Floon journeys to Downtown Crossing today to use The Hole as a backdrop for their call to force developers to put up performance bonds before they start digging.

Seems the majority owner of the Hole is sitting on $2.8 billion in cash and is looking for good investments, which apparently Boston isn't.

Wait, what's that? That's not a Christo installation? It's just the developers trying to mollify an outraged city and protect what's left of the old Filene's buildings after more than a year of leaving them exposed to the elements at the giant hole in the middle of Downtown Crossing?

Oh, never mind.

Matthew I shows there's still some life in the old retail district.

Copyright Matthew I. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

The Globe asked local designers to come up with alternatives for the Filene's Hole and other vacant construction sites around town. "A vertical algae-powered bioreactor?" Sure, why not?

Well, not poor, exactly, but the local developer tells the Boston Business Journal he's tired of bearing the brunt of anger and jokes over the Filene's Memorial Hole, since that whole mess is almost entirely owned by Vornado Realty Trust and JPMorgan & Chase Co. out of New York, and his development company only has a small piece of it.

That's what they did in Wellesley, which has its own giant hole in the ground (where the Wellesley Inn got torn down for condos that never materialized). The Swellesley Report notes the developers actually agreed to do something to keep part of the town from looking like London after the Blitz:

... We'll miss seeing the tumbleweeds blowing across the vacant lot, but I guess we can't have it all. ...

The Globe details John Hynes' latest possibility for the giant negative space: Fewer floors, more apartments could dramatically reduce costs and make the project more attractive to the lenders who aren't giving him money now.

Tobyjug doesn't explain why he was at Downtown Crossing at 3 a.m., but no matter: He asks:

... [A]s I was walking by the crater, I started to hear Johnny (or is it Edgar) Winter's "Frankenstein". Strobe lights were going off all over the broken open parts of the building. Fog was rising out of the pit. Little "Enchanted Village" figures twirled in the windows. Did anyone else see/hear it?

The Herald reports.

Councilor and mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty says the developers behind the BRA Memorial Hole on Washington Street are actually sitting on a large sum of money, so the least they can do is fill in the damn hole already:

... In the spirit of returning and improving the vitality of this central downtown neighborhood, the developers should be ordered to make the graded site available to the Boston Public Market Association (www.bostonpublicmarket.org).

Given that Vornado and Gale have shown no signs of resuming construction before Fall of 2009, the former Filenes site is a perfect location to temporarily host the Boston Public Market. Located in the heart of the bustling financial district, accessible by the various MBTA stations and to the numerous area employees, residents and tourists, a public market offering organic produce will serve as a significant asset to the neighborhood. The Boston Public Market Association offers locally grown, healthy and affordable fresh food and is a refreshing alternative to the various fast food restaurants in the area. This is an interim solution that will seek to reinvigorate the suffering neighborhood and address the serious concern of the existing blighted site. ...