All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go!

This article was originally written by Dr. Jim Segedy, AICP, Professor Emeritus at Ball State University and a long-time chair of the Small Town and Rural Planning Division of the American Planning Association, for the Winter 2005 newsletter and is not a part of my 'Let's Talk' column. When I first read it I immediately thought of Elizabethton and my hometown of Montpelier, Ohio. How true this article still is today. –ed.

I was at a conference not that long ago and walking around the downtown near the hotel as I often do. Very pleasant. The person I was walking with and I were talking about how the people of this fair town had done such a great job of making the downtown very pedestrian-friendly.

All the ingredients were there: Nice wide sidewalks with brick pavers, street trees, festive banners promoting the downtown, decorative, human-scale lampposts, restored buildings with nice displays, even appropriate traffic-calming devices. I was taking pictures like crazy. But something was missing. It was pedestrian-friendly but there were no pedestrians. Curious, I mused to my friend. Then we looked closer. It was after 5:00. Nothing was open. OK, it’s downtown, office workers want to get home to have dinner and take a nap watching “Wheel of Fortune.”

We went out the next morning. A bright day, the sun was shining, a crisp fall morning. Curious, I mused to my friend – yet again. Still no pedestrians.

‘What could the matter be,’ we asked each other. Ah-ha! It looked great, but there’s nothing there. There are no pedestrian destinations. Nothing to bring out the pedestrians. Sorry, I can’t get excited about heading out to pay a visit to the insurance agent or the something or other office of this and that. What have we done to ourselves? We spend all the time and effort to fix up our downtowns, making them attractive to visit, but there’s nothing there to visit. Downtown revitalization is not just about putting on a pretty face. There has to be a reason to be there. The best design in the world doesn’t mean anything if there’s no one around to appreciate it and there will be NO one if there’s nothing to do.

I thought we had learned some lessons from trying to turn “Main Street” into “The Mall.” Same thing. Even “The Mall” and the big boxes at the edge of town have recognized this.

Look at the new trend in retail – the “Lifestyle Center.” They look like little downtowns. So far so good. They even violate all the rules – you have to walk outside in all the weather (just like downtown and the old Victor Gruen malls) – but people do it. Why – because there’s something to do when you get there. I was talking with one of the designers of one of the earliest “Lifestyle Centers:” Easton Town Center, northeast of Columbus, Ohio. They had all of these public amenities – fountains, reflecting pools, etc. To the attorneys – an attractive nuisance, and a lawsuit waiting to happen. “Don’t let people go near them,” they said. The people said, “What cool places to play and just lollygag.” The people won. You go there now and kids playing in the fountain are part of the excitement. The reflecting pool encourages model boats and general frolicking. People come. People enjoy each other. People spend money. This new version of downtown works.

As we look at our downtowns and wonder why there’s no life in them, maybe we need to look a little deeper. Are we all dressed up with no place to go?