It’s time to eliminate the downtown mall

7 comments April 11th, 2008

If pictures are worth 1,000 words, then the case for removing the downtown mall — now — is made by photo in the previous post and in one that appears with this editorial.

The latter dates to 1929. It was shot from the approximate vantage point of the Memorial Hall parking lot, looking south. It shows the busy intersection of North Main and Mulberry streets. Notice the room for two lanes of traffic in either direction, plus curb parking, plus sidewalks. Looks like a busy commercial area to us. The pedestrians are blurry, but they’re there.

The picture in the previous post was taken last week. It shows a woman who works in Trekk Cross Media, the corner building on the right in the old photograph.

But where are the people on the “pedestrian mall?” Besides the subject of the photo, there is a lone pedestrian in the background on the left.

Oh, and look at the lamp post above the subject’s shoulder. Attached to the post is a “No Loitering” sign, complete with ordinance citation. The ordinance gives police the power to move along and make temporarily disappear a group of people who feel exceedingly comfortable on our mall — vagrants.

The recent picture is not what the heart of a downtown should look like. Good business environments are not peaceful, pedestrian-poor places accessible only on foot. They are bustling places where people can drive their cars, park, eat, shop, walk around, congregate, play.

No matter how many times city officials hear that message from the more vocal downtown businesspeople, they seem incapable of making a decision and moving ahead with taking out the mall. It’s past due.

While officials are planning how to take out the mall, they also should resolve to open up downtown’s one-way streets to traffic in both directions. The downtown traffic patterns right now are ridiculously confusing and incomprehensible to out-of-town visitors who want to get from I-90 or Bypass 20 to the Coronado Performing Arts Center or one of the museums.

Opening up Main Street to vehicles is the centerpiece of redoing downtown traffic flow.

If we had a nickel for every story that’s been written about the mall debate and every meeting that’s been held on the subject, we’d have enough money to buy a dandy trinket from J.R. Kortman Center for Design, a unique gift store on the mall. Owners Jerry Kortman and Doc Slafkosky have hung on in the same location for more than 20 years. They believe downtown businesses would benefit if the mall were removed and traffic could go by the storefronts on North Main Street.

ikewise, Tom Giamalva, owner of Palace Shoe Service, 204 N. Main St., has long advocated tearing out the mall and letting traffic through.

Of course, there is disagreement on the issue. Some believe the mall is worthwhile as a public gathering space. Some people like the trees; the debate has dragged on for so many years, the trees have reached maturity. And certainly, street and sidewalk construction after removing the mall would disrupt business for a while.

The long-term benefit is worth the inconvenience.

There was debate almost from the time the mall was created in 1974. Originally, West State Street was closed off, too, and traffic was rerouted around the heart of downtown. Symbol, the big orange Alexander Liberman sculpture in Sinnissippi Park, originally was set down at the intersection of West State and Main streets.

Of course, it quickly became apparent that Symbol was suffocated in that space and that it had been a mistake to put an obstruction on West State Street that required a permanent traffic detour.

Symbol was moved and West State Street was reopened in 1984. Squabbling over whether to leave or take out the rest of the mall started sometime about then.

The picture taken last week is Exhibit A that the pedestrian mall has not worked out. At long last, correct the mistake. Get rid of it.