Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

TheRifleman said:
^^^^

I'm calling it right now. Boston Downtown District will transform into a college area along with community condos for the yuppies no reason to ever go to Downtown crossing anymore unless you’re heading to Suffolk University or cutting through for the Boston Common, South Station or down to the theater district.

Downtown will become like every other Suburban strip mall with high end Condos. (exactly like Seaport District and North Station)

Downtown is irrelevant

How does that MODEL work for you.
Click to expand...

I just want to know what suburban strip malls you're going to that are filled with college kids and yuppies. Must have been the Portland of strip malls or something. Was the Radio Shack cruelty free? In any case, I bet it had a good vinyl selection in the back.
 
It seems when people get old their eyesight starts to go and they get really cranky all the time. Skyscrapers look like strip malls. Everyone younger than them looks like a "college kid" and anyone who dares to be younger AND have a better job is a "yuppie". Sounds like sour grapes to me. Or senility.
 
datadyne007 said:
^ That article is, believe it or not, just a coherent and eloquent version of TheRifleman's central argument.
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If that article is a coherent, eloquent version of Rifleman's argument, is George Donnelly's article a coherent, eloquent version of another poster's rebuttal? haha

Regardless, Donnelly's article hits the nail right on the head in my opinion. The Walgreen's isn't the big thing that's going to revolutionize the area. However in my opinion, it's something that can help the area move from a business/shopping district and perhaps become a neighborhood.
 
itchy said:
Paul McMorrow: Biggest snob in the Boston area (outside of Cambridge or Wellesley, either of which very well may be the place McMorrow calls home)?

Discuss.
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That's the thing that bothered me about this article so much: he sounds like such a snob. But he's normally not. Most of his articles deal with the need for affordable housing, density, better mass transit, less parking, etc. These are not the arguments typically made by a snob. This article feels like it came out of left field.
 
TheRifleman said:
^^^^

I'm calling it right now. Boston Downtown District will transform into a college area along with community condos for the yuppies no reason to ever go to Downtown crossing anymore unless you’re heading to Suffolk University or cutting through for the Boston Common, South Station or down to the theater district.

Downtown will become like every other Suburban strip mall with high end Condos. (exactly like Seaport District and North Station)

Downtown is irrelevant

How does that MODEL work for you.
Click to expand...

I don't even know how to respond to this it's so preposterous.
 
While I do agree that the DTX Walgreens is well-designed and has unique concepts for a drug store, I actually think they didn't go far enough. Now that I've had some of the sandwiches, coffee, and sushi, there are so many other better places nearby to get those things that I'm not likely to go back unless there is a sale on some other typical drug store items that I need.

I don't know what exactly they should have done differently. Higher quality food items would have been a start. I think having an area to sit inside and eat would have been cool, or maybe even an old-school style lunch counter like the old department stores used to have.
 
I just want to know what suburban strip malls you're going to that are filled with college kids and yuppies.
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That's a pretty good description of the Porter Square shopping center. Which contains a great local hardware store (Tags) and a great local bookstore (Porte Square Books), as well as chains such as CVS and Shaw's and Panera.
 
TheRifleman said:
^^^^

I'm calling it right now. Boston Downtown District will transform into a college area along with community condos for the yuppies no reason to ever go to Downtown crossing anymore unless you’re heading to Suffolk University or cutting through for the Boston Common, South Station or down to the theater district.

Downtown will become like every other Suburban strip mall with high end Condos. (exactly like Seaport District and North Station)

Downtown is irrelevant

How does that MODEL work for you.
Click to expand...

Or they will go shopping at H&M, Macy's, City Sports, and the many stores in DTX, you know, like they do now.
 
