Government

CityLab Daily: From Dead Store to ‘Social Infrastructure’

Also: When concrete looks like crumpled paper, and a train station enrages Paris.
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Up front: Vacant storefronts can be a drag on a commercial district. While some cities have toyed with vacancy taxes and storefront registries to combat the proliferation of defunct retailers, one Boston nonprofit has taken a tactical urbanist approach to retail malaise: physically occupying idle stores and turning them into pop-up public spaces.