The only negative is the destruction of an Old Town commercial incubator, a low-rent space for start-ups and quirky retail. There are other places to relocate but increasingly they are on the outer fringes of town. There are good and bad aspects to gentrification. I liked the fringe flavor of those units even though the building itself is underdeveloped and unremarkable.
"Getting the funk out of town". The Johnson St. side of the Duck's Block project will be doing more of the same. You can't build brand new funk, it's true. But, like jonny says, you can redistribute the businesses to other funky spaces. As long as such spaces still exist somewhere.
It's funny, if Centennial Square had never happened there would be a lifetime's worth of funky spaces sitting right there. In the 1960s it was all just so much despicable blight, but if it had been left to ripen for another 50 years it would be funky/quirky anti-gentrification medicine today.
Edited by aastra, 05 April 2018 - 10:48 AM.