For all the disappointment, angst, and hope wrapped up in the crater where the old Filene’s department store once stood, the former Filene’s site is an imperfect metaphor for Downtown Crossing’s long-running struggles. The Filene’s pit only became the manifestation of neighborhood blight a few years ago. The old Lafayette Place mall, which looms over Washington Street, two blocks down from Filene’s, has been a monument to Downtown Crossing’s failures for decades.
Lafayette Place was supposed to lift up a derelict end of a struggling commercial district. Instead, the redevelopment fell victim to the torpor that has plagued Boston’s downtown since the 1960s. Now, with Lafayette Place’s current corporate occupants preparing to relocate to the booming Seaport district, there’s no stronger barometer for Downtown Crossing’s current renaissance than the latest repositioning project at the snakebitten Lafayette complex.
Comments
This is the perfect spot for the downtown Target (with a grocery store) that everyone has been talking about for lo these many years.
Maybe a small grocery section, but I don't see enough customers for a full-fledged supermarket. Downtown residents live mostly in high-rise buildings and have access to grocery delivery by Peapod (Stop & Shop) and Roche Bros. I don't believe we'll see residents of high-end condos and apartment buildings wheeling grocery carts along the sidewalk.
Only high income and low income here. Doesn't attract middle income because of cost. Lots and lots and lots of low income people, mostly bored kids hanging out after school (or instead of going to school) and instead of going home to the projects near South End and JP. Usually smells of urine and rancid pepper-steak. Needs micro apartments and charter schools. Stat!
Giermund: When was the last time you were in Downtown Crossing? This is such an old stale stereotype! I work here every day. Between the influx of new residents, Suffolk and Emerson expansions, and the new BID district. Downtown Crossing is looking better then ever and "the urine smell and rancid pepper-steak" you speak of is an urban legend. Now if we can get the Filene's hole filled, it will be pretty nice down here. You need to visit as your comments are really out of date.
I wish them luck. The old Lafayette Place mall was ill-fated from the beginning. It more likel a catacomb than a mall, which should be open, airy, and cheerful. The Galleria at Lechmere in Cambridge is everything that Lafayette Place was not.
Maybe this time it will be a place I'd want to come to.
It was open after 1989, though most of the stores were probably closed by then. I distinctly remember going there in the early 1991 and 1992. I think the food court helped it limp along for a few years longer than it should have been open.