Blogger Spotlights Massachusetts Ave. Store Closures

When she goes on walks with her daughter, Cambridge resident Katy Downey carries along a camera to snap shots of empty storefronts. When she spots shuttered retailers while driving, she pulls over to take photographs.

And when she gets home, she writes about her observations on her blog, “Empty Mass Ave.”

Since February, Downey has been chronicling the closings of businesses along Mass. Ave. in brief, nostalgia-laden posts.

“Seeing those white curtains of death is always a little jarring,” Downey wrote about the closing of clothing store The Attic.

Downey’s website isn’t all doom and gloom, however—she also highlights stores that have managed to stay open, such as the Hollywood Express video store that has survived competition from Netflix.

Downey said she hopes her blog will draw attention to the number of vacant properties in Cambridge and spur others to take action.

“I hope to get more feedback from people and to start a dialogue on the different ways these spaces can be used, if not for traditional retail,” she told The Crimson. “The more people who are talking and questioning and being creative, the more options we’ll have as a community.”

Her own suggestions for uses of empty space in her town—she has lived in Central Square for the past 13 years—include an indoor farmer’s market and a dinner movie theater.

Downey’s blog has at most 30 to 40 readers per day, which she said is “kind of a surprising amount for me, with no real publicity” other than her Twitter account, which has 4,000 followers.

With a few exceptions, she said that store closings do not “seem to be a huge problem in [Harvard] Square.”

Denise A. Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, agreed with Downey. Unlike other parts of Cambridge, “we’re in pretty good shape here,” Jillson said. “We’re really pleased.”

Jillson said that many of the businesses whose closings are documented on Downey’s blog already have been or will soon be replaced.

“Sometimes it can be incredibly misleading,” Jillson said of “Empty Mass Ave” and similar blogs. “Look at the photo right at the top of her page of the former Bowl and Board. If one looks at that, one says, ‘Oh my god, Harvard Square? What’s going on? It’s urban blight.’”

In reality, Jillson said, the Bowl and Board building is set to be torn down so a new building can be constructed. “Clearly, there is a plan,” Jillson said.

—Staff writer Julie M. Zauzmer can be reached at jzauzmer@college.harvard.edu.