Darkness on the edge of Square

On a clear day, you can see the Loews (BCB photo)

We used to walk to Journal Square from Downtown. When I was a kid, the Square had three movie theaters, any number of restaurants and several record stores where you could spend an entire Saturday, noon to past sundown. The Loews Theater holds a special place in my heart, as you know, and my first real date, which began in the theater’s balcony, ended at the exotic Canton Restaurant, off Sip Ave. Six teenagers and maybe $20 among us.

By the time what was left of the the State theater collapsed in 1998, the Square was a mostly dark string of fast food joints servicing locals walking with their heads down, trying to beat it out of the area before dark. They put a statue of Jackie Robinson on the Square and tried to run a fountain there for a while. They’ve built an apartment building where the State Theater once played midnight showings of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and during the day, the Square still buzzes with students and some lunching workers from offices nearby. By and large, though, the Square is a once-great, now neglected, city center yearning to breathe free.

Last year, the city announced a major redevelopment plan for the area that landed like a thud, especially after the collapse of the real estate and other world-wide markets. A new version of the plan, smaller than the last plan since it’ll only cover the immediate Journal Square, is going before the Planning Board today (city hall, 5:30 p.m.). The new plan is supposed to encourage the type of development that’s gone along the Grove Street PATH station, that is, big apartment buildings, shops, restaurants and bars. Officials are still promising (threatening?) to get those twin towers built on the old Hotel on the Square site, too. It’s interesting reading, even if you’re not a city planning geek.

I haven’t walked to the Square in years. I do ride my bike up that way from time to time, though. I have always loved the way the Boulevard snakes its way through the Square, past the old dress shops and once swanky tailors, where old men smoked cigars and stitched up your new threads while you waited. I get nostalgic. Sue me.

I guess I’m like most people who just want to see something done with that dust bowl they’ve created on the corner of Sip. I don’t love what’s been built around Grove, (Did we really need to block the sun just to get a few outdoor tables and chairs by the PATH entrance?) but I’m not naive enough to think that someone’s going to use a little more care and, dare I say, taste, when they finally do get something built up here. Part of me says it’s just as well. There will never be another Canton anyway, and, while the hot dogs still snap with grilled goodness at Boulevard Drinks, the classic old sign, and the Home Sweet Home of its neon buzz, are, gone for good.

I won't insult you with a photo of the new sign