Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

Osco's was bought by Brooks which was bought by RiteAid.
 
I've never understood the cupcake shop trend. How do these places survive? How big could the market possibly be for people who want to stop for cupcakes!?
 
czsz said:
I've never understood the cupcake shop trend. How do these places survive? How big could the market possibly be for people who want to stop for cupcakes!?
Click to expand...
In addition to being delicious, they're also expensive and fattening. Butter Cream is my downfall.
 
czsz said:
I've never understood the cupcake shop trend. How do these places survive? How big could the market possibly be for people who want to stop for cupcakes!?
Click to expand...

Have 1 cupcake at Kickass Cupcakes in Somerville and you'll be scrambling back on the Red Line to Davis for more.
 
Okay, I know, I like cupcakes too. But there's a whole hell of a lot of places selling nothing but them right now. I'm just saying, when the cupcake bubble bursts, you don't want to be standing where all the frosting lands.
 
Does anyone remember the old Jordan Marsh bakery and their cupcakes and famous blueberry muffins?
 
czsz said:
Okay, I know, I like cupcakes too. But there's a whole hell of a lot of places selling nothing but them right now. I'm just saying, when the cupcake bubble bursts, you don't want to be standing where all the frosting lands.
Click to expand...

The cupcake store concept is really no different than the Pinkberry concept. They're luxury novelty (and sometimes impulse) items. With all the college students in the area with pockets stuffed with money from mommy and daddy, the shops will do fine.

TomOfBoston said:
Does anyone remember the old Jordan Marsh bakery and their cupcakes and famous blueberry muffins?
Click to expand...
Omg YES. The blueberry muffin used to be my favorite part about shopping with grandma (besides the grandma part). She would always do the whole Filene's (and the basement) and then Jordan Marsh. It was a true day trip.
 
Last edited:
I recall that the Jordan Marsh blueberry muffin survived for years after Jordan Marsh itself went away, and was sold from a shop across Summer Street from (the former) Jordan's.
 
That brings back some memories! Back then, the JM muffins were not labelled "gourmet" or "artisan" and you didn't have to take out a bank loan in order to buy a dozen.
 
Ron Newman said:
I recall that the Jordan Marsh blueberry muffin survived for years after Jordan Marsh itself went away, and was sold from a shop across Summer Street from (the former) Jordan's.
Click to expand...

Jordan's Furniture were selling these at their Enchanted Village display in Avon.

datadyne007 said:
The cupcake store concept is really no different than the Pinkberry concept. They're luxury novelty (and sometimes impulse) items. With all the college students in the area with pockets stuffed with money from mommy and daddy, the shops will do fine.


Omg YES. The blueberry muffin used to be my favorite part about shopping with grandma (besides the grandma part). She would always do the whole Filene's (and the basement) and then Jordan Marsh. It was a true day trip.
Click to expand...

Pink Berry and all these other yogurt places are a simple concept. Take frozen yogurt and put fruit on top...hardly a mind boggling idea. Pink Berry and co. took off thanks to large celebrity exposure.
 
mass88 said:
Jordan's Furniture were selling these at their Enchanted Village display in Avon.



Pink Berry and all these other yogurt places are a simple concept. Take frozen yogurt and put fruit on top...hardly a mind boggling idea. Pink Berry and co. took off thanks to large celebrity exposure.
Click to expand...

And the cupcake store isn't a simple concept? I fail to see how this counters my post. If anything, you proved it correct.
 
One thing I would like to see is the leveling the pedestrian surface along Washington St. If you look at Winter St, people walk along the whole width. They tend to stay on the sidewalks on Washington. They also need to take another look at automobile restrictions. The streets should be available for delivery trucks during the morning, pedestrians late mornings till some time in the evening. At least open Washington St to traffic at night. People leaving clubs and restaurants or residents going home should not have to walk these blocks late at night. If nothing else this is a safety issue.

The city should also consider removing a lane on Tremont St across from the Common and make the sidewalk wider on the commercial/residential side. They should remove a lane of traffic on Washington St from Temple to Kneeland making the sidewalks wider on both sides. Same with Tremont St, remove a lane from Boylston to Marginal Road, widening the sidewalks on both sides of the street.

