Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

[George_Apley]

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.

Native New Yorkers (those that I know anyway) avoid Times Square like the plague. Unless they're going to a show, or showing around wide-eyed out-of-towners, they don't go.

 

[armpitsOFmight]

^Yeah, and oh-boy do they love saying, "its been disneyfied." Rifleman, do you want DTX to be disneyfied too? Do you like Mickey Mouse cartoons?

 

[underground]

True story: went to buy a 2 amp 250 volt slow blow fuse at the Salem St hardware store and the guy told me I should go to the Radio Shack in DTX. And Radio Shack actually did have the right fuse.

I know, it's horrible what's happened to DTX, isn't it?

 

[TheRifleman]

^Yeah, and oh-boy do they love saying, "its been disneyfied." Rifleman, do you want DTX to be disneyfied too? Do you like Mickey Mouse cartoons?

I would rather DTX become a destination location because its a prime spot just like Times square.

Sorry that Times Square got DisneyFied but Times Square symbolizes how amazing NYC is. Especially New Years Eve....

Remember there is only one downtown area in New York City and Boston they both should be filled with large amounts of foot traffic and amazing ideas.

 

[jdrinboston]

I would rather DTX become a destination location because its a prime spot just like Times square.

Sorry that Times Square got DisneyFied but Times Square symbolizes how amazing NYC is. Especially New Years Eve....

Remember there is only one downtown area in New York City and Boston they both should be filled with large amounts of foot traffic and amazing ideas.

When I'm in New York city, and find myself in Times Square, I immediately think two things to myself.

1. Why the hell am I in Times Square?

2. Get me the hell out of Times Square.

And New York's downtown is nowhere near Times Square. Oddly enough, New York's "downtown" is downtown.

 

[armpitsOFmight]

When I'm in New York city, and find myself in Times Square, I immediately think to myself........Why the hell am I in Times Square?

Rifleman, as you can see, Times Square is worse than a strip mall for this gentleman. Maybe if it was less Disneyfied, they'd get more people to walk through there, spend money, and laugh at all the tourists.

 

[davem]

I really wanted to make this a longer, more comprehnsive post, but I don't have time anymore.

Anyway, while the suburban malls and internet retail are doing no favors for downtown crossing, I don't think that's what's kill(ed/ing) it.

1) Newbury Street. Your standard department stores (filenes, macys, sears) have been continually going downmarket for a few deades. Newbury street has filled this void, and also grabbed middle class shoppers as you go closer to the mass ave side. There are also some bigger spaces that can compete with the floorplates in DTX. There is also the shop/eat and shop/be seen dynamic that has not been prolific in downtown for a while. When DTX was thriving it didn't have to compete with this retail beast on the other side of the common.

2) The pru/copley place. If Newbury Street wasn't enough to syphon off customers, this was. Hell, it was branded as "the new boston". It was literally designed to replace the center city, which it did. It has massive modern floorplates for department stores and is indoors and climate controlled. It has also lead to a retail powerhouse developing on Boylston, and of course is near Newbury. Again, DTX didn't have to compete with this, it was a rail yard and a dingy strip of dirty buildings back in the day.

3) Supermarkets. Not directly hitting DTX here, but supermarkets replaced storefronts in all the neighborhoods formerly occupied with butchers, cheese shops, bakeries, dry goods stores, etc. All these vacant store fronts (where they didn't remain vacant) were replaced with smaller stores that keep people from going downtown to shop in the first place. Payless, radio shack, etc can all fit in these spaces.

4) Entertainment district. One of the great things about how downtown used to work was going to see a show and shopping all at once. Today the theatres are a fraction of what they are, and theatres are also not exactly super popular anyway. There are clubs, but they have a demographic and are incresingly dangerous. One of the reasons times square works so well is not just ZOMG FLASHING LIGHTS AND TELEVISION (although boston needs way more of this) but that its ajacent to 42nd street. More, bigger clubs with both live music and dancing would help alot. Especially daytime shows that would draw a different crowd.

