Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

sat. nite
136.jpg
 
Not yet enough people for all than Neon

Howerver with Kensington and Hayward finished it should start to fill up
 
Took down the boards around the new Unos in Downtown Crossing. No camera so no photos to upload. Looks much better than the previous entryway.
 
World's Most-Visited Tourist Attractions
Embrace the wisdom of crowds by adding the world’s most-visited tourist attractions to your bucket list.

No. 1 Times Square, New York City

Annual Visitors: 39,200,000


Tourists flock to New York’s neon heart for the flashing lights, Broadway shows, megastores, and sheer spectacle. Pedestrian-only areas with café tables introduced in 2009 have only made it easier and more appealing to hang out here. Times Square can even be a convenient, if chaotic, base, thanks to hotels at every price point and easy access to public transportation: subways, rails, buses, and more yellow taxis than you can count.



Central Park
Darcy StrobelNo. 2 Central Park, New York City

Annual Visitors: 38,000,000


New York has larger green spaces, but none is more famous than Central Park, which stretches across nearly 850 acres of prime Manhattan real estate—an oasis for both tourists and locals. You can ride in one of the famous horse-drawn carriages; check out the modest-size zoo; climb to the top of 19th-century Belvedere Castle; or take a break from pounding the pavement to sprawl on the Great Lawn, gazing at the skyscrapers above.
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BRA should actually take an interest in this post.
The heart of Boston could use a little life.

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-40711683


Now lets compare the Greenway and Boston's heart of the city "downtown" to NYC.
A median Strip.
A Shithole

Would love to know the yearly city maintaince budgets for Central Park compared to the Greenway.
 
TheRifleman said:
BRA should actually take an interest in this post.
The heart of Boston could use a little life.

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-40711683
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Riff -- in view of the fact that beantown placed in the top 10- -- I'm sure that they are well aware -- and think that they are doing quite well:

No. 7 Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston
Annual Visitors: 18,000,000
Dating back to 1742, Faneuil Hall (“the Cradle of Liberty”) once hosted speeches by such greats as Samuel Adams and George Washington. Today, the downtown marketplace has more than 100 specialty shops and eateries and occupies a pedestrian-only, cobblestone area that swarms with tourists and street performers.

If you follow the FH link on the list -- you get this selection of comments:

Love Boston!!!
By Aaron, 9/25/11
I have family in Beantown and was taken out around here on my last night there. It was amazing!!! I loved it from sitting down in Cheers having a Sam Adams to going to Kinsales and having more fun there. The Hall was packed but it was truly a wicked awesome spectacle. I will be going back again next year. If you are in Boston for any kind of trip you simply must go there. The street performers, the shops, restaurants, and pubs are some of the best. I'd give it more than 5 stars if I could!! Faneuil Hall I will see you again next year!!!!
ATMOSPHERE (5)
VALUE (5)

I CANT WAIT TO GO AGAIN
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 9/25/11
FANEUIL HALL MARKET IS A WONDERFUL PLACE TO GO WE REALLY ENJOY OUR TIME THERE AND HAVE A LOT OF FUN GOOD FUN LOTS OF ENTERTAINMENT
ATMOSPHERE (5)
VALUE (5)

A Colonial Era Outdoor 'Museum'
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 9/25/11
I am a native Bostonian, and I still love to walk through the marketplace each season and just people watch, grab a bite and take in the beautiful architecture that surrounds the area. It can get very crowded but it adds to the vibrancy of the place. The street performers are entertaining, and the beauty of the space is wonderful night or day. If you go, you MUST go inside Faneuil Hall itself. The hall is quite beautiful and historically significant. So many tourists bypass it, and it is right in front of them! Imagine the two granite market buildings meeting the water's edge...it used to. Ships from around the world would dock at its doorway (almost) and bring Bostonians goods from all over. Portions of the harbor were reclaimed by man made land all the way to the present harbor side by the Aquarium. There is a lot to see and do within a 5 minute walk in any direction. Those that say they are bored, are boring people who cannot take interest in interesting things!
3 of 3 Yahoo! Users found this review helpful
ATMOSPHERE (4)
VALUE (3)

A GREAT area!
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 9/24/11
I'm from Arizona, and I've had the pleasure of visiting Boston several times and Faneuil Hall is so cool...... Period. It's a "bucket-list" must. Centered in the great historic town of Boston, this is a tourist jewel. Fun shops, great atmosphere, and sensational seafood adjacent to Boston's famous Italian North End. I haven't been back in 4 years... I so miss Boston and Faneuil Hall!
1 of 1 Yahoo! Users found this review helpful

