archited
Senior Member
There is a genesis to popular streets/districts and there have been scholarly articles written relating to that genesis. One such article studied the once popular 3rd street Promenade in Santa Monica, California (I can't put my hands on it just now). The third street Promenade was initiated with the closing of vehicular traffic from Wilshire Boulevard South to the Santa Monica Mall creating a 3-block long pedestrian arcade that was intended to support the local one-of-a-kind shops that populated the retail make-up of the street. With extreme popularity came a desire for the National Chains to join in on that popularity and with that came rental increases for available space. After several years of this one-of-a-kind shops to National Chainstore metamorphosis, the 3rd street Promenade lost most of its original charm and it became "just another strip mall" -- it deteriorated to the point of becoming a hang-out for druggies and homeless souls (causing even further deterioration -- to the point that the National chains as well began to shun the place). There was then a third metamorphosis that worked to reclaim the original charm of the place -- Santa Monica City stepped in. First they passed a bylaw that recognized that most of the mom-and-pop shops in their innate specialty were stores of less than 1,000 sq.ft.; they then instituted a parking requirement that was graduated upwards -- no parking required for stores of less than 1,000 square feet (greatly benefitting mom-and-pop stores but leaving national chains wanting); parking required over 1,000 sq.ft. was set at one stall per each 200 sq.ft.of retail space (including the first 1,000 sq.ft.) which made it extremely difficult for chainstores to comply. That worked to restructure the Promenade. Further to that Santa Monica set up a system of busking stations for street performers that organized the street into licensed enclaves further helping to remove undesirables from the scene. The City then built parking structures a block off either side of the Promenade and instituted a policy of providing free parking to those who had their parking validated by mom-and-pop establishments. Old Strathcona has been struggling with the same outcomes as was experienced with 3rd Street -- the hard part is going to be getting the City to listen to the experiences and fixes of other places.
www.santamonica.com
3rd Street Promenade | Downtown Santa Monica | Santa Monica Promenade
The 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica consists of three open-air, car-free blocks with everything from fresh farmers market produce to designer fashion. Shoppers & foodies alike will love the numerous shops & restaurants in downtown Santa Monica. Discover Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade.
www.santamonica.com
