Pedestrian malls

Last week, I talked with David Feehan, president of the International Downtown Association, about pedestrian malls. I didn't know that he is considered an expert on the topic, because as he said he ended up working in many communities (such as Kalamazoo, Michigan, the location of the first downtown pedestrian mall) where he was tasked with removing unsuccessful pedestrian malls.

He said that:

1. There is a difference between pedestrian and transit malls. Boulder, 3rd Street in Santa Monica, Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, Iowa City, are pedestrian malls. Denver's 16th Street Mall and Nicollett Mall in Minneapolis are transit malls.
2. A lot of pedestrian malls were built in response to the availability of federal money, and as a result, the malls were:

(a.) built without understanding that to be successful they required not only many many people as patrons, but also budgeted, regular, and high quality maintenance, management, and marketing;
(b.) often overbuilt and overdesigned and therefore difficult and expensive to maintain;
(c.) built at the wrong time--when cities were losing more population and more retail, and had safety and perception issues as well, so it was very difficult to attract patronage.

The difference between Europe and the U.S. is that European cities emphasize buildings, and people and events are naturally attracted to and are a part of the public spaces in the town. U.S. center cities are only now re-achieving this place in society.