Gateway Center

Anyone walking to this shopping center will likely do so along a steep, rutted dirt path — squeezing between a guardrail, a crumbling concrete wall and the massive sign welcoming cars to the center. I was there today and in 5 minutes watched about 15 people traverse this perverse main entrance to the Gateway Shopping Center.
Since cars don’t fit this path they have to use the other entrance on the side.
Clearly the foolish planners of this urban shopping center didn’t envision anyone arriving in anything but a bus or automobile, despite the Wellington «T» stop being a short walk away.

Convenient, tons of parking, great stores.

Love the stores here, just wish Target was easier to walk to Old Navy & Babies… Hate that I have to load up baby & drive over…
Othen than that, if there was another Grocery store here (not Costco) I would never have to go anywhere else…

How can you give a generic big box mall much of any sort of rating? You’ve seen the stores before. It has a parking lot. But don’t they all? Is there anything unique at all about this place?
Now, you could come from Wellington (Orange Line) station, but why would you? Anything small enough to take back by T you can get elsewhere without the hike.
I suppose one advantage is that, if you dare venture to the neglected back side of the big boxes, you’ll find this place is built in the middle of a nature preserve. Walk out onto the Amelia Earhart bridge and imagine the pleasant walks you could have, if homeland security concerns did not nix the idea of opening those gates to the public. Watch ducks, geese and the occasional flock of pelicans. Grab your canoe, and take advantage of the huge amount of free impersonal parking (nobody will ever notice you’re not there to buy cheap stuff from china). Park all day, or all week, nobody will care.

Oh, Big Ev. How I have a love/​hate relationship with you.
On the one hand, I have to get in my car and drive there.
But on the other, not only is there a CostCo, Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, PetSmart, and Old Navy, there’s a Target. Not just any Target. Target GREATLAND.
4 stars it is. Because there’s not a chance in hell I’m taking the T when I completely fill up my car with goodies from any of the aforementioned stores.

Hey Pete, it’s called a strip mall hun, that’s how they make them…
Anyway, I like the Gateway Center. Sure, it has its flaws (ONE way in/​out?! What were they thinking?!) but it was the best thing to happen to Everett in a long time. It has a Target, which won me over immediately, and plenty of other stores to attract my attention. There are also two restaurants (although really, who eats at Friday’s, fess up?) and a coffee shop. There’s even a Chuck E Cheese for the little ones. There’s something for everyone here, which is why it’s always so damn crowded. Why can’t you people go somewhere else so I can get better parking spots dammit?!

The Gateway Center is a shopping center along the Mystic River full of enormous stores full of cheap goods manufactured overseas. Featuring Target, Petco, Home Depot, Costco, some sort of Texas Steakhouse, and Panera, to name a few, it is a place for what its owners call «lifestyle-​conscious consumers.»
This applies to a variety of lifestyles. A few examples:
Like exercise? The Gateway Center is the place for you. The vast distances between stores mean you’ll get plenty of walking done. The front door of Target is 700 feet from that of Home Depot, 1,000 feet from that of Costco, and — you crafty people sure are in luck — 1,500 feet from Michael’s way down at the other end. It’s a good thing Costco sells pizza, because Chuck E. Cheese is a whopping 2,000 feet away from it.
Like sun? There is hardly a tree in sight. The sun will not only shine down on you from above, but heat you from below through the row after row of scorched black asphalt you must traverse
Like the train? Gateway Center’s T-​accessible — only a mile walk away. Target’s main entrance is only ¼ mile from the platforms of Wellington Station as the crow flies, but fitness-​conscious planners required you to actually walk four times that far. Plus, once you get in the stores, you get to walk imponderable distances to get what you need. Don’t forget anything at the back!
Hate exercise? No problem! Nobody walks here anyway! Home Depot may *technically* be the next store down from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but do you really feel like walking all that way back to your car? Just drive to the next store. Everyone else does. There seem to be about fourteen spaces per customer at this complex, so finding a space is never a problem. Hell, park diagonally and take up three! The motorist is king!
And if the drive is too much — because we all know driving is hard work — there’s another Home Depot located directly across the Mystic River from this one.
Despite all of this, I seem to end up here a lot. I guess I’m just the lifestyle-​conscious type.