Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower
Reconstructing a retail department store building into a 47-story luxury residential skyscraper on behalf of special private corporate interests--like other examples of overdevelopment and Manhattanization in neighborhoods like the Back Bay and South End--can sometimes be stopped by litigation if there's enough resident opposition to such overdevelopment projects before the cranes and trucks invade the neighborhood.
Regarding the City not yet bringing up the "public land" issue: If you check out the individual local campaign contributions made by certain executives in the Back Bay Association group (that's been pushing for this project) to certain local Boston politicians, you might discover one reason why the relevant legal documents probably won't be analyzed very closely by certain City officials. But if the now-public space where the Indianapolis-based Simon family wants to build its skyscraper to house more potential customers for Neiman Marcus gets turned into some kind of "People's Park" by Back Bay and South End residents (before its converted into a crane-filled construction site for 3 years), perhaps the City officials will then begin to examine some of the legal documents from the 1980s more closely?
Speaking of Neiman Marcus's alleged need for more retail space in the Back Bay, as the following February 2011 internet posting by a former disgruntled employee at this store seems to indicate, the store is apparently "constantly empty," ironically:
"The employees at Neiman Marcus act as though they never left high school. All during training we are told to greet everyone, and never judge by appearances, yet the other employees do exactly that and are rude to newer employees- and are CONSTANTLY talking badly behind each others backs. Working with such expensive product had made most employees jaded, and to put more bluntly- superficial a**holes. Selling outside of your own department is encouraged by management- but don't cross the employees of the department you are moving in on- they are like vultures protecting their carcasses, and in my experience, the carcasses were the handbags.
"At first everyone seems really nice and smiley and great, surrounded by beautiful designer products and getting to talk to people all day, not too shabby!. But you quickly come to find, if you are doing well- making lots of commissions, management is pleased but co-associates are pissed, and will bad mouth you. On the other hand, if you aren't selling a lot (even if it is at no fault of your own, for example, if the store is constantly EMPTY), then management is upset, and oh yeah, your co-associates are still talking behind your back. Also, even management would bad-mouth other employees to associates. Very unprofessional.
"As for the executives and HR department- they are the absolute WORST! They appear all inviting and friendly at first, but they are cut-throat and have no problem firing people on the spot. I truly believe the people who have been at Neiman's for a long period of time are mean and miserable people. I used to be a big fan of the store, but I will never shop there again, and will happily bring my business else where. DO NOT WORK THERE."
