Some very quick reactions to a couple of comments from previous posts:
“Cato,” a regular reader, was talking about how some downtown streets are great, but others aren’t very exciting. Yes, they have sidewalks, but . . . He says, “The Wachovia Securities stock ticker board at the corner of College & MLK could have been a minor landmark, but it’s in such a dead zone practically no one sees it.”
Commenting on an earlier posting, “Anonymous” asked: How are you defining “pedestrian friendly? My neighborhood of Spring Valley is very pedestrian friendly where you could walk continuously for several miles without the bother of busy intersections, plenty of sidewalk and wide streets for bikes, jogging strollers, etc.”
I define pedestrian-friendly as having good sidewalks that are wide enough for several people at a time, including those with strollers, and having intersections designed so they don’t terrify you if you have to cross. They have relatively short blocks so you can get somewhere without going too far out of your way. They have destinations, so you’re not walking aimlessly only for exercise (though I like to walk for exercise).
In my definition, really pedestrian friendly streets need something interesting to look at. Different people think different things are interesting, of course. I like to look at people’s gardens, landscaping and big old trees. This bores my husband something terrible. He likes store windows, sidewalk cafes and lots of people on the sidewalk.
But most everyone can agree, I think, that surface parking lots, parking garage entrances, loading docks and long blank walls are not pedestrian friendly. Those are, as Cato suggests, “dead zones.”
How do you avoid them? Simple (if not easy). Encase parking garages in ground-floor retail, like Seventh Street Station. Put surface parking lots behind buildings.
I like to walk uptown, and some streets are quite comfortable for pedestrians: E.g., Tryon Street. Others are awful: College Street between Trade and Fourth, or Fourth Street between Church and Poplar.
Got nominations for great pedestrian streets? Or horrific ones?