> It’s smack in the middle of downtown.

Geographically (maybe), but not socially. Like, it used to be the case that there were more people when it was surrounded by offices and right across from the Fleet/Bank of America offices. But almost all of the buildings around it have tons of vacancies, and it’s centered in a bunch of parking. It’s not a “place” so to speak, it’s just a building out of the way.

Like, if you think about how people flow Downtown, they don’t flow east along Exchange and Weybosset. They mostly flow southwest down Washington and Westminster, south towards PPAC, or north toward the mall and train station. With the CIC and the beer garden and the pedestrian bridge, that’s a new destination.

But the Arcade is just sort of tangential to all of these flows, just a little too out of the way to attract the foot traffic it needs to thrive. That’s not its fault, of course, it’s just the reality after years of Downtown being hollowed out.

It’s possible to imagine a future where it’s the focal point of a journey with some creative placemaking, but I don’t think that’s necessarily what a lot of its neighbors care about.