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Empty storefronts have doubled in Cambridge

There were 109 empty ground-floor storefronts across Cambridge as of last fall, 25% more than there were a year earlier and double the number there were in 2019, according to city data

Central Square in Cambridge has a series of new restaurants and shops.

Cambridge city councilors are upset their neighborhoods are seeing more vacant storefronts. They’re also upset they can’t seem to do much about it.

There were 109 empty ground-floor storefronts across Cambridge as of last fall, 25% more than there were a year earlier and double the number there were in 2019, according to city data. Nearly half of the storefronts have been empty for at least two years. A few, like the former AMC Loews theater in Harvard Square that closed in 2012, have been vacant for much longer.

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