Great place BUT...
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 8/21/11
I just went to Faneuil Hall Market Place and it was a blast! If any of you guys are looking for daily coupons in ur city check out this site! goo.gl/qC7md I saved over $30 by using that!
2 of 3 Yahoo! Users found this review helpful
ATMOSPHERE (5)
VALUE (5)

It's OK
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 11/18/10
There're a lot of places to eat. The shops are OK. Street performers are great. It's too crowded on the weekend.
0 of 2 Yahoo! Users found this review helpful
ATMOSPHERE (4)
VALUE (3)

I loved Boston!
By Melanie M, 8/16/10
I don't know what lamo blech was talking about but when my boyfriend and I went to Boston We walked all every where and at night I never once felt scared or in fear of my life. The people were really nice compared to the douche bags in ca I'm used to. Salem & Cambridge were also awesome!
1 of 1 Yahoo! Users found this review helpful
 
TheRifleman said:
^^^^
Never said Boston was not a great place. We should be #1
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Riff -- natural numbers play a role in these kind of rankings as does the methdology of counting or estimating -- by the way SF's best finished 12th:

"We defined “tourist attractions” as cultural and historical sites, natural landmarks, and officially designated spaces. So Boston’s shop-filled Faneuil Hall Marketplace (est. 1742) made the cut, but not Minnesota’s Mall of America—with 40 million annual visitors it would otherwise have been number one....Attractions that don’t sell tickets gave us estimates as best they could. The Times Square Alliance was able to estimate that 80 percent of the 49 million tourists who visited New York in 2010 passed through Times Square. But Berlin’s East Side Gallery and London’s Trafalgar Square were excluded because their tourism bureaus couldn’t provide estimates that distinguished between visitors and locals.... We also excluded sights that draw almost exclusively religious pilgrims."


I looked through the full list of Top 50 and I can't say that I'm outraged -- but call me a Philistine if you will -- I'm certainly saddend by the fact that the first attraction on the list not all about shopping is Notre Dame at number 13 (13.6 M). Beijing's Forbidden City (#15 - 12.8M) then you pass by a lot more shopping and various Disney attractions (or wanna-bees) until you get to The Great Wall (#26 -- 9 M), Musee du Louve (#29 -- 8.5M), Smithsonian Air & Space (#30 -- 8.3 M), and again a lot more blatant kitsche and rides until a few more museums: Smithsonian Natural History (#34 -- 6.8M), Palace de Versailles (#39 -- 5.9 M), British Museum with the Foster Coutyard (#40 -- 5.8M) and the Metropolitan far down the list (#44 -- 5.2M) with the Colleseum (#46 -- 5.1M) and Tate Modern (#49 -- 5 M) essentially bringing up the rear.

Apparently there are no museums in Chicago (Navy Pier # ), LA (Univrsal Studios, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, ), Tokyo ( ), or SF ( ) which can compete with shopping for refrigerator magnets

Nor apparently is it worth bothering to visit Florence, Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, Madrid, Cairo, Athens, Bilbaoo or Philadelphia for any reason

Maybe I'm just disgusted with the loss of interest / ignorance of our global cultural heritage -- I thiink there might have been a handful of world heritge sites on the list.

So I guess that from an intelectual stimulation / cultural heritage standpoint perhaps we should be grateful for the fraction of the 18 M visiting FH/QM that stop to notice what was begun by John Smibert in the style of an English country market with private funds from Peter Faneuil and then redone by Bulfinch with Federal precision and simplicity. similarly a few might stop to admire Alexander Parris' Quincy Granite Greek Temple Central Market, the inspired city planning by mayor Josia Quincy (who arrange for the construction without debt or use of public Funds) buildiing of QM and Ben Thompson's 1976 re-do encuraged by Kevin White.

Let's hope that there were some who might look-up-close at paintings of Washington, Webster, Hancock, Adams, or any of the other paintings or sculptures upstairs in FH, listen to the Park Service talk, particpate in a "tourist New England Town Meeting" or venure even higher up to the Ancient and Honerable Artillary Company Museum and other exhibts. Some tourists might fall-in with a Park Service tour of other sites on the Fredom Trail. A few tourists might even attend a concert in the Great Hall by the Boston Classicl Orchstra.

