The idea seems to make sense at first glance: If we want a walkable Downtown core, we should pick a street, close it to cars, and make it a pleasant place to stroll and shop. The reality is that pedestrian malls rarely work. Most become ghost towns and are eventually reopened to automobile traffic. For every success such as 16th Street in Denver, there are dozens of failures in cities around the country.

In his recent book "Walkable City," Jeff Speck provides the following overview of the rise and fall of the pedestrian mall trend: "In all, of the two hundred or so pedestrian malls generated in the United States, only about thirty remain. Of those, most are moribund low-rent districts..." Speck continues: "The proper response to obesity is not to stop eating, and most stores need car traffic to survive."

Despite this dismal pattern nationwide, there is now an idea being discussed by Councilman Michael Nowakowski to transform First Street into a pedestrian mall from the US Airways Center to Hance Park (article link below). Mr. Nowakowski no doubt means well, but talk of closing First Street should remain just that: talk. Blocking the street entirely to cars would doom it to obscurity.

Let me offer my own experience from living in Providence during the 1980s. Back then, that city's downtown was in bad shape. Part of the problem was Westminster Mall, a key street closed to cars, bereft of pedestrians, and full of vacant storefronts. Part of Providence's comeback was a decision to reopen Westminster to one lane of car travel in each direction.

First Street has already undergone extensive work to make it more pedestrian friendly between Fillmore and McKinley. Those efforts were not perfect, but they can be improved upon and then extended to additional blocks in Mr. Nowakowski's target zone. A lively First Street that welcomes one lane of slow car traffic in each direction, along with ample sidewalks and bike lanes, is preferable to a vacant pedestrian mall.