I just spent a month living above a pedestrian Mall in Salerno Italy "Corso"; it was the heartbeat of the city. I think we have a lot to learn from our ancestors across the pond.
I feel the pedestrian mall fixation (especially in the southeast) is a sort of cargo cult in that elected officials see successful ones and assume the pedestrian mall is what made a certain place successful. But in reality it's the mix of land uses and supportive multimodal network that makes the place successful. There are also plenty of operational issues re:loading zones, solid waste pickup, etc that need supporting alleyways that the blocks that line Fayetteville street don't seem to have. I'd rather downtown have the mix of land uses needed to support a pedestrian mall and not have one.
I just spent a month living above a pedestrian Mall in Salerno Italy "Corso"; it was the heartbeat of the city. I think we have a lot to learn from our ancestors across the pond.
I feel the pedestrian mall fixation (especially in the southeast) is a sort of cargo cult in that elected officials see successful ones and assume the pedestrian mall is what made a certain place successful. But in reality it's the mix of land uses and supportive multimodal network that makes the place successful. There are also plenty of operational issues re:loading zones, solid waste pickup, etc that need supporting alleyways that the blocks that line Fayetteville street don't seem to have. I'd rather downtown have the mix of land uses needed to support a pedestrian mall and not have one.