests, most of them with way more money and influence than the merchants. The problem is made unimaginably bad by the city's absolute inability to do ANYTHING constructive with anything it touches, without spending way too much money or just screwing it the hell up before it even has a chance.
Don't even blame the merchants. They're stuck in a world that's falling down around them. They can't just "rise up and take over" no matter how appealing that might sound in the cartoony, abstract sense.
None of the 12 things is obviously "within the power of local businesses" without buy-in and leadership from the city, cooperation of property owners who don't seem to give a damn, and clear mandate from a substantial number of the worth-keeping merchants and other residential businesses (nearly IMPOSSIBLE to do given the disparities of scale at work in that district, not to mention the meddling of the BRA whose only interest seems to be political manipulation and empowerment of the hack-o-matics that run it (sic, I intended that Howie Carr word)).
The City of Boston could make it happen, but doesn't understand that the district is going to need an influx of the right kind of energy, and TIME, to sort itself out. So far they've had a bunch of stupid band-aid solutions, individual events that spin up/happen/go away, a lot of marketing spew, and nothing else... that's not nearly enough and it's been largely a waste of energy and time.
I was fortunate that in the small downtown where I took on a leadership role, we were able to sit down frequently with city representatives and have real, substantive discussions. The more we did that, and the more both sides stuck to their side of the bargain, the better things got. We were also helped in the upward spiral because a couple of the larger shop owners (and property owners) "got it" and knew that strengthening the district was good for their interests, too.
That kind of essential cooperation - crossing different scales wealth and influence - is clearly missing in Boston... a shame, considering the city itself was founded by ordinary-scale businesspeople.
You obviously get it, so where is your merchants' association?
By zbert
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 4:56pm
You're making all the right points and have obviously studied the situation...
so where is the merchants' association?
I think it also has to be acknowledged that there are a number of shops in DTX that should not be there because their operators aren't running them in a way that enhances the district, and some are probably actively pulling it down. I won't pretend to know which ones, but some are obvious... others maybe not so much.
It's also always the case that there are many freeloaders - merchants that count on everyone else to take care of making things better, then they just skate along enjoying the benefits. There isn't a lot to be done about these bozos, except that there are so many shops in DTX that it should be entirely possible to reach a critical mass of membership without them. (BTW they are economically rational -- expending zero energy while capturing a net gain is a real score... unless, through their non-participation, things just go completely to pieces).
Finally, I have never been a big fan of "events" - particularly those at night - as builders. They are fine once things are clearly stable and on the upswing, but until then, DTX (and other recovering areas) are just too vulnerable to wild mood swings. Not only is the environment not really stable enough, but "events" are quite expensive to pull together, promote, and operate successfully... not to mention that they are short-lived and may teach people that DTX is just a place to "go to a free event, then go home."
I encourage you to not focus so much on one-off events, but to think about lower-grade, lower-risk, long-term activities that bring the changes you hope for (and the people you need). Not that my work was particularly awesome, but I did succeed in changing marketing efforts away from sales and holiday-based promotions, and toward early-evening events involving one to two dozen shops working together, during times when people were likely to be in town and looking for something to do (that is, NOT around holidays, but there are more days that are not holidays than are, so we had lots of opportunities)... weekday evenings during spring, for example...
good lord, there is no shortage of activity to draw people toward DTX, but beyond a single theater they're going to see, or a single restaurant, there's also nothing to keep them there.
Bottom line, the city's going to have to step up to try to get some destination merchants in there (of all sizes) if the place is going to survive. To do that, it's going go have to twist the arms of some landlords, and create some affordable, habitable spaces for those merchants. Reaching back to the original discussion, opening the roads to cars has nothing to do with any of this. It's a dumb idea piled on a bunch of other failed, uninformed efforts in DTX.
I disagree on the events, it
By ShadyMilkMan
Tue, 03/03/2009 - 5:01pm
I disagree on the events, it shows people that the area in question is alive, and brings people to the area. One of Downtowns problems is that it is currently only half way decent at doing one thing, getting people lunch and coffee. I never think about going to Downtown unless I have to, and even then I find myself clawing my way back to the Common or Quincy Market.
Events arent the be all end all but they do help to drag people back into the mix.
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