I have never been a fan of talking trees.
Those apple trees in “The Wizard of Oz” scared the life out of me – probably as much as the flying monkeys and the Wicked Witch of the West put together.
But even before that, for years I was frightened of “The Talking Christmas Tree” at the old Outlet department store downtown.
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This would have been in the early 1970s – just before retail picked up and moved to the suburbs (or to be even more specific, Warwick). My mother would take me shopping with her at the Outlet. I remember the cobblestone surface of Pine Street. When the ride got real bumpy I knew we were almost there. And I think I remember a wooden floor at the Outlet and how that seemed so unlike the floors in other stores.
I definitely remember the tree. It was tucked into a corner. My mother thinks it was on the second floor, or possibly the third.
“I think it replaced Santa Claus one year,” she remembers. “It was there for quite some time. It was popular.”
Not with me.
I remember my mother urging me to go ahead and talk to the tree. She might as well have been coaxing me into the dentist’s chair for a root canal.
The tree would ask what I wanted for Christmas. I would hide even further behind my mother. What I really wanted was to get away from that tree. I don’t think I ever did talk to it.
I got to thinking about the old Outlet and downtown last week – after developers Arnold “Buff” Chace, of Cornish Associates, and Robert Kuehen, of Keen Development Corp., threw a party of sorts to unveil their plans for the Peerless Building and in fact for creating an “urban village” Downcity. It’s an ambitious plan, calling for the complete rehabilitation of several long-neglected 19th-century downtown properties, including the Low, Burgess, O’Gorman and Wilkinson buildings.
The developers – who are pumping millions into this latest project – promise 225 apartments and condos and nearly 50,000 square feet of retail and office space.
The unveiling on Thursday evening, Dec. 4, drew a decent crowd on a cold evening.
The very idea of reinvigorating the city’s old core or Downcity or the arts and entertainment district – whichever name you want to give it – it seems, is just now beginning to take hold.
It has taken a while.
Perhaps folks needed time to digest mammoth Providence Place. Critics of the mall said it would draw business away from downtown – that people would flock to Nordstrom, Filene’s, its specialty shops, restaurants and movie theaters. They have. Providence Place – by most measures – is a huge success.
But it doesn’t mean the city’s old core can’t thrive again. Believe it or not, we can have both: the massive, glitzy mall – and a unique mix of residential, retail and arts space.
In fact, it’s already happening. The Alice Building, one of the first Downcity properties to be redeveloped by Cornish Associates, features luxury apartments and The Space at Alice, a cooperative gallery and meeting place below, as well as tazza, a café and bar, and Symposium Books.
Walk around Westminster, Dorrance, Washington and Empire streets and you do get the sense that much is happening.
That’s why it’s so important that people like Chace and Kuehen and Stanley Weiss, who is developing a boutique hotel at the corners of Westminster, Mathewson and Empire streets, and so many others are encouraged in their efforts.
Last week Chace and Kuehen told folks to make their plans now for the holiday season of 2004. Expect bright lights and more retail – and lots more people living in Downcity.
It sounds promising. It could offer something different than Providence Place. Believe it or not, some people would get a kick out of spending a couple of hours walking outside from shop to shop. Call it ambiance or character or whatever you want. But it can happen.
Some more retail shops and lots of lights would be a good start. Maybe they could find a vendor to sell freshly roasted nuts – peanuts and walnuts and cashews – like you can get up in Boston. That would be really neat. And maybe they could bring back “The Talking Christmas Tree.”
This time I’ll talk to it … really.
