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Because calling it a "pedestrian mall" didn't change the fact it was the same crappy stores in the same rundown buildings with the same mediocre selection of merchandise.
That's my impression as well, on the several pedestrian malls that I've seen. The one in Cumberland, MD (referenced by the OP) seemed pretty nice last time I was there, but that was probably 10 years ago, and who knows what it's like now. Years ago, Baltimore closed off Lexington Street and turned it into a pedestrian mall, and the couple of times I was there, the description quoted above fit it to a T. Despite the fact that it was only a few blocks from my office, I never realized that they reopened the street to cars until I happened to see a Street View of it, not long ago.
My first experience with a pedestrian mall was in New London, CT in the late 1980s. I thought it was pretty cool because I had never seen one before. But I couldn't help but notice that it seemed pretty run-down and the stores that were there weren't very appealing. I just looked it up and I see that it's long gone.
I prefer most Main Streets to a pedestrian mall, at least based on the one (in Denver) I experienced. Pedestrian malls seem to be mostly filled with national chains, so there isn't really a unique experience provided for that specific city. Main Streets typically have more mom & pop shops, local breweries, local coffee shops, and boutiques that you can't find anywhere else in the country.
Mountain View, CA is developing a pedestrian area over what were once streets for cars. The area is adjacent to a commuter rail and light rail station, and is a three block area that mostly consists of bars and restaurants, not retail stores. Demographics of the area are strong and also helps that they prosecute criminals there. It wouldn't work in SF or Oakland where they don't.
C-D'ers, do European pedestrian malls act as magnets for panhandlers and other bums?
No. At least I never saw any. Those malls/"shopping centers" are usually outside the town, so not easily accessible to bums and panhandlers.
Most of those malls aren't really busy anyway, except before holidays. Many have a big grocery store, home improvement store, furniture stores etc. to attract shoppers. They are accessible by car and have centrally located parking lot. There is also access to public transportation.
They are different than "pedestrian zones" mentioned by recycled.
Pedestrian zones are streets full of shops, restaurants, cafes, sitting areas on a street that is closed to car traffic. Europeans don't call them pedestrian malls. Those are situated in the center of the city. Popular and usually busy.
Shoppers can park their cars on nearby streets or in parking garages, then go for a stroll.
Most just live close by, so they walk there.
Decades ago, a change in Mayors scuttled the attempt to get a mall in Wooster. I was unhappy about it at that time. However, had we gotten a mall, it would have closed by now, like the former Carnation Mall in Alliance. As far as a pedestrian mall, I don't see that happening. They do close the downtown square to vehicles on Saturdays during the summer months, which is a nuisance.
Yeah, well, let's compare, say, London vs. Boston or Phoenix.
Winter: London is oh so cold at 40F with fog. Meantime, in Boston they've just finished clearing 2 feet of snow from the latest noreaster and the high for today will be 7F. But that's OK, tomorrow they're forecasting another foot. And winds from 20-40 mph.
Summer: London's having an 'orrible heat wave at 80F. Meantime, in Phoenix, temps at ground level are rapidly approaching the temp of the sun's surface, and there's no shade.
Where would you like to walk around outdoors, and where would you really really prefer to be inside a big building with HVAC?
Very few Western Europeans have even the faintest CLUE about what weather extremes in the US consist of.
Pedestrian malls/zones don't only exist in Europe... Buenos Aires, Cairo, Bangkok, Seoul, etc. Maybe they aren't as busy on extremely hot/cold days, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't exist at all.
It's amazing how Americans always have an excuse as to why something is possible everywhere in the world but the US.
Pedestrian malls/zones don't only exist in Europe... Buenos Aires, Cairo, Bangkok, Seoul, etc. Maybe they aren't as busy on extremely hot/cold days, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't exist at all.
It's amazing how Americans always have an excuse as to why something is possible everywhere in the world but the US.
They exist in the U.S. too. Before the 1950ies and esp. the 1960ies, stores located in the traditional retail areas of a town esp. downtown were very succesful but once enclosed malls opened up they began to loose traffic to them. In the 1970ies(mostly) some retail streets were turned into pedestrian malls as a way to try t attract the customers back into the city to shop. The usually failed.
No. At least I never saw any. Those malls/"shopping centers" are usually outside the town, so not easily accessible to bums and panhandlers.
Most of those malls aren't really busy anyway, except before holidays. Many have a big grocery store, home improvement store, furniture stores etc. to attract shoppers. They are accessible by car and have centrally located parking lot. There is also access to public transportation.
They are different than "pedestrian zones" mentioned by recycled.
Pedestrian zones are streets full of shops, restaurants, cafes, sitting areas on a street that is closed to car traffic. Europeans don't call them pedestrian malls. Those are situated in the center of the city. Popular and usually busy.
Shoppers can park their cars on nearby streets or in parking garages, then go for a stroll.
Most just live close by, so they walk there.
It's semantics. I'm pretty sure the posters here are referring to something like 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica which would be indistinguishable to a visitor from a European pedestrian precinct/zone whatever you want to call it. I know I always viewed it as that. It's an area in the city where there's no vehicle traffic on the street and it's lined by shops, restaurants, cinemas and the like.
Most of these in European big cities absolutely will feature beggars and bums. And why wouldn't they..it's prime territory for them and pickpockets.
They exist in the U.S. too. Before the 1950ies and esp. the 1960ies, stores located in the traditional retail areas of a town esp. downtown were very succesful but once enclosed malls opened up they began to loose traffic to them. In the 1970ies(mostly) some retail streets were turned into pedestrian malls as a way to try t attract the customers back into the city to shop. The usually failed.
Y'know, I think that the next time I'm back in Kansas City, I should head up to Atchison, Kan., to see what became of its downtown pedestrian mall, complete with canopies. It was built sometime around 1965.
Kansas City, Kan., tried building a mall with only two winding travel lanes for cars on two blocks of its main downtown shopping street in the mid-1970s. It managed to kill off what retail business remained on the street and was pretty quickly undone.
The one in Charlottesville, Va., seemed to be doing well when I visited that city in the late 1980s. But that protest march had to take place on an actual street for someone to run a car into the middle of it. (Or maybe it simply ran up a side street without bollards into the mall?)
Philadelphia built a semi-pedestrian mall (it had two travel lanes restricted to buses) in 1979 and removed it about 20 years later. Chestnut Street came back to life after that.
johnd393: A pedestrian mall is in essence a street lined with shops and restaurants or cafes that is closed to vehicular traffic. The kind we are talking about here are inserted into existing street networks in cities, but the very first suburban shopping malls built in the 1950s were also malls of this type, just not connected to any streets. Then, in 1957, someone decded to put a roof over the interior street, and the shopping mall as we have come to know it was born. Ironically, perhaps, the first planned regional shopping center in the country, the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Mo. (bequn 1921), is actually laid out on actual streets that are part of the street grid, with parking behind, above or under the stores, and one of its early progeny, Suburban Square in Ardmore, Pa. (1928), has a pedestrian mall at its center, but is not ringed by a massive parking lot: instead, it sits right next to a regional/commuter train station — the rail line separates it from downtown Ardmore — and has a parking garage and a small surface lot on one side.
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