Posted by Carl Klapper on July 16, 2002 at 08:35:23:In Reply to: Demise of Pedestrian Malls posted by Paul Malo on July 02, 2002 at 06:09:37:
During a recent trip back to my old haunts in Ithaca, NY, it looked like the Ithaca Commons was holding its own, much better than the conventional outlying malls, during a rather bleak time for retail in upstate NY. I believe this is because, despite some encroachments from legal offices, there is a significant residential population within a few blocks, providing the pedestrian traffic at all hours that is the crucial factor for pedestrian malls and for urban development in general. In Manhattan, there is so much pedestrian traffic on certain streets that de facto pedestrian malls are formed. City hall, not wishing to delude drivers that they will be able to penetrate Fulton or Naussau streets at lunch time, block those streets off from vehicular traffic for several hours in midday.
From whence this pedestrian traffic to support pedestrian malls? Jane Jacobs told us back in 1960 that it came from diverse, mixed-use development, though only partly for the crime prevention reasons she highlighted. The economist in me says that it has more to do with shorter distances from home to work, shopping, worship, museums and all the destinations of our days, distances for which walking is the most efficient, quickest and cheapest form of transportation. When that is the case, it is best to get the cars out of the way and give pedestrian traffic the room it needs.
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