We came out of the Central T station and
BAMN, we walked smack into a block-long DANCE PARTY.  Aw yeah,
it’s not just the WORLD’S FAIR, it’s a DNC KICKOFF. And looking at the
street tonight,  you could see that there’s more to our city than
hippies and yuppies. Our town KICKS.Elders youngsters blacks whites
asians large small — tonight, Central Square dance party was the place
to BE.

The Opera House offers an open door

The
Boston Opera House re-opened its doors today, and natty yuppies
and families will be swarming these once-quiet streets around 7pm every night.

It’s
quite a change for the
neighborhood near my office, whether you call it the Theater District,
Downtown Crossing, the Ladder District, or even the Combat Zone.
(Currently, the streetlamp banners proclaim it “Boston’s Historic Theatre District — More than Great Theater!“
Probably because “Theatre” is different than “Theater”). I remember
that when I first came to Boston in 1993, Downtown Crossing wasn’t a
savory  place after 6pm. Now, at least on the Washington Street
side of things, it’s almost convivial. I remember strolling to the T
stop with co-workers after movie-and-a-dinner (“De-Lovely” and Vietnamese)
at around 8pm, and they were remarking that when we first moved into
our office location, some were concerned about safety when leaving
after rush hour.

Of course, the area is still a hodgepodge of Filenes, $1 stores, the
Loews hangarplex, porn shops, trendy clubs, and the Asian restaurants
people go to after all of the above. And to me, that’s just de-groovy.

Eat at Pizzeria Uno’s between Thu July 22 and Sat 24, give them this coupon,
and 20% of your check will go to the St. James Summer Shelter in Porter
Square. St. James is run by students at Phillips Brooks House
Association and thus a sister shelter of sorts to UniLu, our designated wedding
charity, which is closed during the summer.

Just ignore the irony as you wolf down that deep-dish Spinoccoli

It might be prettier,
and the gates are indeed wider and easier to maneuver your luggage
through, but boy, the fact that the new Airport stop on the Blue Line
is on ground level sure was an unpleasant surprise. Now when you’re heading inbound,
you have to go UP the escalaters, OVER the tracks, and back DOWN again.
OTOH, it’s a little like paying tolls only one way, because I guess
people heading to the airport from the T don’t need to negotiate
escalators at all… and, I suppose, it’s the people rushing to catch a
flight for whom the station was designed.

It was also annoying that the bus dropped us off quite a way from
the station, while the old, funky, ugly station had the bus pull
right up to the curb.

Finally, I found this piece of T propoganda amusing. It reads in part:

The new Airport T Station, built 500
yards east of the former station, combines outstanding design with
functionality. Features of this state-of-the-art facility include:
enlarged fare collection turnstiles, new elevators and escalators,
flight status monitor displays and a glass curtain wall. 

A
glass curtain wall?