Losing the Magic of Pedestrian Malls...

The photograph in the post, below, shows Fulton Avenue in Fresno before it was closed and transformed into a pedestrian mall. Sacramento's K Street (pictured above) was closed to vehicle traffic in 1969 to set it up as a pedestrian shopping mall. The downtown walking malls in both of these cities - and others - are facing very hard times. In Sacramento some thought is being given to restoring traffic to K Street as reported in this excerpt from a Sacramento Business Journal article (written by Melanie Turner, Staff Writer):

It's been 40 years since the city closed off six blocks of Sacramento's downtown to cars, creating K Street mall. Today, it's one of the last pedestrian malls in the country. City officials now want to look at re-introducing vehicles to the mall.

Some say the city's 1969 decision played a role in the central city's downturn. There were once more than 200 pedestrian malls nationwide. Cities such as Boston and Memphis, Tenn., are talking about opening up their pedestrian malls to cars.

Sacramento's pedestrian mall has problems of its own. While new, high-end restaurants have sprung up, there are plenty of empty spaces along the bedraggled stretch.

The Sacramento City Council authorized staff to issue a request for proposals to study options for opening K Street mall back up to vehicles, in conjunction with light rail. The council last fall determined that a pilot program to reintroduce vehicles onto the mall could be feasible.

The height of interest in pedestrian malls was in the mid- to late-1960s, when Sacramento built its mall. Some have been great successes, such as Santa Monica's thriving Third Street Promenade. Others, built to combat competition from surburban shopping malls, re-opened to cars after retailers saw sales dip and sidewalks fall into disrepair.

One big problem was a lack of maintenance. Plants died and pavers cracked. In addition, the U.S. was even more automobile-oriented at the time, and shoppers wanted to drive up to storefronts.

Successful malls are maintained, managed and marketed. It's also helpful to create a place that "has some magic to it."

My View

I personally believe that the City of Sacramento has waited too long. The magic of the K Street area left long ago. I remember visiting back in 1970 when impressive fountains that actually worked - imagine that - lined K Street. After decades of neglect, it isn't suddenly going to be transformed into downtown Portland. Adding automobile noise and exhaust fumes certainly won't help to return the magic.

Maybe the first thing the Sacramento City Council members should do is travel to the vibrant downtown of Portland, Oregon. As I've said before, Portland is a city that works and there are valuable lessons to be learned. But is it too late? It may well be too late for Sacramento's K Street.