LOL @ Paul McMorrow's final paragraph:

"It doesn’t have to be this way. In Cambridge’s Kendall Square, residents, city officials, landlords, and real estate brokers have collectively created a destination neighborhood by promoting unique, local, independent businesses to the exclusion of corporate retail. People come to Kendall because the square offers something they can’t get anywhere else. The landlords even make money off this fact. The Kendall playbook is simple, and it works. And it’s crying out for someone in Boston to steal it. "

______________

Did anyone else do a spit-take when reading how "simple" it would be to replicate Kendall Square's "playbook"?

Step #1 - Make sure to have the world's #1 technology university and thousands of world class scientists and venture capitalists in the middle of your neighborhood.

Step #2+ - the other steps are just as simple as step #1.
 
KentXie said:
Or they will go shopping at H&M, Macy's, City Sports, and the many stores in DTX, you know, like they do now.
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Exactly the same stores at the Square One Mall in Saugus. Listen all I'm saying is this is Downtown Boston. How to make the area once again a destination spot. It is one of the most important locations for the city and has great transit location.

So far what has the BRA done to help the area?
CVS
Walgreens
Macys
H & M
Dunkin Donuts
Marshals
The basic middle America Stripmall Model

How about the Red Light District similar to Montreal.
 
TheRifleman said:
Exactly the same stores at the Square One Mall in Saugus. Listen all I'm saying is this is Downtown Boston. How to make the area once again a destination spot. It is one of the most important locations for the city and has great transit location.

So far what has the BRA done to help the area?
CVS
Walgreens
Macys
H & M
Dunkin Donuts
Marshals
The basic middle America Stripmall Model

How about the Red Light District similar to Montreal.
Click to expand...

guys remember, Please don't feed the trolls.
 
^Times Square has all that and for some reason it's still a destination tourists want to go to.



....trolls make the internet fun....so keep feeding them!
 
Again, I think it's kind of foolish to assume that you're going to bring people in droves back to DTX from the suburbs as what once happened with the huge flagship stores. Those days are over. DTX needs to become a functioning neighborhood with all the amenities and reasons to keep the residents in the area. By having major retail stores in DTX, it is ensuring that people aren't leaving the city to go shop at malls. Honestly, I live in the city and don't even shop in the city. I go to South Shore Plaza because there's actually a selection of stores and I can get everything at once. I don't have to go bouncing all around the city from store-to-store. There is a very similar area to DTX in Vienna (Stephansplatz) that works extremely well filled to the brim with chain retail.
 
^Except clothes and groceries, I do all my shopping online. Rifleman hasn't considered the effect of the internet on strip malls.
 
armpitsOFmight said:
^Times Square has all that and for some reason it's still a destination tourists want to go to.



....trolls make the internet fun....so keep feeding them!
Click to expand...

So your comparing Times Square to Downtown Boston? Times Square Broadcasts the Good Morning America show every morning.
Times Square has everything and that is why it works. Its crazy over there.

Boston has too many rules and regulations & all the bailout money is going to certain businesses and individuals that is why Downtown, Seaport, North-station development models are exactly all the same as the surburbs.
Residential communtiy
Commerical space
CVS
Walgreens
Dunks or Starbucks

No innovation here. Boston is losing its character.

Times Square is a destination spot...........Downtown crossing is passing through area.
 
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TheRifleman said:
^^^^

I'm calling it right now. Boston Downtown District will transform into a college area along with community condos for the yuppies no reason to ever go to Downtown crossing anymore unless you’re heading to Suffolk University or cutting through for the Boston Common, South Station or down to the theater district.

Downtown will become like every other Suburban strip mall with high end Condos. (exactly like Seaport District and North Station)

Downtown is irrelevant

How does that MODEL work for you.
Click to expand...

Aren't you too afraid to go to DTX after the sun goes down? What do you want from it exactly? Gentrification, or no?
 
TheRifleman said:
.....Times Square has everything.....
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Yeah, just ask the native New Yorkers on how it's only made up of big corporations now. Boston only needs to add one more Walgreens, like the one that just opened, and you'll see tourists bustling to get their pictures taken in front of both stores.
 
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