My job was to man a booth at a Boston Marathon trade show at Faneuil Hall.

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The famous Quincy Market at Faneuil Hall was closed, and there were more pigeons than tourists on City Hall Plaza.

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"I don't think I've ever seen it so deserted down here, " he said as he chewed a ham and cheese sandwich on the steps beside Faneuil Hall.

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It developed the groundbreaking Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, which some credit with reviving Boston's inner city, and also owns Chicago's Water Tower Place and New York's South Street Seaport.

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The hitch was, Faneuil Hall was a union workplace.

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Whenever I hear politicians lament the decline of unions in America, I think back to that Faneuil Hall fistfight and recall: The victim was just trying to pack up his own booth!

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The historic marketplaces of Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, and Boston Common (America's oldest public park and the starting point of Boston's Freedom Trail) are all within walking distance.

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College kids also fill the tables at Hong Kong, a hip restaurant, lounge and nightclub in Faneuil Hall and Daedalus, a gastropub in Harvard Square that has an attractive outdoor patio area.

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