Downtown Boston mostly comes back from the pandemic

Downtown Boston

-- Photo by Nick Allen

State Theatre in Boston's old "Combat Zone'' in 1967.

-- Photo by Nick DeWolf

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

Hope from history? Observers, including, me, remember how more moribund than now downtown Boston seemed half a century ago. Then big department stores were closing  amidst suburban flight and the sleazy “Combat Zone’’ lurked nearby, scaring away people who wanted to be considered respectable.

The  downtown is gradually coming back from the pandemic disaster, with new restaurants and other attractions opening. The COVID-accelerated move to remote work has affected some of the demographics of downtown consumers and changed the days and hours of peak business, but all in all “The Hub’s’’ center is looking pretty healthy. But it would look healthier if a lot more of the high-rise office space made empty by the remote-work revolution can be turned into housing, a very expensive and  complicated architectural and engineering challenge.

Look at this.

And this.

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 It seems incredible that Newport would allow the demolition of a building as old as the beautiful if battered Borden House, built in 1704, when the city was one of the leading Colonial era ports, but a story in Newport This Week suggests  that could well happen soon.

Hit this link.