Road Map to Fix Downtown Crossing

The City of Boston should do the following:

1. Bring back Summer Stage. Put the stage back in between Macy's and Filene's and have a large free concert every weekend in the summer. Have smaller jazz or Berklee student concerts every Tues or Wed. and advertise them.

2. Buy all new puchcart kiosks and put them in key locations selling pre-approved merchandise so there is an interesting mix. Make the employees wear a hat, shirt, uniform or something to let people know every kiosk is part of the same market. We need more of these to take up space where kids, dealers and gangs have taken up residence. Anywhere there is currently a pushcart kiosk none of the riff raff can congregate and don't.

3. Create an outdoor food court with food from around the world. All clean food vendors with unique differing food or even satellite locations for local restaurants.

4. Uniformed police and security present and taking away anything deemed illegal.

5. Cover up the Filene's mess with a larger fence. Make it so you can't easily see the hole in the ground and REALLY wrap the building with Art and colorful signage. Make it look fun. The whole thing not just the bottom.

6. At night and at dusk light the place up and have night time events in conjunction with stores, bars and restaurants.

7. Make it easy on a web site/ talk boards to get input from the people of the city.

8. Lower the rents until the empty stores are filled. If not paint them and put more Art or kiosks in front of them. No more unpainted eyesores like Barnes and Noble.

9. Constant activity, events, sales, art, music, food and color.

10. Major ongoing promotions in the papers, on the radio and on TV.

11. One last one which may not be possible but would help. Run the freedom through DTX instead of down School St and add a few of the historic landmarks to the trail that are in DTX. There are many.

Open Downtown Crossing to Cars?? NO WAY!!!

Saying that shop owners are willing to try just about anything to make their businesses more successful during a recession and opening up the area to traffic is just another thing to try, without even making one point in your article how this would create more business is rediculous. Bromfield is open to traffic all day and it doesn't create more business. Temple, West, Franklin Streets are all open to cars and after working in Downtown Crossing for 20 years I can tell you does NOT create more sales for anyone. It does create more car exaust(pollution), more traffic accidents, more illegal parking, danger for pedestrians and general problems created by the inability to cross the street, clean the streets and help the area. Downtown Crossing is in the state it's in because all of the people involved are on different pages. An UPSCALE outdoor pedestrian mall worked for many many years. I know I was part of it. The city needs to completely block the street so no trucks, ambulances, UPS, garbage trucks can drive through or park. They need to buy nice, stationary kiosks with electricity to be put out on the street and a festive atmosphere must be created and maintained. It must be safe which means the BPD must have zero tolereance for any riff raff which is clearly not the case now. Anyone who thinks these pedestrian landscapes don't work should visit, Fremont St in Vegas, South Beach, Miami, or remember BaySide Market or South Street Seaport? Our own Faneuil Hall would still be a huge destination if not for the economy and poor management. The city spent $250,000 to come up with a branding strategy for the downtown and I all I see to show for it is a picture of lots of people on the side of the empty Filene's building. Come on Mr. Mayor what about the rest of the plan? Outdoor cafe's, constant music, and fixing the broken down pushcart marketplace? Why not spend money on what will make people stop and spend? I understand there is a giant hole in the ground and many empty, vacant stores but until the landlords like Mr. Druker lower rents so unique and interesting retailers can afford to take a risk down there and until the city invests in the people who work there like they invested in the Big Dig, the Charlie Card and other things, nothing will change in downtown. They supposedly spent 100,000 dollars on the Christmas promotions in DTX. I don't see how that much was spent personally but everyone knows the Christmas season lasts two weeks at best for a retailer. What about the other 50 weeks we are open? Until the city of Boston takes a serious interest in fixing Downtown with everyone involved, vendors, store owners, developers, property owners, residents and consumers, NOTHING will change. And opening it up to cars will just make it worse. Much worse.