The Boston Globe One Block, One World The pandemic crushed businesses on Boston's Water Street. Even more devastating: The effects ripple around the world. + Published Dec. 19, 2020 On Water Street in downtown Boston, the sound of silence is deafening these days — no office workers chirping into iPhones as they pursue their Starbucks fix, no unkempt men heading to the upscale barber, nobody chatting in what used to be the daily lunch line that stretched outside of Casa Razdora for its handmade pasta. Which is why the cafe’s owner, Giancarlo Baldini, is standing at the door in his white apron rather than in the kitchen, gazing up from the barren street to the empty towers and sky above, as if seeking divine guidance on a question that has no good answer: How do you run a business without customers?