Natick

Around Natick considers the possibility of the Registry moving into the old National Guard land on Speen Street near Rte. 135.

Dare I admit it? We actually went to the Natick Mall yesterday. My basic reaction: It's a tarted-up paean to American consumerism. If you like the Atrium or Chestnut Hill, you'll love this joint - especially the new wing with the extra-pretentious stores and the lady playing a harp. Indeed, as we were eating a gelato on the floor above her, the guy behind us was gushing: "The Atrium looks like a dump compared to this place."

Get a grip, bub. In any case: The "old" section, basically from Macy's to Sears, is an updated, yupped up mall (they replaced the ice-cream stand at the food court with a sushi bar). Thank God: Spencer Gifts (now just Spencer's) is still there! Plus, they stuck on a JC Penney, just in case Sears no longer does it for you.

The new section, which extends perpendicularly from the center of the old one, is where all the real money shops. To me, it looks like the world's fanciest airport terminal, only with expensive stores instead of airplane seating areas. It's actually kind of dramatic standing where the old mall used to end and looking toward (the still not open) Neiman-Marcus. Then you notice the birch trees are fake and the plush white seats are already getting dirty.

But I'm no shopaholic (Greta, happy with an entire wing of stores for kids and tweeners, like Gymboree and Limited Too, kept asking me what I wanted, and I kept saying "to go home," so no, don't ask me along on any all-day shopping trips, just sayin'). More reactions:

Sharon Gartenberg wishes that Nouvelle at Natick, a.k.a. the luxury condos above the new wing of the Natick Mall, would stop calling itself "urban living in the more pastoral settings of Boston's MetroWest suburbs:"

... This is not urban living in the traditional American sense - where one of the key attractions is fabulous shared public space, integrated into the larger community. The appeal of living on Beacon Hill or Back Bay in Boston or in Manhattan includes not only stores and restaurants, but also cultural attractions like symphony, opera, ballet and museums, as well as the architecture, parks and public streetscapes. It's being able to walk out the door and experience all the excitement that a city has to offer.

"Nouvelle," however, offers only the most materialistic of these components — stores and restaurants — in what could be considered "public" space, the privately owned enclosed mall where non-residents are allowed to enter. ...

After you read her complete rant, drive over to Framingham/Natick Retail, an interesting site chronicling the history and ongoing development of the Golden Triangle - the retail area bounded by Rtes. 9 and 30 and Speen Street on the Natick/Framingham line.

Meredith O'Brien reports that while her sister-in-law was nursing her infant at the Natick Mall, somebody stole the coffeemaker she'd just bought and tried to return it - to the wrong store, where the employees confiscated it.