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« Brainiac on 4th of July | Main | The language we deserve? » Thursday, July 12, 2007Downtown Crossing, then and nowI am old enough to remember the days -- 30 years ago -- when one had to dodge traffic in Boston's Downtown Crossing. Before the Mass. Dept. of Education's Bureau of Equal Educational Opportunity moved to Quincy, my father's office was near the Common, and once in a while I'd spend the day there, and we'd have lunch in the area. This was in the mid-'70s, when the concept of the Ladder District would have struck Bostonians as pure science fiction. A Boston.com photo gallery supporting a Globe story today about the "revitalization" of the area takes me back.  A description of Downtown Crossing in today's Globe story -- "an unkempt, unsafe shopping district lined with discount stores, fast-food restaurants, and vacant storefronts" -- makes it sound like a terrible place. But when I was in high school, I spent quite a bit of time in that part of the city, working as a courier and also shopping for sneakers -- in the mid-'80s, if you followed hip hop fashion and absolutely had to have particular editions of Adidas and Nike kicks, you could not find a better selection anywhere else in Greater Boston. It was unkempt and unsafe, maybe, but I liked it. Downtown Crossing didn't have a lot of high-end retail, in those days, but so what? It was a fine place for a teenager to buy records and books, nearly as good as Harvard Square. (PS: Can anyone remember the name of the used record store in Downtown Crossing whose owner proudly displayed a picture of herself singing in front of the Museum of Science's T-Rex model? Please remind me!) I've never set foot in Macy's or Filene's, so it still strikes me as odd that the shuttering of these institutions should be so alarming to Bostonians. I know, I know. Well-heeled adults, and not urban teens, are the customers we'd all like to attract to Downtown Crossing. But permit me to offer a crazy alternate vision: Now that Harvard Square is all chain stores and high-end retail, let Downtown Crossing become the new Harvard Square. Provide rent breaks for independent retail stores. Make it easy for small restaurants, cafes, and pubs to open up -- give them permission to serve beer on the sidewalk, while we're at it. Try to attract some of Boston's thousands of undergrads and graduate students, not to mention its population of "cultural creatives," instead of worrying that Financial District workers won't lunch there. Who's with me? Posted by Joshua Glenn at 09:28 AM
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