I’m very spoiled – I’m in the heart of Denver’s lively 16th Street pedestrian mall with a great view of the illuminated D&F tower and I am kind of disappointed. In many ways, the zone has been carefully tuned to attract people. Cars are banned in favor of a free bus that stops every block and cute horse carriages and bicycle taxis. Trees provide shade and night lighting provides scale for benches and fun artwork. Restaurants spill onto a broad sidewalk and the food is reasonably priced due to all the competition. Within the mix of buildings, there are some fine historic structures and attractive retail shops. Even on a Sunday evening, there are enough people strolling that it feels safe to be a woman walking on my own.
But on a Sunday, the cross streets have little traffic and when I walked away from the carefully designed mall, there is little life, little going on outside. The blocks are huge and anonymous, some looming 20 stories with 70’s scaleless modernism and meeting the street with barely an acknowledgement of the pedestrian. Like many cities in the heartland, Denver was designed for automobiles Its mix of lovely historic and banal modern buildings remind me of St. Louis. Despite the liveliness of the tourist zone, it feels like an artificial implant in a sick patient. The cross streets are superwide, with four lanes of traffic taking the width for six. These vast streets seem like an empty movie set.
The shops are dominated by chains that bring an ersatz Main Street aesthetic. So there is a plastic feeling that dilutes the grandeur of the authentic historic buildings. The individual mall buildings are clean in the way that police states can be: nothing can get in the way of extracting money from your wallet.
It was great to see street musicians playing and folks hanging out chatting, playing chess, enjoying a mild evening after the day’s heat has departed. The designers have a achieved a lot in bringing life to the downtown. But we have a LONG way to go. Instead of the chain shops and restaurants, I was eager to see a little more of the Mom & Pop shops. I want to see that the vitality of this district could touch the lives of Denver residents instead of being a display piece for visitors. I’m hoping that tomorrow on a weekday, I’ll see another story…
LATER… While I originally found Denver’s 16th street pedestrian mall disappointing, spending more time in Denver helped me understand that the planners have pulled together some very nice features. Seeing the city on a Sunday morning was an unfair sampling of the city’s vitality – it came alive during the workday and the pedestrian mall was lively and safe into the evening.
I was also delighted to discover the Riverside Park and a series of three modernist bridges extending the pedestrian mall into lively areas such as the Platte Street historic district. I was happy to see the carefully cultivated modern park with lovely contrasts of lawn and more wild areas. The main bridge was inventive in both form and material, showing interesting contrasts and creative night lighting. And later I got to see several more wonderful areas…that convince me that the American city is not doomed and Denver has done some nice work in creating places for people. See the Project for Public Spaces to get more ideas about livable cities.
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