After win, missing the green
Businesses near Garden face summer slowdown
The confetti has been swept up. The streamers put away. The Celtics are just waiting to hang banner number 17 from the rafters of the TD Banknorth Garden.
But what now for the area around the Garden?
Unlike other parts of the city, many hospitality-based businesses in the area known as Downtown North and, in particular, the Bulfinch Triangle - the blocks bounded by Causeway, North Washington, and Merrimac streets - experience their slowest business of the year during the summer.
"The area still has a long way to go. That's the reality of it," said Bill Fairweather, owner of The Greatest Bar on Friend Street and a radio and television freelancer. "It's headed in the right direction. I'd love to tell you we're all making a ton of money down here, but if the Celtics aren't playing, then people are not coming to the area.
"If there's not a Bruins or Celtics game or concert at the Garden, then they're going to be open [only] on Friday and Saturday night because there's just not the business down there."
As Downtown North struggles to find its identity, a quick look around Bulfinch Triangle reveals the neighborhood's juxtaposition of urban blight and promising redevelopment.
As for the former, "North Station has always been a little seedy. I think the police have been a lot better in the last few months, trying to keep the homeless and drug addicts away," said Fran Manganiello, a partner in the Four's Restaurant and Sports Bar, one of the older establishments in the neighborhood. "I think that is probably the biggest problem, just cleaning up the area in that respect."
Noting the homeless people and the methadone treatment center on Canal Street, Fairweather said, "Put it this way: Drive down Causeway Street, stop in front of the
Fairweather, whose pub opened in 2004, added, "We're not Newbury Street by any stretch, and all the more reason why times like [the Celtics playoffs] are so vitally important. Without [them], you can board up the whole area."
According to Bob O'Brien, executive director of the Downtown North Association, that dichotomy is just part of being in a downtown neighborhood.
"We are the quintessential mixed-use neighborhood," O'Brien said. "We embrace all aspects of what it takes, and that includes human service agencies, methadone clinics, housing, medical institutions, professional organizations.
"We live in a city. We revel in its diversity. We embrace it. That's not to say [there aren't problems] but we try to solve them within our community; not by displacing them."
On the other hand, there are several factors pointing to a rebirth of the neighborhood.
Some cite the removal of the elevated T tracks as opening the area - literally and figuratively - to potential businesses and residents.
"It made all the difference in the world," O'Brien said. "It was the single most catalytic event in terms of development in the area, and it's what we've been planning toward literally for 20 years."
One problem is that although many commuters pass through the neighborhood on their way to and from North Station, not so many frequent the establishments in the area.
But recent development projects, estimated at $1.5 billion, promise to change that, O'Brien said.
"One of the important things about the growth of the area is the Bulfinch Triangle, where most of these bars and restaurants are located, which is in the midst of its own redevelopment with thousands of new units of housing, new office buildings, new hotels," he said. "And that is going to provide a whole different constituency for our restaurants, because we used to always have to rely almost exclusively on the Garden crowd."
O'Brien added, "In terms of the area as a whole, I'd say what's happening now and what will happen in the next 10 years will really be the glory days of the area."
For the time being, however, local businesses are just grateful for the unexpected windfall this spring.
"We never thought [the Celtics championship] was coming," Fairweather said. "To have the season last into June as opposed to the first week of April is as good news as we could get.
"Hopefully, the fortunes of the neighborhood turn with the fortunes of the team, and we can get some profits and development and businesses to thrive because it's an extremely - extremely - challenging area to try to do business."
