Unum and CitySquare

Even when the now empty mall was still just barely occupied, back in those final stages of attrition before it was closed entirely, the entrance on Front Street was a spot where taxis would stand and wait for customers to walk up. They're called "pickups". At certain times of the day, you could always count on grabbing pickups in front of the mall entrance. Cabs would line up there. It was a busy place, right up until the day that door was finally shut.

Ever since, my only hope has been to see that mall torn down. Tearing down the mall would mean that the CitySquare project was underway, and that we were on track. The fact that this hasn't happened yet negates any rhetoric about how great it's going to be.

The Unum story is a ray of hope for this long dormant project, to be sure. And it's easy to see how the rhetoric ramp-up is fueled by that hope. But so has all the previous rhetoric been fueled since those dim, distant days of yore when this project first came into public view.

Perhaps Unum will end up signing on the line which is dotted. That would be nice.

But until that mall is either torn down or rehabbed and re-opened, all the rhetoric in the world isn't going to make up for the lost business that's gone forever down a hole built with the phrase, "...doing what's best for the city."

It's certainly true that when the project was crafted, the best interests of the city were largely shaped by previous experiences with "house flippers" operating on a larger, commercial scale. One of the more notable fiascos involved the Bancroft Hotel and one of its previous owners. The city leaders, rightly so, operated from a position of caution after the mall was purchased by Berkeley. At that time, nobody wanted to see us end up with a 22 acre empty lot in the center of downtown Worcester.

What we did end up with, however, is a project that has languished for years within the framework of the cautiously crafted deal. The level of business that has been lost from this dead zone is incalculable.

The thing that I have seen happen over and over again with this project has been the periodic parading of kudos for jobs well done, public relations speeches touting the fabulousness of it all, and the nocturnal emissions from the City Council chamber that prematurely gush upon the attainment of some milestone in this whole process. And yet, time after time, after all the pomp and ceremony and back-patting and kudos conferring have exhausted their wind, ...nothing happens.

The bible-thumpers can call me a "naysayer" all they want. Until something actually happens, however, all the rhetoric in the world won't make up for the damage this dead zone has done to the city over the last several years. And it is most embarrassing to live in a town where the leaders keep celebrating prematurely, leaving us with an image of buffoonery.