This potential cultural bonanza in FH/QM makes it the higest ranking of the 50 Top Tourist sites in terms of Cutural Value X number of vistors!! -- my ranking (westy)

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-most-visited-tourist-attractions

....China ousted Spain as the third most-visited country with 55.7 million foreign arrivals, while France and the U.S. held tight to their first and second place rankings...Disneyland Paris drew the same number of visitors (10.5 million) as Sacré-Coeur, and two of the world’s 10 most-visited tourist attractions are Disney parks. America also dominates our list.....China and India are even bigger than the U.S., but their lack of dependable visitor statistics and limited domestic tourism markets help account for their few attractions on our list. Expect to see more of them over time; already attendance at Beijing’s Forbidden City has surged from 7 million visitors in 2007 to 12.83 million visitors in 2010.

So what is the most-visited tourist attraction in the world? And can 39.2 million people be wrong? Read on to see the results—and an explanation of our methods for calculating it all.

The Methodology: To tally up the world’s most-visited attractions, we gathered the most recent data supplied by the attractions themselves or from government agencies, industry reports, and reputable media outlets. Whenever available we used 2010 data; however, in the case of theme parks and a few other attractions, the most recent attendance numbers were from 2009.

Attractions that don’t sell tickets gave us estimates as best they could. The Times Square Alliance was able to estimate that 80 percent of the 49 million tourists who visited New York in 2010 passed through Times Square. But Berlin’s East Side Gallery and London’s Trafalgar Square were excluded because their tourism bureaus couldn’t provide estimates that distinguished between visitors and locals.

We defined “tourist attractions” as cultural and historical sites, natural landmarks, and officially designated spaces. So Boston’s shop-filled Faneuil Hall Marketplace (est. 1742) made the cut, but not Minnesota’s Mall of America—with 40 million annual visitors it would otherwise have been number one. Short walkways and waterfront promenades also fit our definition of tourist attractions; that disqualified the Blue Ridge Parkway. We also excluded sights that draw almost exclusively religious pilgrims.
—Lyndsey Matthews
 
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Looks like wig world is on it's way out
JM Curley Coming to Downtown Crossing This Septemberby Naomi Kooker
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Sam MonsourThis September, Downtown Crossing gets a new American “watering hole and hangout," JM Curley, named for the notorious mayor of Boston. It's from Bina Family Hospitality, which also operates Bina Osteria in the same neighborhood and Lala Rokh and Bin 26 Enoteca on Beacon Hill. Sam Monsour, with roots in his family’s restaurant business in North Carolina, will be the executive chef. Lunch items will hover around $10, while dinner entrees (think grass-fed burgers served until 1 AM) will be under $20. There will be a full bar, cocktails, wine and craft beers served until 2 AM. “It’s really meant to be a go-to place for people working in the industry,” says the hospitality group. The two-level setting will also feature private dining (21 Temple Pl.).
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http://www.zagat.com/buzz/jm-curley-coming-to-downtown-crossing-this-september


They are appearing before the licensing board Oct 5th
 
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BostonUrbEx said:
There's an UNO's at DTX?
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Uno's has been developing a takeout concept... under ten minutes from time of order in person or ready if you order online. Haven't been there myself to see if this is one, but places like DTX are their target.
 
Wigs.

The new place will bring in more people and at night too on a street with lots of vacant store fonts.

What't the big deal with Filene's? With or without Filene's downtown crossing is a dump
 
PaulC said:
Wigs.

The new place will bring in more people and at night too on a street with lots of vacant store fonts.

What't the big deal with Filene's? With or without Filene's downtown crossing is a dump
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Disagree -- with a Tarzjay or some other sort of large, gneral-purpose midlevel retail directly across from Macys -- DTX will be very popular daytime, cmmute-time shopping spot for the denizens of the Fiancial District and the locals living in the immediate area

That kind of activity will spur more smaller-scale retail, food, etc -- that's how DTX comes back from its current quasi-dump status

will it ever return to the shopping venue for all New England when there were 7 or 8 depatment stores in 2 or 3 blocks - not a chance -- but then the days of special shoppers trains from ME aren't likely to return either

However -- DTX can faily easily get back to the level of activity which it possessed when Jordan's faced off against Filenes across Summer St. -- or even later when Jordans became Macys and Borders and Barnes and Noble where in full swing.

However -- I agree that DTX needs help now!
 
Even when Filenes was open dtx had the highest pilferage rate in the country
 
PaulC said:
Even when Filenes was open dtx had the highest pilferage rate in the country
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To which era are you reffering -- out of DTX's 100 plus year existence as a retail hub for the HUB?

However, even if you were referring to a reletively recent era (circa 2000) -- that doesn't necessarily mean DTX wasn't a successful urban environment -- which in that time frame it definitely still was.
 
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