Strip Malls and Safety Belts

I've been slack on the Downtown of the Week series, so consider this the anti-installment. Something I've been thinking about since I've been back to the east coast is the lack of nice downtowns. In Hickory we went to a cool pub downtown and Liz lives in downtown Winston-Salem, but other than that it seems like, for the most part, the shopping, food-buying, and activities focus on driving to the local strip mall. Maybe it's a flawed observation, I've only been back here for ten days. Or maybe not. Thoughts?

In the end the big takeaway is that it reminds me just how much I want to live in a town with an awesome downtown where I can go shopping, dining, walking, and wandering. Somewhere where everything is bicycle accessible. I want to live in a town where people walk around and greet their fellow citizens face-to-face, not with a wave from behind the wheel. Perhaps some view this as quaint, but sign me up nonetheless.

Downtown of the Week, Part 4

This week's Downtown of the Week comes from Enchanted Forest, Oregon. Sure, it's a fake downtown, but fake and awesome. Enjoy the photo of me walking down the pedestrian-only Enchanted Way.

Downtown of the Week, Part 3

After a one-week hiatus while bumming around Oregon, I'm back with installment three of the multi-part series: Downtown of the Week. This week brings us back to Colorado, this time to Aspen. For all its flaws--to name a couple: over development on the surrounding hills and intense commercialization (of everything)--Aspen has an awesome downtown with extensive pedestrian-only sections. Hooray for them! The dining, art, social, and commercial epicenters are all located downtown within biking and walking distance. Love it. As an added bonus you can practically fall out of bed and be up, stealing a phrase from Mike, "Shreddin' some gnar." The internet is slow tonight for some reason, so just one photo. It has you looking toward city center, in the background you can see a fountain, where brink streets like this zigzag back and forth. A very pretty place.

DotW: Ronda, España

This week's downtown spotlight comes to rest on my favorite city in Spain: Ronda. Often relegated to third billing behind Seville and Granada within the Andalucian region, Ronda is a fantastic city with an equally wonderful downtown. I visited in January 2002 with my family and was taken immediately.

Here's a great photo of one of the pedestrian-only downtown streets of Ronda (thanks Schweich). As you can see, the street is not a simple concrete or asphalt, rather it's a colorful tile. Streets like this crisscross back and forth with many shops, bars, museums, and restaurants. During the 2002 trip I remember wandering these streets by streetlamp, a foggy haze hanging low. It was a magical, medieval evening.


A couple more photos from the fantastic Ronda:

Downtown of the Week

One of my interest that has recently blossomed is an appreciation for great downtowns. One of the first things I look for when visiting a new place is the quality of the downtown. What characterizes a good downtown? Here are some of the criteria, in no particular order of importance, with no claim of being a comprehensive list:

• Pedestrian friendly: There's little I enjoy more than a stroll downtown where pedestrians are king. If downtowns were rated on a 1-10 scale, pedestrian-only downtowns would get a 10 while a car-centric approach (think Island City Strip in LG or South Church Street in Burlington, NC) gets a 1.
• Public transportation: The widespread availability of affordable public transportation is a big plus.
  
• Roundabouts: Love'em.
• Dining: Unique, one-of-a-kind dining and bar options are a must.
• Commerce: Hundreds, if not thousands, of wonderful downtowns have been ruined by the mass exodus of all the businesses. Either they have gone out of business due to competition from big box stores or have moved to the nearest stripmall that caters to the car with their endless expanses of pavement.
• Traffic: Not your traditional traffic, rather, traffic in terms of the number of people patronizing the businesses and services provided. A dead downtown is a dud downtown.
  

So what municipality, you must be asking, headlines the first installment of Downtown of the Week? Denver, Colorado.

Denver is a double dipper: the pedestrian-only downtown is fantastic (see photo). With just a few cross streets, people can wander about and, as you can see from the photo (right hand side), there is a free shuttle that runs the entire 13 block pedestrian mall (13 blocks!!!!!). There are tons of people, lots of shopping, and entertainment all over the place. Rad.

The second flavor of Denver is Civic Center Park (see photo, thanks Ke4roh!). Here you will find the State Capitol Building, a huge park with an amphitheatre, the state supreme court, and the Frank Gehry-designed Denver Art Museum (follow the link, it's a phenomenal design). The park, located right next to the pedestrian mall, gives the entire downtown great continuity.Quick story: During the Journey of Hope in 2003 we had one of the biggest police escorts of the summer for the arrival into Denver. Only a few blocks from the capitol a lady ran a red light and hit an motorcycle officer who was blocking the street. Seriously, how do you miss 30 hotty cyclists and a boat of cops?

So that's that, the first installment of DotW. Tune back in next Friday.