Downtowns in a time of (post-)Cholera...erCovid/Social Media/Ex-Empire

August 25, 2023 7:50 AM

I have a (US) town job where I talk to people about their relationship to commercial spaces and public spaces. There are classic problems like traffic and big boxes pulling activity away from the heart of downtown. BUT, it seems like this time really is different. I see unique challenges. Who has a 21st century game plan? Even for those who aren't 'planners' but like downtowns, how does yours work? Has your relationship to it changed?

What I hear is that:

(1) there's a lot of nostalgia for how the downtown was 10...20...50 years ago.
(2) To the extent that people want change, it's a vague sort of 'more' 'activity'. It's definitely not people from 'away' or taller buildings, or more people taking up parking (which is plentiful).
(3) A lot of the suggestions that are types of interventions we as a community could take seem either dated or the product of confusing cause and effect (thinking that bringing in retail will benefit other businesses, when the real trip drivers like regional retail won't fit in a downtown and small business retail is not a boon for other uses).

What I see is:
- Aging demographics that are less active and increasingly income-challenged, especially because...
- Consumer inflation, it depends on the region and the good/service, but the necessity of prices going up means people are sometimes responding by buying less
- Business costs, small businesses face a trifecta of material, labor and regulatory costs unlike anything in recent history.
- Screens, digital technology and especially social media are taking up an increasing share of peoples' attention
- The screens are also competing in terms of being a point of sale. Ecommerce is a serious threat and why a lot of downtowns I see are leaning heavily towards restaurant and 'special events' for activities.
- Remote work means that people don't start or end their day in a commercial district
- Some kind of post-COVID malaise as the 'new normal' for most people just involves less getting out


Is anyone else seeing this like I am? Am I over-explaining a normal continuation of suburbanization and monopoly commerce?

Has anyone seen a novel redesign of downtowns for the 21st century?

posted by Reasonably Everything Happens to Work & Money (19 answers total)

My profession will never be a "downtown" kind of thing, nor will my income support a penthouse, so my interaction with downtowns is when I choose to go there-for shopping, events, or general sight-seeing.

What I have noticed, and this was pre-covid but continues through today, is that me and my demographic are drawn to small "main street" type concentrations of businesses which are a small bite of downtown without dealing with traffic. I feel more a part of my neighborhood than my larger city.

I want to be able to take a little stroll and window shop, maybe grab a meal, but I don't need the expense and hassle of heading all the way downtown. These are common in old streetcar suburbs but are being reinvigorated by current developers who put a level of retail below 5 levels of apartments or condos. This is different from the big boxes and malls, the biggest store you might see here is a trader joes but more likely it's something like a yoga or fitness place, a thai place, a burger or pizza place, a coffee shop, a small insurance or medical office, and a couple other miscellaneous retail spots.
posted by Narrow Harbor at 8:09 AM on August 25, 2023 [4 favorites]

My closest town (Staunton, VA) started closing down their historical downtown main street to vehicle traffic on the weekends during COVID, and it was so popular that they are continuing with this indefinitely. All the local restaurants and shops put out chairs and tables outside, and it's super busy with foot traffic on the weekends. It's a wonderful vibe.
posted by Teadog at 8:48 AM on August 25, 2023 [13 favorites]

As it happens, I just read something which applies:

“There were 120 residents coming together and envisioning what they wanted the future of Auburn [city of 24k in Maine] to look like,” Levesque said. “And it was really interesting because everything they wanted — walkability, things to do, entertainment — really needed people. So, we came to the conclusion that our biggest focus was to have people. And in order to have people, you need to have housing.”

Expanding zoning, building housing, walkability, de-prioritizing car culture — to me these are central concepts to even begin to have this conversation. If you want people downtown you have to make it easy for people to be downtown — to live there, to cycle to there, to do interesting things instead of trudging through a sea of asphalt laid down to appease the parking gods.

Are you acquainted with the trending crop of urbanist writers and youtubers?
posted by daveliepmann at 8:51 AM on August 25, 2023 [8 favorites]

My local downtown was already being emptied out pre-Covid, because of online shopping and an out of town mall. The council put together a new strategy, oriented around a shift of planning regulations to allow more people to live downtown, specifically a mixed demographic so it includes families and isn't just students or short term renters. Then they've developed "key journeys" where there's a focus on the wayfinding experience of walking from one specific bit of town to another. So there's new pedestrianisation, narrowing of some roads, emphasis on street furniture and landscaping. Lots of thoughtfulness about lighting and sightlines and the actual experience of using the downtown area for whatever purposes people currently have.

