16th Street Mall – more discussion.
(16th Street Mall in the Winter)
With apologies to abisset for hijacking a thread, I wanted to bring this little issue out of the comments from the last post and open a wider discussion here.
In the last post, abisset asked about the future of the 16th Street Mall, and I promptly insisted there was nothing afoot. Valerie quickly reminded me that a quick search is a handy thing to conduct before speaking, and so I jumped on a belated Google search and found the following information.
Denver Infill Blog has a nice write-up about the history of the Mall, and some of the issues its faced, as well as the architectural awards and attention.
The Downtown Denver Partnership has a 16th St. Mall Project Page, which includes a recap of the April 8th Meeting. Basically, the Mall is 25 years old, and it’s time for a review. The discussion at the Denver Infill Blog brings up some interesting ideas, including the idea of introducing streetcars to the Mall.
So here’s where you all chime in. What do you think? Should vehicle traffic be allowed on the mall? What improvements would you suggest? Let’s hear it. I think it would be pretty wicked cool to write up a page of Metroblog Endorsed Recommendations, and submit our ideas to the Steering Committee. They’ve asked for input, and we have a great forum to provide some quality input from diverse viewpoints.
Streetcars would be SO COOL.
I think 16th as a pedestrian oriented mall is one of the best things about central downtown. It’d be a hell of a shame to just tear up the pavestones, put down some tarmac, and call it a day.
This would be a great opportunity to make 16th much more people friendly by adding more trees, bushes, grasses.
Moving the RTD terminal is on the table: http://www.rtd-denver.com/fastracks/downtown.html. Can you image walking out of Union Station onto a grand promenade? What an entrance to the city!
I agree with all the above… what do you guys think of the streetcar idea that was floated on the Denver Infill Blog?
I like the idea of a street car – but haven’t any idea of the cost. Street cars would probably appeal to tourists that visit the area.
Wow. 16th street with cars. I think that would kinda blow.
I often wish the retail along the street was better, but still it’s a fun walk when out for the night.
I hope they don’t mess it up.
Allow cars?! What kind of crazy talk is that? Isn’t that what makes 16th Street "16th Street"? As far as the trolley, I am of two minds on that issue. Having recently moved here from Charlotte, where we had trolleys in Uptown, I can say that they add a wonderful sense of nostalgia to a downtown/uptown scene; that said, I have a friend who was in charge of staffing the trolleys with volunteers and from what she has told me, they are not an efficient use of resources.
Is something wrong with the way 16th Street is right now? Why fix something that isn’t broken? "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!"