Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

I meant chain drug store locations. There are drug stores every 3 feet. I can think of at least 7 CVS's and a Walgreen's.
 
^^I'm an idiot. It's a Rite-Aid. I go there almost once a day. I have no idea how I got that wrong.
 
A CVS is a Walgreens is a Brooks is a Rite Aid, I really can't tell the difference.
 
Walgreens is by far the best of the chain drug stores. CVS just started putting in self checkout and it is a joke. They almost always have to call up cashiers to handle the lines that form.
 
I used to like Walgreens more, but the new CVS's are much nicer. Then again, I haven't been in a new Walgreens. CVS is clearly expanding at a higher rate.
 
Rite Aid sucks, AND they aren't doing well. Their debt load is massive (from buying Brooks Eckerd a few years back) and their stores have been losing money year-over for a year now. Bankruptcy isn't far off.
 
kz1000ps said:
Rite Aid sucks, AND they aren't doing well. Their debt load is massive (from buying Brooks Eckerd a few years back) and their stores have been losing money year-over for a year now. Bankruptcy isn't far off.
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They bought thrifty in california.

The good part is that they kept the thrifty classic ice cream counters. Two GIANT scoops of very good ice cream for $1.35

The bad is, they have no employees. Last time I went, I was about to pass an item through the metal detector things to see if the beeping would bring an employee to the front of the store.
 
When I was growing up, a single scoop cone at Thrifty was 10 cents. And I'm not that old. They kept that price for a long time past when ice cream had become much more expensive. $1.35 is still a good deal, but I'd be curious to see what is more profitable, the occasional $1.35 cone, or the very high volume 10 cent cone.
 
There's this roast beef chain in St. Louis - nothing special, mind you - but they do sell a small $0.14 soft serve ice cream cone. No idea how much it affects their bottom line, but people get them all the time.
 
I get really cheap Swedish meatballs and cinnamon rolls at Ikea. It's crap, but it's cheap (actually the cinnamon roll is good).
 
Let's get this back on topic. Ikea for Downtown Crossing! Screw their one size fits all suburban parking lot format; if Home Depot can go urban, so can they.

I guarantee it would be a big enough injection of life into the place that you could turn Filene's into a sheep pasture or whatever architecture students would have it become and the neighborhood would still be livelier than it was in 1998.
 
HenryAlan said:
When I was growing up, a single scoop cone at Thrifty was 10 cents. And I'm not that old. They kept that price for a long time past when ice cream had become much more expensive. $1.35 is still a good deal, but I'd be curious to see what is more profitable, the occasional $1.35 cone, or the very high volume 10 cent cone.
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I think it's 1.05 for a single scoop cone.

The thing that makes it cheap is comparing to chains like baskin robbins, marble slab, coldstone etc. Youre talking $3+ for a couple of scoops. As far as I know, it's still the cheapest way to get a cone (obviously buying a gallon saves you money)

But yeah, according to the internet, 10 cent scoops lasted until the 1980s.
 
New approach, new hope for Downtown Crossing

City turns to commercial owners for help in renewal
By Casey Ross
Globe Staff / August 3, 2010

Boston officials are set to approve the city?s first business improvement district in Downtown Crossing tomorrow, a move that will raise millions of dollars to improve the gritty shopping area and provide a model for cash-strapped districts such as the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

The district, to be voted on tomorrow by the City Council, would levy a fee on commercial property owners who agree to pay extra for stepped-up cleaning and promotional services in a 20-block area around Downtown Crossing.

Nearly 480 property owners have signed a petition to participate.

?Within the next five years, Downtown Crossing is going to be a much different place,?? said Mayor Thomas M. Menino, a strong supporter of the effort. ?We?re not going to be like some other cities that have given up on their downtowns. We see a great future for our downtown.??

A business improvement district, or BID, would provide a critical boost for a once-promi nent shopping area now pockmarked with empty storefronts and a giant hole where construction stalled on the $700 million redevelopment of the former Filene?s site.

Menino said yesterday that there is increasing interest among possible investors in the Filene?s project, as developer Vornado Realty Trust explores a sale of its stake in the deal. However, the city is waiting for the project to get a financial backer that can move it forward. ?Until the paper is signed on a deal, we?re still in discussion mode,?? Menino said.

City officials see the improvement district as a mechanism to lift struggling downtown neighborhoods, which would otherwise fight for funding against priorities such as education and public safety. Managers of the Greenway are exploring the establishment of a BID around the downtown park system, and civic leaders in the Bulfinch Triangle have expressed interest in a similar organization for that area.

Across the country, BIDs are used to fund special upgrades to public spaces when government dollars won?t get the job done. In New York City, for example, they?ve been used to revitalize Times Square and upgrade Bryant Park, an area once dominated by drug dealers, but now features restaurants, intricate landscaping, and outdoor festivals.

In Boston, however, previous attempts to create an improvement district have run into political opposition. The city?s most powerful police union opposed creation of a BID in Downtown Crossing in the late 1990s, for example, arguing that proposed security services would undermine police authority.

The latest effort sidestepped that issue. District organizers promised to create a team of ?ambassadors?? whose primary responsibilities will be to assist tourists and refer security or vandalism problems to police.

At a City Council hearing yesterday, the proposed district received unanimous support from councilors, Downtown Crossing business owners, and residents.

?Not only is it going to bring back cleanliness and safety, it will bring the heart back to the city of Boston,?? said Linda DeMarco, owner of Boston Pretzel Bakery Inc., which operates a pushcart in the area.

If the district is approved, the city will begin collecting a fee from commercial property owners within the boundaries of the district in the third quarter of this year. Property owners will pay $1.10 per thousand dollars on the first $70 million in the assessed value of their holdings in the district, and 50 cents per thousand dollars for any value beyond that limit.

The money will be given to a nonprofit group in charge of hiring the ambassadors and cleaning contractors, developing promotional materials, producing special events, and creating a more unified street design for the area.

Owner-occupied residential properties are exempt from the district fees, and commercial property owners may decline participation by filing paperwork with the city. So far, 478 landowners have signed up, representing about 64 percent of the property in the neighborhood. One of the major holdouts is Equity Office Properties, which owns 175 Federal St. and 225 Franklin St., among other properties.

A spokeswoman for Equity said executives with the company are still discussing participation with BID organizers.

Link
 
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