I am writing in response to the letter by Rockwell, Monahan, and Walters about my July 25 Op-Ed, Saving our Village Centers — Retail in the age of Zoning Redesign. I would like to explain what I meant about a great Shopping Experience. Retail is not only about stores but about the entire Shopping Experience – excitement and discovery.
A great Shopping Experience happens when there are many stores of various sizes and storefront owned mainly by local merchants. A great shopping experience is a place of discovery that usually happens over time. It is unique to a location. Three examples around Boston are Jamaica Plain, Charles Street, and Concord. The stores noted by Rockwell et al. in Trio and Austin Street, while good retailers, are just that: Good stores in vanilla boxes on the ground floor of residential buildings. They do not work together to create a whole. They are not unique. Many of the Village Centers in Newton have started to develop some of the components of a shopping experience, and are ripe to continue down that path if conditions stabilize for independent retailers. Many lament the loss of Newtonville Camera; many praise the arrival of Grandma’s Kitchen.
Carol Todreas
