WOULD A WAL-MART BE THAT BAD?

“But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.” (I Corinthians 14:38)

First of all, this posting will be of interest to people who live and work in and near Framingham, Massachusetts. If that’s NOT you, you’ll probably be bored with it, (like watching the home movies of a family you’re completely unfamiliar with) but you MAY want to read it anyway!

I belong to a group called, “Framingham Downtown Renaissance” which is a group of Framingham civic and business leaders who are concerned about the revitalization and improvement of downtown Framingham and its environs. I used to belong to a similar group in the 1990s called “Downtown Solutions” although this group tends to attract more people who would be called “heavy hitters” in the business and civic world. (“Downtown Solutions” had some of them as well, but also had a number of ordinary folk.) Please don’t think I’m calling myself a “heavy hitter”. I’m NOT a “heavy hitter”. Sometimes when I attend “Framingham Downtown Renaissance” meetings (“F.D.R.” for short) I feel pretty intimidated by at least half of them. I attend because as a downtown pastor who is also a resident of Framingham’s southside, I do feel I have a big stake in what happens in and around downtown Framingham, and so I feel I’m entitled to a place at the table.

As I recall, I began attending “F.D.R.” in early 2006. I felt a little strange going to last Thursday’s “F.D.R.” meeting because I hadn’t been present at an “F.D.R.” meeting in at least 6 months and so I felt pretty out of the loop. Even so, there was a first-time attender last week who was a very nice guy that I’d guess was in his 60s. His first name was George. At one point, George commented on his vision for downtown, especially for the Fabric Place property. The Fabric Place was a big downtown store (selling fabric, sewing supplies, etc.) for many, many years. Its closing as of December 31 has been devastating to those who care about downtown Framingham. The Fabric Place brought loads of middle and upper middle class suburban women (well, mostly women) into the downtown every day.

George began sharing his dreams for the Fabric Place property, and his hopes and dreams were interesting, but one line stood out to me: “We don’t want a Wal-Mart going in there!”

I honestly didn’t have the guts to say, “Why NOT?!”

Frankly, Wal-Mart would never purchase that property. It’s too small for a Wal-Mart. They’d need at LEAST twice the land, and probably three times the land on which to construct a store and its parking lot. And, with a prospering Wal- Mart already in existence in Framingham just a couple of miles away, they’d never locate another one SO close to it. (Well, in Midwestern cities like Springfield, Missouri, Wal-Marts are literally all over the place the way Dunkin Donuts are here, but that’s the midwest!) Even so, IF it were possible to have a Wal-Mart in downtown Framingham, I’d say, “Bring it on!”

In fact, there was a Vermont city about fifteen years ago to which a Wal-Mart wanted to locate. The city fathers INSISTED they locate in or near the downtown so as not to drive all the life and business out of the downtown, and Wal-Mart did just that!

Downtown Framingham desperately needs some kind of “anchor stores” to attract middle class and upper middle class suburbanites from northside Framingham and other MetroWest suburbs. I grew up in Canton, Massachusetts. Now, in SOME ways Canton and Framingham are different demographically, but there ARE some similarities. Area-wise, Canton and Framingham are almost exactly the same size, although Framingham’s population is three times the size of Canton’s. Canton DOES have some poor and minority residents, but it’s a far lower percentage of the total population than you’d find in Framingham. Even so, both have downtowns that are actually located in the far south areas of town, away from what were the original “town centers”. The original Canton Center from the colonial era is near the intersection of Pleasant and Washington Streets, in the geographic center of town. It’s now called “Canton Corner”. What was “South Canton” became downtown Canton when the railroad came through in the nineteenth century. Sound familiar? The original Framingham Center was in the geographic center of Framingham near the State College. It’s now called “Framingham Centre” (with the British way of spelling centre) and what was originally South Framingham became downtown Framingham when the railroad went through. By the 1980s, downtown Canton was looking pretty “seedy”. Today, downtown Canton, having recently undergone major streetscape work, looks FANTASTIC and is a thriving downtown area. AND, it has an anchor store- A large Walgreen’s. The Walgreen’s is in a shopping plaza which is located right smack in the middle of downtown Canton. The plaza was built in the late 1960s, originally for an A & P Supermarket and a few strip mall stores. After the A & P closed, there were several independent markets which ultimately could not survive there. Today, that Walgreen’s in the old but remodeled A & P building is THRIVING. In the same plaza is a busy Chinese restaurant and a busy pizza and sandwich restaurant. (Yeah, it’s a popular take-out place, but it’s also a “sit down” restaurant.) Near that plaza are specialty shops, banks, insurance agencies, convenience stores, etc.

It’s too bad the new southside Walgreen’s (where the Long auto dealership used to be) is just a little bit too far west to really be considered “downtown”. If it were just a half mile further east, it would have done a lot to help downtown Framingham. So, that’s just my 2 cents, but really, would a Wal-Mart in downtown Framingham be that bad?