Diverse worlds converge amid the bustle at South Bay
Marcel Dawson can tick off a litany of dislikes about the South Bay Center: The press of swirling traffic and swarms of shoppers. The big box stores and concrete block architecture. The gritty setting that can be intimidating come nightfall.
Yet the 31-year-old mutual funds salesman, who recently moved to Boston from Charlotte, N.C., regularly finds himself at Target, loading up on necessities. And like many of the other thousands who churn each day through the 540,000-square-foot shopping center in a no man's land south of downtown, Dawson has developed a grudging affection for the place.
"It's almost like a train station. We are all here to pick something up," he said as he shopped with his fiancee for a clothing storage bin. "And because of that, you don't get the 'Don't cross into my neighborhood.' No one territorializes this place."
In an area famous for balkanized neighborhoods and clannish mentalities, the South Bay Center on the border of Dorchester has emerged as a melting pot uniting residents of South Boston, Dorchester, the South End, and Roxbury. At
The result is more urban bazaar than strip mall. Daily, the throngs bring a jumble of cultures and languages. Add in buses that rumble through, teens on dirt bikes wheeling around, and police cruisers parked at store entrances and South Bay is a decidedly distant relation of its suburban cousins.
From the beginning, some critics said the center could not succeed in the city, and in more recent times it seemed to suffer blows when Kmart and, later, Toys 'R' Us closed. Now, it is heading into its 15th year amid a nearly completed $40 million expansion that has added 98,859 square feet of retail space, 368 parking spaces, and landscaping and traffic control measures to the parking lot. Developers say the additions will beautify and solidify the mall as a fixture of suburban convenience in the city.
Still, beyond the tidy new construction and freshly laid asphalt, South Bay retains a quality of economic free-for-all, with a flourishing black market. Consider the scene on a recent day:
Early, before the crush of shoppers descended, two dozen men awoke under tents, their makeshift home -- equipped with Santeria candles, canned food, and a stove -- not far from the Southeast Expressway. They were mostly from Mexico, Honduras and beyond. They walked up an embankment, across an overpass, and into the parking lot. There, they leaned against Jersey barriers a short distance from the entrance to the Home Depot and waited for construction contractors who come each day seeking supplies and, occasionally, day laborers.
When a white van slowed to a stop, the men surrounded it. The driver, an Asian contractor, pointed to four men, including the lone English-speaker who acted as a translator. The four would work a day roofing, for $100 each. The rest shook their heads and slumped against the barriers.
Outside Stop & Shop midmorning, a man from Jamaica asked passersby to hire him. He didn't describe his skills, and customers paid little attention as they jostled for shopping carts. Later, near Target, unlicensed cab drivers hawked rides.
Pierre Joseph , 71, of Mattapan, said the job can be cruel. He usually allows customers to decide how much to pay him upon arrival at their destination. "Next time, pay a little more," he said he often tells passengers.
The mall's robust mix does not suit all. Some say it remains a dingy substitute for its suburban counterparts. Some derisively call the Target store "Tar-ghetto." A Quincy teacher, who declined to give her name as she shopped in Marshall's while waiting for her husband to buy a radio at Best Buy, looked around and whispered, "There's just too much riff-raff."
Others who cheer the mall say its rough-and-tumble nature is best managed with a sense of humor. "Typical," Kate Cavanaugh of South Boston, said with a laugh when she discovered her cart missing in Target after she left it to peruse hand lotions. Bridget Hirsch of the South End found herself stranded a few stores down from Stop & Shop with a cartful of groceries when anti theft devices locked the cart's wheels in place. "It's a little different than Whole Foods," she said.
Lodged in many memories is the attack last February in Target when four females, ages 10 to 20, punched and kicked a woman from Hyde Park who they said had bumped into one of them. At times, neighborhood troubles creep in. On a recent Thursday evening, a man slumped onto a bench outside Stop & Shop, clutching his chest. He had been stabbed a short distance beyond the mall's perimeter.
Numbers, though, suggest that the mall is not a dangerous spot, by city standards. In the last three years, reported crime has declined by 25.1 percent, and in 2006, 13 reported violent crimes occurred in the mall and immediate area, including six robberies and attempted robberies and seven aggravated assaults, Boston police records show. The most prevalent crime was larceny, often shoplifting, with 191 reported incidents last year. There were just 16 reports of car theft and attempts last year and, historically, surprisingly few accidents.
South Bay Center opened its doors in 1993 on the site of a demolished warehouse in a hardscrabble industrial corner of the city. At the time, few believed it would succeed. Boston was emerging from a recession; no major retail development had staked ground in the inner city in over 20 years. Mayor Raymond Flynn's development adviser pronounced the project "a vote of confidence in Boston."
The mall had initial setbacks. Its largest committed occupant, Pace Membership Warehouse, was liquidated by parent company Kmart, leaving a hole in the mall in its first year. But it had tapped into pent-up need. Today, South Bay ranks among the busiest and most successful shopping centers of its kind . Some 10,170 shoppers will visit the mall daily when the expansion is complete, and 13,301 on Saturdays, according to the developer's estimates. The Home Depot, Applebee's, and Stop & Shop are top performers in their chains. Waits at the month-old Olive Garden can snake out the door.
It's little wonder, some say, given the number of surrounding neighborhoods that long suffered without shopping resources, even a supermarket. "There's pride that we don't have to go to the suburbs to shop," said Albert Rice , pastor at Ebenezer Community Worship Center in Dorchester.
To be sure, glitz and grace remain sorely lacking, some say. South Bay, it's safe to say, is not a place where ladies lunch. Yet it is not without its unique charms.
"If I go to Wellesley, I feel like I stand out a lot," said Esther Lee, a Chinese-American who lives in Jamaica Plain . "Here, people don't look at me. I don't get the stares and I feel welcome. And that means something."
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
