Via Adam at Universal Hub, Plastic Boy points me to a Globe piece on the direction of Jamaica Plain. The article fully captures the dilemma that middle class people in Jamaica Plain are feeling: on one hand there’s appreciation of JP’s small scale and cultural diversity, on the other hand, the neighborhood retail seems haphazard at best. Plastic Boy complains that the article simply pines for chain stores like Starbucks and the Gap - I think that misreads the article, but it’s a misreading caused by a confusion in the piece itself, a confusion between the retail health of a neighborhood and the problem of big box/chain retail. I personally think the article’s strongest when it talks about the former. To wit,
Centre Street, for all its character, colorful murals, and funky collection of shops, is also cluttered with run-down tchotchke stores, mediocre pizza parlors, an overflow of banks and real estate offices, and old salons and saloons that could use a serious face lift. The nicer restaurants fill up on weekends but are often quiet on weekdays. The streets, sidewalks, and crosswalks are so badly cracked in places that it’s hard to bike or walk—never mind push a baby carriage. A few stores—the tiny kitchenware haven Gadgets, the pretty jewelry shop Fire Opal, the toy store Boing, the card and gift shop Pluto, the thrift store Boomerang—are terrific, but the neighborhood is sorely lacking for basics. Need a pair of jeans? Good luck. A cocktail dress? Try the South End. A dress shirt? See you in the Back Bay. The latest best-selling novels? The small bookstores might have a copy or two, but if you want to browse for hours, check out Brookline’s Coolidge Corner. And if you’re hungry for a great deli sandwich? Don’t look here.
This is precisely the complaint that I have of Jamaica Plain. It simply doesn’t function like a proper city neighborhood, which should be a microcosm of basic needs (think of any New York City block). Groceries are thin on the ground, there’s no newsstand, and even convenience stores lack items beyond the needs of motorists. In their place you have a preponderance of novelty shops and vanity business. (Five bakeries!) And realtors. Even Video Underground, which the article touts as old JP, is a recent fixture, before which there was no decent video store in the neighborhood.
The reason for all this is that residents in JP for the most part drive: they live in JP because they want space for their cars and enjoy relatively uncongested roads. They drive for groceries, for shopping, for restaurants.
I see only two ways around this: limit the number of cars through parking regulations (not going to happen), or to create zoning and business development practices that mimic what the market would provide if there were fewer cars. This isn’t as outrageous as it sounds, because JP commercial and neighborhood group interests already actively encourage certain types of retail and discourage others. However, many prefer having novelty shops and vanity stores to things useful for people without cars, so there may be a lack of political will for a functioning urban JP.
Note that this has little to do with chain or big box retail - retail diversity can be attained with or without it. An aesthetic facelift might be another matter. In Wellesley, independent stores do a fine job at keeping up appearances; in JP, less so.
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