The Basic Logic of American Pedestrian Malls

Successful American closed-street pedestrian malls are not self-sufficient. Once a street has been cut from its life-blood of vehicles, alternate life support must be provided. All the malls are sustained by vigorous business associations dedicated solely to sustaining the mall. A typical yearly budget is $500,000. Pearl Street 's is $2M. This money is obtained partly by fees added to rent but also from the local government and from assessments on all businesses in the vicinity of the mall. It is spent on promotion and maintenance. This is invisible to the visitor but its effects are indirectly perceived. These malls survive as regional magnets, attracting consumer visitors to downtowns. They are advertised prodigiously– on radio and in print media. Advertising includes automobile directions from all regional points to the parking lots and garages adjacent to the mall. See all satellite map clips on our caparison matrix (below.) On every one you will see large surface parking lots and parking structures adjacent to the malls. That is, these malls are sustained by inducing people to drive from far away, park adjacent to the mall, then leave their cars and walk. I know of this phenomenon first hand at 3rd St in Santa Monica , having lived in Santa Monica for a year. I know this is true for Berkeley's 4th Street Mall merely from listening to local radio. But I did not know this was true for every pedestrian mall all over the country.

If we close Center St. and follow the template of what's necessary to keep commerce alive on the street – we might actually increase auto traffic in the downtown. Certainly we'd need to provide abundant adjacent parking upon which all such malls depend.

I suspect this is not the favored vision of a pedestrian mall. But it is the real-world realization of one. Proponents may claim "Berkeley can come up with a creative new solution." But that supposes going against logic which has been proven by decades of expensive trial and error in hundreds of cities. -bw.

Elements:

•  Like many other successful malls, Pearl Street receives specially earmarked funding for maintenance and management each year. The money keeps the streets clean and organizes the many monthly events needed to draw people into the shopping districts. In Boulder, the $2 million budget comes from the city, Downtown Boulder Inc. and the city's Business Improvement District — a broad area of businesses including Pearl Street that tax themselves for services. The revenue helps maintain the area's aesthetics and pays for annual events ranging from an art fair to "Bands on the Bricks," Fourth of July activities to August sidewalk sales.

•  Observers say a mall works best in a community that loves walking, and has a multitude of walkers nearby.

•  Proximity to a college

•  Efficient traffic flow

•  Variety of vendors

•  "Fine grain" architecture and small scale vendors which reward close inspection only possible on foot.

•  Abundant parking in proximity.

Mission Creek Plaza, San Luis Obispo

Countless cities jumped on the pedestrian mall bandwagon in the 1960s and early 70s, only to watch already weakened downtown merchants collapse for lack of foot and vehicular traffic.  Most have since reverted to conventional street access, but Charlottesville successfully bucks this trend, and retains a pedestrian-only design on East Main Street, in the heart of the historic downtown.

Special advantages make this design possible in Charlottesville. First, Charlottesville is home to the University of Virginia , and the downtown is heavily traveled by students and academics alike. Second, the town is a major tourist destination for it's history -- most notably Thomas Jefferson's Monticello , perched on a scenic hilltop above the city.