Newbury Street icon Louis seeks someplace trendier.
No, smartass, it's not moving to New York. But is it time for a Newbury Main Streets program to revitalize the area?
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Newbury Street icon Louis seeks someplace trendier.
No, smartass, it's not moving to New York. But is it time for a Newbury Main Streets program to revitalize the area?
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Comments
haven't spent much time on Newbury lately
By pom
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 10:46am
but the next neighborhood that needs an intervention is Coolidge Corner. That huge Panera that's taken over the Zathmary's space, with music--the VH1-type stuff I think of as 'health club music'--piped out over the sidewalk. So that as you walk by your mind is momentarily colonized. It's unbearably depressing as an experience and as a phenomenon.
I think when JP goes it will be time to move to Vermont and get some goats. And maybe start making that fancy cheese I hear so much about.
JP Center could certainly
By Whit
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 12:38pm
JP Center could certainly use some work! The main attraction is a thrift store and the rest of the store fronts are filled with a shoe chain, an outrageously expensive antique/chinese import store and those boring and tatty insurance and mortgage companies. It's not going, it's gone.
As for Louis--I bet they are trying to scare their landlord. Everyone knows the waterfront is a long way off with the ocean of ugly parking lots to deal with yet. If Louis goes, I won't cry or anything. Newbury was not my scene anyway--but their clothes are so delicious.
woah
By pom
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 12:56pm
Sounds like we have different ideas of what "gone" means.
Thrift shop and "boring, tatty" insurance places (that have been there forever, so aren't exactly an indication of the town having "gone" anywhere): great.
Shoe store: agreed, awful. But I miss the Woolworth's that used to be in that space, which it sounds like you would not.
And there are a bunch of excellent restaurants, hardly any chains, and no music piped over the sidewalk. So, to my mind, it's doing OK.
I wonder how you would propose to bring it back?
Centre Street > Coolidge Corner
By Rozzie Guy
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 1:45pm
The best street in the city and environs for eclectic shopping and dining is without a doubt Centre Street (both the JP and West Rox sections). Off to the side a bit, and also quite good is Roslindale Square. Coolidge Corner used to be that way, but it hasn't in over a decade.
Coolidge Corner
By Ron Newman
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 1:53pm
has Brookline Booksmith and the Coolidge Corner Theatre, two things that are hard to match in any other neighborhood.
theatre/booksmith
By pom
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 2:57pm
can't imagine being without either of them!
different strokes?
By Sarah
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 1:58pm
That is surely the strangest assessment of JP I've ever read. Centre St is filled with thriving and unique shops and restaurants. There are a few chains - CVS, Tedeschi, Foot Locker, Citizens, but really the independent businesses outnumber them and make the neighborhood really special, in my opinion. Boomerang isn't any old tatty thriftstore, either. They benefit the AIDS Action Committee. Fiore's is my favorite bakery in town, and I'd much rather shop at Boing! than a chain toy shop.
Maybe Louis will move
By anon
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 2:20pm
Maybe Louis will move somewhere exciting like the vacant retail spots at the Ritz. I would certainly call Chinatown a bit edgier than the corner of Clarendon & Newbury. Their repeated failures with restaurants in that building make it clear that their core clientel has moved on.
Be bold, Louis
By Michael
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 2:34pm
Try Everett...
Or Eastie! Maverick Square.
By Chris
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 2:59pm
Or Eastie! Maverick Square.
I'd love to see that
By Michael
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 3:04pm
Combine the me-first mentality of the Louis shoppers with the already complicated melange of parking in that area, where the posted hours, painted lines, and laws of physics are only suggestions, and hilarity will ensue.
agreed
By jason
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 2:32pm
I think you're right, Adam: Definitely time for an intervention. All the evidence you need is on Newbury itself. The cheaper side, near Mass Ave, has personality and is worth actually spending time on -- Trident, the Other Side, Kashmir. The high-end side, by contrast, is boring and faceless.
Added bonus
By adamg
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 3:06pm
You know one thing revitalization groups just absolutely love? Murals! Look at all the murals in and around Roslindale Square and the mural off River Street in Hyde Park.
You thinking what I'm thinking? Yes, bring back the Newbury Street mural! You know the one.
Edge
By Gareth
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 2:47pm
Edge? Newbury Street had edge?. I'm willing to say it had something it doesn't now, but edge? No. It was a more eclectic shopping street. Now it's a shopping street with all the exact same chain stores as any mall in Middle America. But that's not a loss of edge. It's just a loss of independence.
And here's a news flash for Greenberg: the rest of Boston went the same way. Boston has become the Disney version of itself. There's not a neighborhood left like she imagines. Now you can tell you're in a new neighborhod because the chain stores begin to repeat. One must also consider that the foremost requirement of Louis Boston is lots of rich people. You can't really go far from the beaten path and expect the money-wads to follow. Where's she going to go? Beacon Hill?
Hey, there's an unused electrical station in Roslindale looking for a tenant... I think she could pay the rent by selling one coat a month.
maybe wellesley?
By pom
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 3:00pm
it has more "edge" than ever before...
slight edit
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 3:03pm
ok, its going in that
By anon
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 3:42pm
ok, its going in that direction, sure.... but as someone originally from middle america, i challenge you to show me a mall with zegna, zara, camper, burberry, fcuk, etc....
don't forget about the few that remain
By o_brien
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 4:37pm
Adding to the list of non Middle America mall shops: Trident Booksellers & Cafe, Teuscher Chocolates, Tealuxe, Fluevog Shoes, etc.
Ooh! The substation!
By adamg
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 3:03pm
Now that would be edgy - especially if you figured out how to keep all the trees (yes, trees) that are now growing out of the top of the thing:
I wonder if the T ever did find a buyer? You may recall how they finally put it out to auction (mere decades after they stopped needing a substation for trolleys on Washington Street) and then they refused to sell it to the highest bidder because the guy (who owns a garage in Hyde Park) couldn't exactly explain what he'd do with the building.
But JP, Roslindale, Hyde Park and West Roxbury aren't chainy, although I'd hardly call them edgy, either (for awhile, Hyde Park looked like the Next Hot Thing, what with artists taking over old factory space and all, but that seems to have slowed down).
The Substation
By Rozzy Guy
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 4:20pm
It was just put out for bid again:
Substation Info.
Edgy
By Gareth
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 4:52pm
Rozzie is getting a new tattoo parlor. That's Edgy, right?
A new one?
By adamg
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 5:00pm
Where?
Rozzie Rock City, here we come!
Guess I picked the wrong week to give up reading the Transcript
By adamg
Fri, 05/30/2008 - 5:05pm
Calico Jack.
Move to 360 Newbury Street!
By JoeBronson
Sun, 08/10/2008 - 9:38pm
They've been such a huge icon on Newbury Street, they shouldnt leave! They should check out the building where the 360 Newbury Street Lofts are, its a cool "funky" building, with condos on the top and retail on the bottom. Right now there is a Best Buy there which is kind of a strange location for one --- not to mention there is already a Best Buy over the river at the Cambridge Galleria.