The New Kenmore Square is better than the old
I see that all the upbeat buzz about the New And Fabulously Improved Kenmore Square has created some ill will among Fenway/Kenmore bloggers. Allow me to break a lance for the New Square.
It’s not that I’m rah-rah about the New Kenmore Square, but I think us Kenmorians have to take one for the team here: Making Kenmore Square ridiculously attractive to parents of prospective BU students is just about the best-use one can imagine for K-Square, from a city perspective. You miss the grittiness of the Rat? Take the T to Allsgone/Crimeghton. It should further be noted that BU didn’t toss Deli Haus out of the Square, it took itself out of the game, all on its own (the way it left has, according to word on the street, made it difficult to fill the space again). The Pierre Robert Bistro is better than its predecessor, and way more popular to boot. An upscale but still liquor store has replaced the old one in the block that is now Hotel Commonwealth. I personally prefer the new Cornwall’s over the old one. The Dunkin Donuts has been replaced by a Dunkin Donuts. The IHOP was, as I have stated elsewhere, awful. What we Kenmorians have lost, and probably for good, are the laundromat and the barber shop - both unreplaced - but I can’t imagine that anybody in Fenway relied on their services.
Yes, it is hyperbolic - really snagged out of thin air - to claim that our neighborhood used to be “down-on-its-heels,” but I can’t really say I remember the Old Square as something worthy of historical preservation. If anything, it seems to me that the square has always been in a sort of transitionary phase, judging from accounts of its past. I’m not all that convinced that the New square will be the smashing success its marketers envision, but I must say I find the effort worthwhile and laudable.
Now, dear BU, make that check payable to…
(Via everybody’s favorite Universal Hub)