5) City centers naturally shift and realign with time. Boston has spent too much time trying to perserve a retail district that has been trying to die. If the trend to mixed use had started decades ago we wouldn't even be having this conversation

 

[KentXie]

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.

And exactly what's wrong with that? It draws people in does it not? News flash, all city center have these stores. I've been to City Center, Philadelphia and downtown Chicago. Guess what? Chicago has a 9 story Macy's and a 2 story Walgreens and yet it's bustling.

 

[datadyne007]

I've said this before and I'll say it again, I think the problem with DTX is not enough retail. Pack a Hollister in there, pack a Forever 21/XXI Forever, pack a JCrew, pack an Express, etc. These are the stores people are looking for. I can tell you first hand. Boston's shopping economy is tourist-driven. They cannot buy things online (especially true for international visitors). The tourists want to shop (especially because we have no sales tax on clothes).

When I worked at AE at Faneuil Hall people were constantly asking for Forever 21, Express, and Hollister. People either a.) don't want to venture all the way to the far end of Newbury St for Forever 21 or b.) actually can't because they can't leave the immediate area due to time restrictions and such. The same deal with Express far away in the Pru. There still isn't a Hollister in the downtown core either. These are major retail gaps that only drive business outside the city core to CambridgeSide and the Pru.

 

[kz1000ps]

When I'm in New York city, and find myself in Times Square, I immediately think two things to myself.

1. Why the hell am I in Times Square?

2. Get me the hell out of Times Square.

And New York's downtown is nowhere near Times Square. Oddly enough, New York's "downtown" is downtown.

Times Square sucks but occasionally you do find yourself there, and in those instances the newish big red stairs are a haven. I've actually had fun there.

 

[JohnCostello]

Was in NYC for the first time in years over the weekend. Times Square sucks. I'll take Astoria or the East Village anyday.

The new architecture along the Highline might kill some people with glee on this forum.

 

[czsz]

When I worked at AE at Faneuil Hall people were constantly asking for Forever 21, Express, and Hollister. People either a.) don't want to venture all the way to the far end of Newbury St for Forever 21 or b.) actually can't because they can't leave the immediate area due to time restrictions and such. The same deal with Express far away in the Pru. There still isn't a Hollister in the downtown core either. These are major retail gaps that only drive business outside the city core to CambridgeSide and the Pru.

Point to add - Faneuil Hall Marketplace was another retail competitor to DTC that helped kill it (slowly). Central Boston maybe couldn't support three major shopping districts. Or maybe it could, and it was online retail that delivered the death knell to the least coordinated and well-prepared to weather it.

 

[George_Apley]

I would rather DTX become a destination location because its a prime spot just like Times square.

Sorry that Times Square got DisneyFied but Times Square symbolizes how amazing NYC is. Especially New Years Eve....

Remember there is only one downtown area in New York City and Boston they both should be filled with large amounts of foot traffic and amazing ideas.

I really don't get it. Disneyfication would be MORE of the corporate takeover than you're already complaining about. Times Square doesn't at all symbolize how amazing New York is. A million other aspects of NYC do that better than Times Sq. Times Square is for the wide-eyed idiots who have never seen neon lights, or buildings over 40 stories. Seeing a show on Broadway is the only reason to go up there.

 

[datadyne007]

Point to add - Faneuil Hall Marketplace was another retail competitor to DTC that helped kill it (slowly). Central Boston maybe couldn't support three major shopping districts. Or maybe it could, and it was online retail that delivered the death knell to the least coordinated and well-prepared to weather it.

Faneuil Hall and DTX can coexist in perfect harmony. Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Marketplace Center are TERRIBLE malls from a store standpoint. The only good stores are AE, ANF, Loft, Ann taylor, Urban, and Victoria's Secret. All the tourists used to ask me what was here and after I'd tell them that pathetic list, they'd say "that's it?" DTX has the potential to fill in the gaps with the stores I mentioned plus many others. They should be working in tandem with each other because vistors to Faneuil Hall rather rarely venture out past DTX or Faneuil Hall. To us, a quick hop on the T from DTX to the Pru or Copley Place is nothing, but to them it's often as if they're going out of state.

