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First it was my gym, the Boston Sports Club, that shuttered its doors in September. Then Quickly, a little Asian place on Dorrance. Now Ruth's Chris is gone. It is not a good sign when a city cannot support a national steakhouse, or even a single gym, downtown. What's going on?
First it was my gym, the Boston Sports Club, that shuttered its doors in September. Then Quickly, a little Asian place on Dorrance. Now Ruth's Chris is gone. It is not a good sign when a city cannot support a national steakhouse, or even a single gym, downtown. What's going on?
What's going on is you folks need Buddy to get the city back on its feet.
What's going on is you folks need Buddy to get the city back on its feet.
I don't know if Cianci is the answer, but the continued numbing lack of leadership and serious promotion of downtown makes it feel like the area is circling the drain. All of the outside "Number One" polls with their absurd accolades aren't changing the reality on the ground. Businesses are attracted by the positive vibe, but soon find the mirage doesn't pay the bills.
Don't worry, El Jorge is coming with a fistload of grants for Hispanic businesses to fill
the gap. They won't have to pay anything back, just like the loans made by Cicc and Taveras.
Here's another thing that didn't help downtown PVD: complete cluster-f at the Comic-Con, being held at the Dunk today. Just all around fail:
-- the organizers oversold the event massively. Many many thousands oversold. They kept selling tickets at the gate until the fire marshall closed it down, even though they had a huge number of pre-sales. People who paid $300 for VIP packages (including photos with the Star Trek cast and stuff) didn't get in.
Even on the inside, I'm hearing general agreement that it was the most poorly organized Con in history, total amateur hour, lots of people feeling scammed.
-- The Dunk staff and cops didn't earn any points. Not their fault for the oversell, but they were almost universally unsympathetic and uninformative, and in many cases were downright rude to the crowd. They especially didn't win PVD any friends in that the staff wouldn't even try to help vendors get back in; people who came here to make money and stepped out for a smoke break at the wrong moment were locked away from their booth all afternoon and zero concern shown by cops/staff/fire marshall.
THere were a dozen or more cops in the RICC entry area across from the Omni hotel just hanging out, while the crowd was spilling all the way down the street through that underpass area with busy traffic -- quite dangerous but nothing being done to manage the crowd/traffic interaction, just whole lot of blue uniforms standing around, and that lack of doing anything was certainly being noticed by the crowd.
-- Downtown didn't win any points. Talked to some out of towners, like a press guy, a vendor, a family from near Boston, etc., and they were all surprised at how few options there were to grab a bite or a drink anywhere nearby, and just the general bleakness of the area around RICC/Dunk.
Pretty sure PVD didn't win any new admirers today, sigh.
^ Murphy's. 100 Fountain Street. Union Street. Problem Solved. Washington Street. Westminster Street. Weybosett Street. There are dozens and dozens of food options, no? What, does the CC need to provide Fat Carts to get people out of the facility and around the city?
^ Murphy's. 100 Fountain Street. Union Street. Problem Solved. Washington Street. Westminster Street. Weybosett Street. There are dozens and dozens of food options, no? What, does the CC need to provide Fat Carts to get people out of the facility and around the city?
Agreed that those options exist, but if you are in here from out of town, and basically stuck waiting at the entrance of the CC by the Omni, it sure isn't obvious that you can walk several blocks and find anything. You don't see many other cities with a convention center that doesn't even have a Starbucks or DD and often some fast food basically right across the street.
Part of the mess today was anyone who did leave the event to get lunch, was never let back in. Apparently they were completely out of food for sale inside the event by 11am or so.
^ There's a Starbucks in the Dunk or the CC. Christ, the Dean Hotel's bar is right there! Trinity Brewhouse, wiener joints, hell, we even have a 7-11! And fast food downtown????? Wrong city.
When I visit cities I've not been to before, I tend to check out options. Lack of planning on the part of these lazy people doesn't constitute a damnation of this city; rather, it speaks to the slothfulness of the schlubs who couldn't bother to explore a block or two.
By the way, just to make it a home run for downtown PVD, actress Eliza Dushku had her luggage stolen out of the lobby of the Omni while she was checking in...
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