The notion of 'mall, sweet mall' leaves a bitter taste

This scene could be a frequent haunt for residents of a condo complex rising at the Natick Collection. (Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

AS I ate breakfast Wednesday and read the Globe ("3BR, mall view," Page A1), I thought my coffee was going to come out my nose when I saw the term "suburban pioneers" used to describe people buying million-dollar condos at the Natick Collection. Talk about an oxymoron.

I always thought "pioneer" described people who are among the first to do something important. Think Jonas Salk or Louis Pasteur as medical pioneers, Alan Shepard or John Glenn as space pioneers, or the faceless crowds that settled the American West.

It's great that the DuGallys and their dog can afford a condo at the Natick mall. They are certainly living the dream of many people (my wife, for example). But to call them pioneers is a bit overboard.

KEN BROWN
Hopkinton

FORGIVE ME if I don't rush out to purchase a condo at Nouvelle at Natick. As a blue-collar beer drinker who occasionally stops at Faneuil Hall, I may have spilled some suds on Donna Niles's Manolo Blahniks.

This is the type of "news" that I need on the front page, so that I can start my day reading about self-absorbed people who need to escape from apparently lower-caliber people like myself.

MICHAEL CRAVEN
Medford

DURING THE 28 years that we lived in Wellesley, my husband and I watched traffic increase exponentially along Route 9 from Chestnut Hill to Framingham and beyond. When the Atrium Mall was built, Shoppers World was rebuilt, and the Chestnut Hill and Natick malls were improved; when more and more big box stores were built, Route 9 became a luxury shopping destination for much of Eastern and Central Massachusetts.

Prospective buyers at the Natick Collection may avoid city traffic, but they will have to deal with severe suburban traffic snarls. While they may be able to take an elevator downstairs to get an eyebrow wax, they will still have to drive out of their parking areas to go to the grocery store and hardware store. Then they will be contending with frustrated commuters, cellphone-wielding soccer moms in their SUVs, and shoppers coming out from the city.

Before they put down deposits at Nouvelle in Natick, I suggest they scope out the traffic around the mall on Saturdays and Sundays, at rush hour, and any day from now until Christmas.

LIBBY TAFT
Holden

SARAH SCHWEITZER'S article about mall-based living quarters was simply ridiculous. Is she working part time for the developer, or drawn to people whose lives revolve around shopping and avoiding public transportation? There's so much more to living in the city than bars and retail stores: small and large theaters, ballet and modern dance, museums, galleries, nightclubs, symphony, the vitality of people at work, and a swirling mix of cultures from all over the planet. The notion that covered parking and easy access to Neiman Marcus could meet all of one's needs made me want to throw up on my flip-flops.

INGRID FURLONG
Jamaica Plain

IN A city where poor and working families cannot find affordable housing, or are increasingly facing foreclosure because of predatory lending scams, how can the Globe justify a front-page article such as this? It makes one wonder how The Onion can exist in a world that is so far beyond parody.

BRIAN FLYNN
Jamaica Plain