Boston is not alone on this issue:

January 12, 2011
Future-of-mall forums kick off
Residents, merchants, officials craft vision of 'Salem's family room'
By Matthew K. Roy Staff writer
SALEM ? Residents and business owners filled a downtown meeting room last night to begin a discussion that will shape the future of what Mayor Kim Driscoll called "the spine of our central business district."
The Essex Street pedestrian mall, a brick and cobblestone corridor lined with businesses but closed to car traffic, was also described as "historic eye candy."
"I think of the pedestrian mall as Salem's family room," said Marie Brescia, an Essex Street resident.
Organized by the city, in conjunction with the Peabody Essex Museum and The Salem Partnership, last night's gathering was the first of four scheduled public forums about the mall. The public was invited to share what they like and don't like, and their feedback will inform the first proposed changes to a space that has remained largely the same since the mid-1970s.
People praised the mall as a "walkable" tourist attraction that makes Salem unique.
"On the North Shore, we don't have a lot of places where people can congregate," said David Ashton, a Salem resident and Coldwell Banker real estate sales associate. The mall gives Salem something similar to what the thriving downtown of Newburyport enjoys, he said.
"I like the fact that it's our own and nobody else has one," said David Pelletier, a downtown resident. "We're not Peabody, we're not Danvers, we're not anywhere else."
But Sharon Doliber, whose family operated the Lally Shoestore on the mall and still owns the building, worried about its "sustainability."
"It's a great place May through December," she said. But foot traffic slows considerably in the colder months, making it hard for businesses to survive.
"It's wonderful for the tourists and visitors, but what is the anchor that brings the everyday Salem resident down there?" Doliber said.
Outside of the bustling Halloween season, Christian Day, owner of the "witchcraft emporium" Omen at the center of the mall, said the lack of car traffic is isolating. Opening the mall up to cars would increase visibility, he argued.
"It's repeat branding, it's repeat exposure," Day said.
Going into last night's meeting in the Salem Five Community Room, Driscoll was hoping the conversation would not be dominated by what it has been historically ? the either/or choice of opening the mall to traffic or keeping it closed.
Tim Love, an architect who will eventually craft new design options for the mall, predicted at the beginning of the meeting that a "third way" would be found.
What that way might be was brought up by multiple people last night who suggested the mall could be closed to traffic during the tourist- and pedestrian-friendly warmer months and opened up to cars during the winter. One attendee described it as increasing the "flexibility in utilization" of the mall.
Some people expressed affection for the cobblestones, but most viewed them as a hazard.
"In order to walk, you need a smooth surface," said Ray Tetrault, an owner of Bernard's Jewelers on the mall. "Cobblestones do not make a smooth surface."
There were complaints about litter, cigarette butts especially, and what some considered the shabby state of the fountain. One woman said groups of loitering young people discourage business. At night, the desolation of the mall makes Tara Donegan, manager of Omen, worry about her safety, she said.
The city and Peabody Essex Museum are splitting the $34,669 cost of the planning sessions, which includes the services of an architect and a facilitator who runs the forums. The next meeting on Feb. 8 will address a vision for the future of the mall. The subsequent gatherings will focus on alternative design options and the selection of a preferred scenario.
"I think we're working with a good team of consultants that can help get us to the point where hopefully we can have our cake and eat it, too," Driscoll said. "That's the way I like to think about taking what is a wonderful amenity and making it better."
Click to expand...

http://www.salemnews.com/local/x857096346/Future-of-mall-forums-kick-off
 
^PaulC

Great ideas.

The police barrier just above the theater district looks like the entrance to a war zone. Replace that with something pedestrian friendly, less foreboding. The idea of leveling as on Winter, and wider sidewalks on Tremont & Washington make complete sense.

Evening traffic on Washington is also wise given the congestion at lower Washington when theaters empty out.
 
As I recall, the barrier extends across the street, may be accompanied by an orange cone, and looks like crap.

I'll count whether there are one or two sawhorses. Maybe they are blue, maybe yellow, maybe marked Boston Police Dept.

I'll try to get a Pantone match and report back.

LOL
 
Had a conversation with a guy yesterday about the Tremont side of the Common. I think the city's leadership should focus on that side and stop talking about destroying the integrity of the Common by putting a restaurant on it (and burn the carousel, while they're at it).

If Tremont Street was narrowed and a wider sidewalk added, perhaps that would help. I think they should consider the idea of sidewalk carts on the Common (which of course completely contradicts my comments above, I realize).

Eventually, I think the free market would end up adding retail on Tremont Street with Suffolk and Emerson expanding inward. (There's a new coffee shop there, already, btw.)

Unfortunately, the three condo towers on that block have underdeveloped or empty storefronts that create a dead zone.

I agree, they should bring traffic back to Washington Street, at the very least overnight or from 8 PM - 6 AM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top