Revitalizing Brookline: A Fresh Coat of Paint!

It's been awhile since I did one of these articles, and I figure it's about time to poke the hornet's nest again.

Work on the Boulevard is progressing rather quickly, I think. The traffic hiccups haven't been nearly as bad as I'd expected, and the new sidewalks, where they've been completed, look really nice. I can't wait to see how they look when the greenery is planted.  That's to say nothing of how nice it'll be to have the road re-paved (which I can only presume and pray is in the plan) and the re-vamped intersection of Pioneer and Brookline Blvd. That one will be a traffic nightmare for awhile, but is something that sorely needs to be done.

It doesn't seem to me that we're losing all that much parking with the redo, either, though I've never had issues parking on the Boulevard to begin with (something, I'm told, for which I should consider myself lucky).

Something else is going on up there that I've noticed recently, though: it's not just the road and sidewalks that are being redone--several Brookline businesses are taking inspiration and doing their own revamps. Anyone seen the new storefront for the Wine and Spirits store? Very nicely done. 

Also, just this week the Moonlite Cafe has announced that they're going to be remodeling their dining room. As a semi-regular customer there, I'm looking forward to seeing the new digs, but I fear that their business might suffer while the work is going on. I hope not, though.

The Isis Cafe announced recently that the old Brookline Produce sign will finally be going away, to be replaced with signage for their business--a welcome development!

I drove past Cannon Coffee last night around 10 PM and was pleased to see them still open at that hour--I presume it was due to the open mic night they had going on there.

So it seems that changes are being structured on the boulevard. This is a great thing--the fresh coat of paint on Brookline is starting to look very nice indeed. The trick now is luring people to the neighborhood. I read another blog recently on here that talked about how once upon a time, Brookline had everything that you needed within walking distance. I think this gets to the heart of what we need. There's a new thrift store/consignment shop opening soon on the boulevard--I look forward to this. I'd love to see a hardware store somewhere, too. I'm not crying for a major grocery store on the boulevard because I am of the opinion that Aldi's suits the neighborhood just fine--better than fine, in fact. My wife and I shop at Aldi's all the time, and we find their house brand to be as good as if not superior to name brand groceries almost across the board. Certainly it's an improvement over the filthy and shady Foodland (a name brand chain, by the by) that used to be there.

The real trick on the boulevard for these kinds of anchor businesses is space. Most of the store fronts, though nice, are small. A good hardware store would need to buy several side-by-side storefronts and knock out walls to have enough space. What would work well in Brookline would be a business like a Radio Shack, which usually doesn't need a huge store front and can still act as a name brand anchor business.

Personally, I'd still like to see some cultural businesses move in--culture shops, music stores, book shops, things like that. But I'm aware that there's not a great deal of support for them given the failure of similar businesses back in the 90's. However, I'm hoping that a business like Beach Treats gains enough success that it shows there is room for unique retail shops like that in Brookline.

Yes, I still feel that businesses on the boulevard need to extend their hours, but I'm going to give it a rest tilting at that particular windmill.

There have been several community development meetings recently that have discussed the future of Brookline. Due to my own busy schedule and penchant for self-sabotage, I have missed these meetings, which I dearly wanted to attend. I must find a way to keep them on my radar in the future.

I know that my articles in this series have been critical, but my goal was never to put down Brookline; rather I always sought to highlight areas of improvement that could make the community even better than it currently is. I find myself somewhat excited by the spirit of revitalization that seems to be sweeping over the community. It'll be nice to see Brookline all done with a nice new coat of paint!