Downtown Boston has been a disaster zone for years, mostly because the big revitalization project that was going to go in where Filene’s used to be fell through with the recession. So for the last five years, we’ve had a big old hole sitting there, surrounded on 3.25 sides by the lovely façade of the old Filene’s building. (They really did know how to build elegant, beautiful, charming storefronts back in the day.)
In addition to the hole from whence Filene’s once sprang, downtown – or as it styles itself, Downtown Crossing - features a dead space where Barnes and Noble went out, oh, maybe ten years back. And another dead space which – much to my lament – Borders once occupied.
There’s a Macy’s, where I go out of necessity, for necessities (makeup, underwear…) There’s CVS that I’m perpetually in and out of. And, given that I lose a headset every couple of months, a Verizon store that I use on occasion.
Sometimes I pick up burrito (Thai chicken) at Boloco. I got a very tasty sandwich at a place called Potbelly a few months back, but, let’s face it, no one with a potbelly wants to frequent a place called Potbelly.
Other than that, downtown – errr, Downtown Crossing - is dead and depressing. Boston, it can be said, but the “down” in downtown.
One thing there is a lot of, especially surrounding the ghost of Filene’s past, is pushcarts.
They don’t sell anything too exciting: scarves, Boston tee-shirts, baseball caps, necklaces and earrings, pocketbooks, fruit and veg, flowers, and those crunchy-granola Incan wool hats that look like they’d matt up and turn into papier-mâché the minute a drop of water lands of them.
But they’re there. They’ve been there for a good long while, presumably making a living. And they make downtown slightly less drab, dreary, dead and depressing.
Not for much longer, I’m afraid.
A Downtown Crossing business group is shutting down a pushcart program that has operated for over three decades, angering many of the 27 vendors who stuck it out through lean times in the shopping district, now in the midst of a dramatic makeover. (Source: Boston.com)
Ah, the old dramatic makeover excuse.
Apparently, the current crop of pushcarts aren’t quite what the brick and mortar businesses want to rub shoulders with, now that the Filene’s glam project is back on. Too much hoi in the pushcart polloi.
“They” – those powers that be running Downtown Crossing - want pushcarts that are more upscale – like the ones in Faneuil Hall and Copley Place. You know, those fabulous pushcarts that sell things like nesting maryoshka dolls, sunglasses, watches, and smartphone cases.
I do understand that once Downtown Crossing is swanked up, and people are living in million dollar condos, eating at posh restaurants, and shopping at Hugo Boss and Movado, they’re not going to want to contend with pretzel vendors and someone selling knock-off MLB merchandise.
But that doesn’t seem to be enough of a reason to inform the pushcarts that they need to be gone by the end of March.
Yes, all they’re getting is a few weeks notice before they have to cease and desist.
Harsh!
Some of the tonier pushcarts are supposedly going to be asked back, and more upscale pushcarts recruited, once the firms for the brave new Downtown Crossing firm up.
Still, it seems pretty callous and cold to give such little warning to the folks currently located there.
These are, after all, the little guys. Being picked on by the nasty big guys.
I can’t imagine where most of the pushcarts will go, other than out of business. I can’t think of another spot in Boston where they could comfortably end up, other than places where there are already pushcarts galore.
What harm would it cause to let them stay during construction, giving them all some time to glam up their business, or find a new place to locate.
But, no, they’re just getting until the end of March. (Unless, of course, there’s a major hue and outcry, which wouldn’t surprise me.)
And they say that April is the cruelest month.
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