 

[George_Apley]

5) City centers naturally shift and realign with time. Boston has spent too much time trying to perserve a retail district that has been trying to die. If the trend to mixed use had started decades ago we wouldn't even be having this conversation

The transformation of DTX into a more residential area will help with this evolution, as those small-floor-plate retail spaces are hopefully filled with neighborhood amenities, besides the Radio Shack, Payless type, small chain stores. Hair Salons, Cafes, niche markets, etc ought to take over those empty or failing locations.

 

[armpitsOFmight]

^Between all the new residential going up around DTX and Ctown, there's going to be at least another 1,000 people (conservative estimate) living in that area in the next few years. All that retail will come and maybe rifleman will get that disney store he's always wanted.

 

[davem]

Isn't Faneuil Hall kind of Boston's Times Square? They are both historic gathering sites that have lost connection to their origional purpose, but retain a far reaching reputation and are must-see visits for tourists. Both are horriffically overcrowded pretty much all the time, and both are overrun by corporate chains and tourist oriented spots. Both have an abundance of costumed characters, and both are avoided like the plague by people who actually live in the city. Both also represent the percieved character of their respective cities. NYC is regarded as a sprawling metropolis, the city that never sleeps, the big apple. Its glittery and shiny and nuts. Boston is a historic refined cultured center of the revolution. As such it has an abundance of red brick and historicy buildings, etc. Both have the integrity of a big mac. Were all set on disneyfied spots.



As formy opinion of times square, I grew up in the ny metro and watched it evolve from a sketchy but intresting place, to a suprizing resurgance, to a vomit inducing sham of a city square. I was last there a few months ago (with a girl who's previous visit to a "big city" was harrisburg, jesus christ (talk about wide eyed). It is great for the yokels, but my skin was literly crawling. They have fucking elmo, toy story characters, hello kitty, and the statue of liberty characters walking around. I wanted to jump off the red stairs... I never want anything in Boston to be like that.

 

[citylover94]

I think from my experience the biggest issue is that other than Macy's most of the stores I have seen in DTX are not a big draw for tourists and this is speaking as a tourist. When I have walked around I have seen a lot of drug stores, some shoe stores, and a few jewelry stores. None of those stores other than Macy's are a big draw for me as a tourist. As mentioned before Abercrombie and Fitch, American Eagle, Hollister, Aeropostale and Forever 21 would all be good types of stores along with some more local ones like Newbury Comics although that would not be needed there but that type of store would be really good to see. I do not see how Boston would be unable to support three shopping areas and if the Millenium Tower development has storefronts and brings in some of the stores I mentioned above it would bring people into DTX and could act as a catalyst for a rebirth.

 

[dshoost88]

If Harrods all of a sudden opened up in the Burnham building, Downtown Crossing and the whole financial district would thrive.

 

[czsz]

Isn't Faneuil Hall kind of Boston's Times Square? They are both historic gathering sites that have lost connection to their origional purpose, but retain a far reaching reputation and are must-see visits for tourists. Both are horriffically overcrowded pretty much all the time, and both are overrun by corporate chains and tourist oriented spots. Both have an abundance of costumed characters, and both are avoided like the plague by people who actually live in the city. Both also represent the percieved character of their respective cities. NYC is regarded as a sprawling metropolis, the city that never sleeps, the big apple. Its glittery and shiny and nuts. Boston is a historic refined cultured center of the revolution. As such it has an abundance of red brick and historicy buildings, etc. Both have the integrity of a big mac. Were all set on disneyfied spots.

Yes. My god, this.

If Harrods all of a sudden opened up in the Burnham building, Downtown Crossing and the whole financial district would thrive.

Harrod's closed its last overseas location, in Buenos Aires, a few years ago. I wouldn't hold your breath.