This would mean ensuring that new development is high density, urban style building that makes efficient use of rare downtown land. At current development densities, downtown will have far fewer than 40,000 people when it is fully developed. By the standards of any real urban area, Mass Ave is dead. Many of the storefronts are filled with 9-5 offices which could be located anywhere. I ve often been the only customer in some stores during prime shopping hours.
Vacant lots abound.
Compare Mass Ave to, say, Broad Ripple, where the shops are packed, the streets are full of people, and you can't find a parking place and see the difference. Compared to vacant storefronts and dilapidated buildings of years ago, things are great on Mass Ave, but anything would look good compared to that. The Abbey, the Murat, etc are real progress, don t get me wrong, but the area falls far short of being a true, thriving urban neighborhood. Unfortunately, many of the residential areas surrounding Mass Ave. are very low density and new development continues the trend. If the city wants to make that area really take off, it should use the few examples of good, high quality, high density development that exist, and make that the standard for the future.