Urban Planning gone wrong

[m00n.livejournal.com]

While we are on the topic of community development, does anyone have an explanation for there now being a third convenience store in Teele Square within view of the other two?



Beyond the fact that I don't feel like these stores contribute much (if anything) to the community, I'm kind of wondering how it is that this neighborhood can even support three of them (four if you count the Indian market down the street that sells pretty much all the same stuff).

I don't mean to be such a community troll about these things, but I live in that neighborhood and it is starting to get a little depressing...

Comments

[turil.livejournal.com]

In a depression (social or personal) people resort to the quick and easy fixes fit their emotional highs - junk food, alcohol, tobacco, lottery tickets and other legalish drugs.

From what I can tell the economy could continue to survive even in the worst of times if most stores sold nothing but chocolate...

But people also like to have choice! And, as Hrafn points out, there's the convenience factor of not having to put one's life any more at risk than necessary by crossing streets where Massholes are driving. :-)

Up where I am on Spring Hill a second convenience store just opened about 30 feet away from the one that's been there for a while on the corner of Lowell and Highland.

If you want something better, my guess is that you've got to do it yourself. Or at least find someone you can convince to do it for you. (I'd like a raw foods grocery store and deli in Davis, if anyone finds me convincing...)

[ron_newman]

I didn't go into the new store at Lowell and Highland yet, but I think the sign says it specializes in Haitian or Caribbean foods.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they do. Though there selection is about as exciting as the "international" section at Star market.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

BTW did you know that white rice is an "ethnic" food???

[ron_newman]

Anglo is an ethnicity.

[fefie.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that new convenience store on Highland in Spring Hill is doors away from one that folded too!

I had similar reactions to the OP's each time a new burrito place opened in Davis Sq, and when the CVS opened in Davis, not far from the Rite Aid.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the two CVS's in Harvard Square.

[ron_newman]

The smaller of which used to be a 'Rix', I think, and which has no pharmacy counter.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I mean I'm all for free market capitalism to a point, but one has to keep in mind that if the free market were allowed to decide everything totally on its own, Davis Square would not be the destination that it is today *at all*.

Sometimes the free market has to be bent for the greater good.

[turil.livejournal.com]

You don't think the market is free in Davis?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

It is right now, but back when the T station first opened and Davis Square was, as my mother described it, "A pretty crummy neighborhood," local residents went out of their way to attract businesses that would make Davis Square a destination for people from other neighborhoods. You can bet this did not include convenience stores and generic pizza places...

[turil.livejournal.com]

I'd say that encouraging more interesting stores to David is using the free market, not bending it. The goal of the free market is to give people what they want/need. So all you need to do is to convince the free market that what you want/need in Teele is...

Well, what do you want in Teele?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Something...*anything*...that I can't find an exact duplicate of anywhere else. For example, I wouldn't even mind the convenience stores necessarily if there were anything about them that made them decidedly one of a kind. More restaurants would be nice. I generally like restaurants precisely because they tend to each have their own unique appeal. But the sky is basically the limit.

How about a bike store? Or a store specializing only in different kinds of bread? Or an art gallery? Or how about a full blown produce market that specializes in hard to find fruits, vegetables, and fungi? We don't really have one of those anywhere in the city outside of Whole Foods. It's only limited by one's imagination really...well, and what the market is willing to bear.

[turil.livejournal.com]

I think that you'll notice is that what the market is willing to bear is lots of junk food (including pizza), cigarettes, alcohol, porn, lottery tickets, and other cheap forms of drugs that dull one into not noticing how crappy the world is doing these days. I'm with you on all of those options you suggest, but you might need to wait until the economy gets better for any of them to happen. Most people don't have the excess money to spend on specialty fruits, veggies, and fungi, at least not enough to keep a whole store in business (the farmers market requires much lower overhead). Most people aren't buying art nowadays. Most people aren't spending their money on specialty breads, or lots of fancy bike parts. Thus, no business owner in their right mind is going to open up a place that sells that kind of thing.

We're lucky to have a few people who aren't in their right minds who at least offer us some of creative, useful places that we do have.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Just because a store is unique doesn't mean it has to be expensive.

Also if this is going to be a time of major upheaval for the Teele Square area (and I'm not quite convinced we're quite as affected by the recession as a lot of the state), then I think it's time to be extra careful not to let the square become overwhelmed with the kinds of businesses are are going to drive down the local property values.

[ron_newman]

Teele Square (at least 'greater Teele Square') does have an art gallery.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

*More* art galleries!

[m00n.livejournal.com]

But admittedly I'd rather have more of something we don't have, so your point is well taken.

[ron_newman]

While I obviously like bicycle stores, Somerville and Cambridge together are blessed with quite a large number of them already. The newest is Open Bicycle in Union Square. The closest to Teele is probably Paramount Bicycle in Ball Square (used to be in Powderhouse).

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Except ...

There's a bike store not far from Davis on Willow. And one in North Cambridge, on Mass Ave.

Artisan bread of many delicious varieties can be found at When Pigs Fly on Highland.

The produce market would indeed be awesome, which is why I'm glad it's Farmer's Market season again (in the plaza behind Starbucks on Wednesdays).

[m00n.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't have to be a store that was unique to the entire city, just one that was unique to the neighborhood...

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

Exactly the point of my post. Any ideas?

[ron_newman]

Me too ... and yet now that CVS is open, I never go to Rite Aid anymore. CVS is a block and a half closer to me and it's open much later.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I don't think this is necessarily a defense of the need for two such stores in the square. Indeed it doesn't make sense to walk across the square to buy something that you could get by going next door. But some might say this is exactly the problem. It discourages foot traffic through the square while at the same time adding nothing unique to Davis.

Most people...

[turil.livejournal.com]

don't want uniqueness.