This is what pro-place people are up against

Re-open 7th Street on Weekends
Originally uploaded by rllayman

There is a desire in some quarters to close 7th Street SE in front of Eastern Market, the city's public fresh food market, on Saturdays and Sundays.

The merchants in the buildings on the street are vociferously opposed.

I don't have it at my fingertips, but I seem to recall that there was a finding of direct economic benefit to the Summer Streets program in NYC, where certain streets on weekends, were made for non-automobile uses only.

- About Summer Streets in NYC.

In this blog entry from Streetsblog, "What Does Summer Streets Mean for Business?", an anecdotal experience found that certain businesses did very well economically from last year's program.

My sense is that by having a better walking environment around Eastern Market, more people will patronize the market and everyone will make more money.

Generally, pedestrian malls are failures, because most places don't have enough people and foot traffic to activate the space. But selective approaches can be successful.

The area around the St. Lawrence Public Market in Toronto is closed to cars on weekends too. And now that I think about it, I seem to recall that part of the area around Central Market in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, functions as a kind of pedestrian only street, but 24/7/365.

Sadly, most of the merchants on 7th Street don't live in DC. So they drive here. And this colors how they think everyone else comes to commercial districts in DC.

But Capitol Hill (not exclusively) is much more walking oriented than many other places in DC.