Monroe Mall

So I'm back in Grand Rapids again for Christmas break, which means I find myself commenting on local news stories.

The Grand Rapids Press did a story yesterday on the history of downtown:  Monroe Center's failure as pedestrian mall.

It used to be these articles on the history of Grand Rapids would get my parents and grandparents reminiscing.  But in a sign that I'm getting old, the history recounted in this article is something I remember from my own high school/college days.

Growing up in the suburbs, I didn't really experience downtown Grand Rapids until I got the mobility that came with turning 16 and getting a driver's license in 1994, but I was just old enough to catch the tail end of Monroe as a pedestrian mall.  My high school classmates would go out to Monroe Mall for the Blues on the Mall series in the summer, and I would come along.

I remember also that wonderful pedestrian area being turned back into a street in 1997, and feeling regret about it.  But unfortunately no one ever consulted me on the decision, so I just watched as they plowed the street through there.

The article linked to above talks about how the pedestrian area was an economic failure, and I'll take their word for it.
But ultimately, sooner or later, Americans are going to have to learn to start walking.  This gets back to the Crisis in American Walking post I did a few months back.  The environmental crisis caused by cars (global warming is becoming a bigger issue all the time) and health crisis caused by Americans' phobia of walking (the growing levels of obesity and diabetes) just are not going to go away.

So I find it a very unsatisfying answer to simply say: "Well, what are you going to do?  People just weren't walking, so we had to change it back."

 Ultimately I think the way of the future is to create more pedestrian zones, and so I view the end of the pedestrian center on Monroe as a sad step backwards.

But it's a complicated issue I'll acknowledge.
Part of the larger problem is that to even get downtown you needed to take a car.  Grand Rapids has a lot of urban sprawl like many other North American cities, so if  you're in the suburbs it's a good 30 minute drive just to get downtown.  And the public transportation system isn't great.

But I'm curious what my favorite urban planning expert has to say on the subject.  Peter?

Link of the Day
Professor-Noam-Chomsky & Angela-Davis