Downtown Crossing

I have to confess something.  I love Downtown Crossing.  It's kind of run-down, I know, but I like how it's both neglected and the center of things at the same time.  Every now and then, the Globe will run a story on how dead it is and how nobody goes there.  Every time they do, I wonder if the writer only went down there at three in the morning.  I'm glad to say, though, that it's picking up and getting a little more love.

Granted, I think a lot of the negative attitudes come from the preponderance of Black people, specifically teenagers, who come down.  People are much more evasive about what bothers them, so I just put it out there.  Of course I'll always think that crowds of Black people shopping, browsing, up to good and no good, is just, you know, normal.  But what do I know?  I'm just a kid from St Thomas.

And that's probably part of the appeal.  I'm still a guy from a small island in the Caribbean, and walking about Downtown Crossing still fills me with wonder that such a thing can be.  It's no Manhattan, but that makes it manageable for me.  And one is never very far from the Common.

Perhaps the best thing about Downtown Crossing, and Boston in general, is that a view like the picture above can be had only five minutes' walking from the picture previous.