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I was wondering what input do local Bostonians have on this. Will the return of vehicular traffic actually improve business in downtown or will it simply add to the congestion? Does our pedestrian mall actually need fixing at all?
The proposal that automotive traffic will make a downtown shopping district more lively is truly grasping at straws. The only thing this says to me is "desperation."
The pedestrian mall was and is an excellent idea. It's an idea that exists and functions in many of the worlds greatest cities. Not having automotive traffic in the area is not the problem (in fact, heavy automotive traffic chases pedestrians away in many instances). DTX is right on the cities busiest subway corridor and right next to some of the busiest stops (Downtown Crossing and Park street being right there). There are also parking garages and vehicular access all around downtown crossing.
The issues with Downtown Crossing are far deeper thant car traffic.
First, the mega-project that was supposed to be the linchpin of the DTX revitalization, the Filene's Project (aka One Franklin) is a hole in the ground still and will be for some time as the developer is having funding issue. The project should not have been been able to break ground without secured financing and at least a few anchor retail, office and hotel tenants. But since construction WAS allowed to begin, we're left with a gaping hole in the ground in the heart of what is supposed to be the city's central shopping district. This alone is enough to keep people away.
Next, there are few residences nearby. While there are some, there are not nearly enough to keep activity going on at various hours of the day. Jane Jacobs, the patron saint of urban planning, believed that mixed uses and a wide array of businesses and residences create the best neighborhoods. In Downtown Crossing, you have some mixed uses, but there needs to be a higher number of residences. More residents in a neighborhood mean more eyes on THEIR streets caring for THEIR neighborhood and reduced crime. Furthermore, a wider variety of after-hours businesses would help. More late night shops, restaurants and desirable bars attract people to the area AFTER the workday hours and on weekends. More people CONSTRUCTIVELY using an area combined with more area residents means busier, safer streets.
Finally, allowing cars on that stretch of Washington would only be necessary if there weren't other ways to access the neighborhood. Since you have subway, bus, and parking garages all around the area, opening the road to cars won't do anything to bring more than passerby traffic to the area (and deter shoppers and pedestrians). If anyone really believes that reopening a couple of blocks of Washington Street to cars is going to entice more people come in from surrounding areas, they're off their rockers. Encouraging MORE automotive traffic in downtown areas is BAD... that's why cities like Cambridge, New York, Washington DC (and just about every important European city) are closing lanes to cars and opening them to pedestrians and bikes (they've even done this on Broadway in NYC), and expanding mass transit lines.
This article was a load of crap. I don't buy it for a second... allowing cars in DTX will do NOTHING for the businesses there except possibly chace even more people away.
This article was a load of crap. I don't buy it for a second... allowing cars in DTX will do NOTHING for the businesses there except possibly chace even more people away.
I agree entirely IrFox - a load of crap. Let me add a shortsighted load of crap. The first thought I had reading the article was is this writer in his 20's or what? Seemingly romancing the "old days" of the 60's & 70's? Downtown crossing died when they put in that behemoth of a building where Macy's is now and Filene's was. It was gorgeous before that
What really happened to Washington St was the depopulation of the residences, like the entire West End, the whole population that lived where the finally removed Central artery now isn't, and the other affordable homes now replaced by big corporate boxes and ugly parking garages. I'm not saying the offices buildings and business space is a bad thing, but there is no doubt the Washington St is not on the slide. It has improved significantly over the 15 years since I first arrived in Boston in 1993.
I think with the end of the big dig and the booming construction from Boylston St going South, it is well on its way. My bet is that parking lot across from the paramount will get 500 residents in the next five years.
Two things immediately come to mind about this suggestion. One, bringing more pollution won't help. And second, whenever some proposal like this pops up, preservationist gut instincts usually automatically react negatively smelling a rat in the form of a crooked developer like the types that brought us the central artery, government center, and other architectural abominations & real estate swindles.
DTX is a mess, and it's stupid to think that adding traffic to that mess will make it better. you start allowing traffic to go down the street, people are going to want on street parking (as opposed to the garages near the Common). look at the North End and check out how "fun" it is to drive and park around there. people are going to start double parking, abusing the parking (ie, park in DTX and take the train to, say Fenway Park), and in the end, it will be a huge mess.
I remember going to DTX a lot as a kid (back in the day when Jordan Marsh, Filene's Basement, and Woolworth were still there) and DTX now sucks. I came over to Boston for Xmas vacation and popped down to DTX, not remembering that Filene's was closed. I browsed a bit, and got depressed by what was there. hordes of idiot teens crowding around the corner so that you can't even walk down the sidewalk (I had to yell at some teens loitering around the Tello's b/c they were blocking the entire sidewalk and weren't letting people by). there are too many tacky, poor quality, and redundant chain stores. people aren't going to drag themselves to DTX to shop at Tello's, Hip Zepi, or one of the 10 dozen shoe stores lining the street. TJ Maxx and other chain stores there are common in many places and aren't "destination" stores. me personally, the only store I liked was the DSW show store and Borders. the Corner Mall, IMHO, is icky, overcrowded, and lacking of anything worthwhile. and don't even get me started on the crime issues (I wasn't at all surprised someone got shot near Macy's)
DTX has a lot of problems, and adding traffic to the mix isn't going to fix anything. I can think of a few options I'd like to see done:
-better stores. DTX needs to stop catering to the teenage crowd. get some quality stores in there ASAP. not saying it should be another Newbury St (though, even though I can't afford to shop at the majority of the stores there, I still prefer walking down that street than through DTX!), but something better than what they have now. I know the economy bites right now so this is tough to accomplish. there's a small part of me that wonders if a big box store like Target or Best Buy should be put in place. I don't much like the idea but think it's a better "last resort" option than opening the streets to cars. actually, a small Target may be welcomed given the number of Suffolk and Emerson students living close by in dorms.
