*Underground retail is shitty retail,
*Shitty retail is cheap-rent retail,
*There's no real model for sustainably-cheap-rent retail in new development,
*Landowners can do as they please with their property,
*Residents who fought for keeping the Underground will feel betrayed.
For a region that’s a bit structurally immune from zaniness and fun, losing the Underground (and the puppet store, cobbler, weird DoD knick-knacks store, etc) seems like a squandered opportunity.
A Somerville Underground would be unstoppably awesome somehow.
Wow, I remember being amazed by it as a kid when we visited DC as a family while my mom had a continuing ed class in Crystal City. It was much less magical when I returned as a college student. Honestly I'm a bit surprised it lasted this long.
@eheisman i think it was sustained only because longtime residents viewed it as something of a unique amenity, that with the right mix of uses could somehow be something different and contributing. No one ever really cracked the code
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