central square and gentrification

Central Square is a challenging place to photograph or describe, but it is a very nice place to go to. There are interesting restaurants and stores. The public spaces are chiefly the sidewalk. It's improved a lot over the past decade.

Is it being gentrified? Is that a bad thing? My feeling is that the answers to those questions are "yes" and "no" respectively. I don't think that Central Square will ever end up like Newbury Street or Harvard Square. Change is inevitable--some businesses will not be able to make it and new businesses may not have the same quirkiness and appeal. Such is the process of urban development and as long as stuff isn't getting burnt down, boarded up and abandoned then the condition is, on balance, a positive one.

I heard that Maya Lin is designing an office tower for Novartis. I don't know what it looks like.