In the meantime, my flickr account is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanophile/

One example of failure that I don’t understand is San Francisco where Ghiradelli Square and The Cannery were highly successful when I was a college student in the late 50s until the late 70s, then went into decline. Some of it may have been a decline in San Francisco as a tourist destination as they were largely tourist sites. There was a loss of interest in tourism on the part of the city around that time and there was even talk of scrapping the cable cars.

I still think the failure of public safety in the 70s led to the decline of many central cities.

I remember State St. as a busway. Part of the problem is that it was a busyway, so tons of buses were constantly belching fumes. Also, I think perhaps it was less about spontaneous popping in to shop than the way it impeded navigability of the grid. And the design was tired. And of course the city has pumped a large amount of money into the State St. area to revitalize it other than by spending $25 million to redo the street. And given the general downtown resurgence, perhaps State St. would have come back anyway. We don’t know. I’m glad it is open to cars, however.

Can you clarify on the flickr comment?

I would like to have been around when State Street was accessible only to transit buses. I don’t think I’ve heard the full story. I was told that the lack of “drive bys” of private motorists hurt sales because people couldn’t look from their cars that they wanted to park somewhere and walk over to State Street and shop. State Street now could use some improvement in the bike friendliness department by fixing the potholes in front of the library, reducing the curb height northbound between Madison and Monroe, putting up signage to ask everyone to share the road (although signs on a “fancy” street like the shopping segments of State wouldn’t mesh), and putting a bike lane or shared lane markings on the pavement southbound between Washington and Madison (the double right turn lane here can be a little confusing and the southbound side is so wide and motorists like to make multiple lane changes in one manuever here).

How come you link to the photo’s file and not it’s Flickr page?

Credibility and critical thought.

Corporate blogs often demonstrate neither, preferring to amplify the company line or merely solicit feedback.

The Circle in Indianapolis is an example of “shared space”, even if it does have curbs and bollards. I like dodging people, cars, and horse-drawn carriages (depending on my mode of transit through the Circle).

If pedestrian or bike advocacy turns into anti-car rhetoric, it won’t succeed. If it turns into shared-space promotion, so that MORE place become like the Circle, then it succeeds.