-there needs to be more independent stores. fewer national chains and more local flavor. the downtown rents may make this tough, so I have an idea: gut the Corner Mall and set up a marketplace similar to the Faneuil Hall has w/ all the push carts near Quincy Market. but instead of pushcarts, they'd just be small local stores (actually, a better example would be the place in Coolidge Corner near across the street from B&N, the one w/ the comic book shop)
-better food options. I can tolerate the pushcart food, but there should be more options besides those, the Corner Mall, some random fast food places scattered about, and the small places along the Filene's building (are any of these places, especially the ones across the street from TJ Maxx still open? I noticed the Au Bon Pain was closed last I was down there). the area is in desperate need of a decent sit down place. it seems the the nearest place to grab a real bite to eat is either way over in Chinatown or way over near Faneuil Hall. I mean, look at all the options you have at the Prudential/Copley Mall and even the Cambridge Galleria has a Cheesecake Factory!
-I know the Common is right up the street, but DTX is so, blah, looking! it could use a bit of color besides brick red. more green is needed, more trees and plants and just overall color!
-access to a map of the area w/ all the stores would be nice. similar to mall maps, which would be helpful to people not from the area (or for people like me who haven't been there in over a year and forgot where the frickin' CVS was!). oh, and better store hours; seems like everything closed before 8pm, which is pretty early IMO)
those are just a few things I could think of for now (forgive me if it sounds incoherent, it's late!)
DTX was improved by the pedestrian mall, at least temporarily. Its problems are more about long-term changes in retail. The urban pedestrian mall (closing shopping streets to traffic) was a 1970s experiment in lots of US cities just as downtown commerce was dying because of suburban shopping malls. It didn't work in most of those cities because of larger forces than just the question of whether a car-free street is more or less inviting to shoppers. It did seem to work in Boston for awhile, but then the home-grown department stores all folded or were absorbed into national chains. Back in the day, DTX was the place to go: Jordan Marsh was practically as big as Macy's in Herald Square; it had all the existing space plus the annex, where they sold furniture, refrigerators--you name it. The annex was replaced by what they called Lafayette Place for a few years and now I'm not sure what it is. Jordan's, by the way, tore down their rather handsome Victorian brownstone building on Washington and Summer Streets about 1979 and replaced it with the present cheap-looking, two story strip-mall like structure, and so lost a lot of their retail space that way. I guess the strategy was not to run a garguantan department store in that location but cut it back to basically clothes. Filene's everyone knows, but there were other department stores, too-- R.H. White, Raymonds, Gilchrist's (in the building where the Corner Mall is), and Kennedy's. On Tremont St there was R. H. Stearns for the Junior League set, and a number of smaller carriage-trade stores including Chandler's, Hovey's, and C. Crawford Hollidge. Then there were movie theaters up and down Washington Street, Tremont Street, and Stuart Street. This decline is a very long-term thing, and you'd have to admit that what has disappeared from DTX has been at least partly replaced by all the shopping in Back Bay. But mostly DTX has changed from being the only major shopping district of the entire Boston region to being one of many, many retail locations, and it has lost business proportionately.
Yeah, I too would miss the pedestrian mall if they remove it. I don't think it is a good idea at all. Downtown Crossing does need improvement though. Over the years it has become dirtier and seedier than the past but then, Chinatown to the south looks better now than it did 20 years ago so there is hope for improvement.
I agree that DTX needs new and more department stores but I would still cater to teenagers. Heck I remember growing up in the city as a teenager in the 1990's, DTX was so convenient and hip to go to I would always bump into friends there. We felt it was a home away from home and we never felt unsafe there during the daytime. If they took way all the stores that catered to teenagers, then there would be few other places for teenagers without cars to go to. I think teenagers ought to be welcome to DTX as long as they behave just like anywhere else. I've also experienced throngs of teenagers clustered around Braintree's South Shore Mall entrance and some of them were even smoking cigarettes and making the whole place stink. Those things should not be allowed. DTX needs more diversity in stores and more major department stores. I sincerely hope we get another anchor store soon.
I'm pretty much in agreement with everyone on here. I used to work right off Washington St and it was not too bad in the day but less appealing at night and on weekends. I don't see who's going to drive to Washington St. to shop since there's not only plenty of transit at DTX, but nowhere to park but the same garages that already exist.
One thing that did not work is the Mayor's petting zoo or whatever. I don't see how people who otherwise wouldn't shop there would change their minds because of the presence of a small collection of sad and cold-looking animals in 6 foot square chicken wire pens along side an empty department store building.
The pedestrian mall is not the problem. I spent plenty of time in Munich in the past couple of years and there were a lot of well-used pedestrian streets there and in many other European cities. They need to come up with some more attractive options and figure out a way to draw more evening crowds, which would require (and in turn foster) the sense that it's safe.
Another problem with DTX is you don't even need to go to a suburban mall to see the same stores in a more attractive setting. You can just go to Back Bay! It has Marshall's, H&M, Borders, Bath and Body Works, and some of the other stores that are also in DTX, but they're cleaner and "feel" safer. I work downtown and have never felt threatened in DTX, but it's not really a place I like to hang out, either. Plus, Back Bay still has Filene's Basement.
Returning automobiles to Washington and Winter Streets won't solve a thing. As others pointed out, the loss of Filene's, the Original and Authentic Filene's Basement and Jordan Marsh cut the heart and soul out of the shopping area. Now instead of being a distinctive shopping destination, it is becoming another outdoor mall, and the gangs that seem determined to claim it as their turf may soon have it all to themselves.
What a shame.
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