I think the planning change around residential use ties in neatly with what Narrow Harbor says above: people want to visit a row of businesses, but they don't need it to be a massive traditional downtown any more. They're looking to do domestic stuff like getting a haircut or having a coffee with a friend, so they'll go somewhere that's easily accessible from where they live - or else they'll drive to a retail park or a mall. So getting people to actually live directly in the downtown is the key.

Part of the logic behind the planning changes in my town was that the downtown was starting to be perceived as desolate or dangerous, due to the lack of footfall, which was a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. Once a varied demographic of people live there, including people who plan to live there long term, the place becomes more attractive to visit and stops looking like some kind of crime desert at 6pm once the office workers have gone. And of course - footfall for a larger part of the day means the commercial real estate becomes more attractive again.

Recently they opened a massive new playground, and my friend's little kid suddenly wants to get the bus downtown with her friends just to go to this playground! Downtown was never on her radar before as a place to visit, but if she starts going now I'm sure it's more likely that she'll keep going as she gets older.
posted by quacks like a duck at 8:52 AM on August 25, 2023 [4 favorites]

You should read Dar Williams' book What I Found in a Thousand Towns. She has some evidence-based theories about ways to revitalize downtown areas of small- and medium-size towns, specifically.
posted by limeonaire at 9:03 AM on August 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

Downtowns dependent on a workforce compelled to travel there each day aren’t the ones that will thrive. And cuties can’t just badger employers to force people to work at work, just like they’re having a hard time getting their own employees back in the office.

So we have empty office and commercial space, a housing crisis, and downtowns that need more people. Downtowns need to have more of their own residents. It’s complicated and expensive to convert office space to housing, but can’t we be creative? Could an office tower have live/work spaces, for example? Certainly they could be mixed income. More residents will also lure into more people who want to go out for the day or evening.

And while we’re at it, it’s the perfect time to close down some streets to cars like Paris is doing. Get people on their bikes, away from cars. Bring in playgrounds and families. Downtown can also be another neighborhood.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:25 AM on August 25, 2023 [5 favorites]

I live in a somewhat uncommon situation for the US. My "micro-urban" downtown is thriving, way better than it was 20 years ago. Lots of cool bars and restaurants, music venues, coffee shops, parks. Public street fair type events featuring arts and crafts vendor booths, free concerts, etc. Yes they all took a hit from Covid and yes there were some closures but new places are opening too. You can go throw axes or make candles on a Friday night, or sit at the book and wine bar nibbling fancy snacks. I personally think it has a lot to do with the size: we are the closest "big city" for lots of people, even though we are tiny compared to actual big cities. Lots of people can get there by walking or biking or bussing, and Uber rides are cheap too.

Perusing the US census list of Metropolitan Statistical Areas ranked by size, down around rank 200-300, (which is around 150k-250k people), I see another handful of cities that seem to have decent downtowns, especially if they have a large university or some sort of tourist attractions nearby.

Perhaps something to think about. Planning is not going to make downtown metropolis much smaller or easier, but there are lots of other smaller places where planning and design can help make downtowns thrive. This also makes sense when you think of how much smaller many of the big downtowns were in their glory days.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:25 AM on August 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Just a personal observation. My grandfather was extremely distraught when it was time for him to give up driving because that meant that he was basically completely stuck at home with nowhere to go in the 'burbs. As my own parents get older and the clock starts ticking on their ability to safely drive I often think about how great it would be for older folks to give up home and car ownership to live in downtown apartments.

The ability to easily socialize, walk around, and have "third spaces" to hang out just seems so perfect for retired folks. My dad has some retired friends who downsized to live near a walkable commercial strip downtown and it's so cool to go to a bar or cafe and be like, oh hey let's call Bill to see if he wants to walk across the street to come meet us. They're interested in the arts and love going to support live music, community theater, and farmer's markets.

There's a new bus line that goes across town so that even if you can't drive it's pretty convenient to get to the big hospital system and many city services offices (e.g., Social Security and Medicare offices).
posted by forkisbetter at 9:26 AM on August 25, 2023 [5 favorites]

Although it's not the book's focus, there are some case studies of places that have revitalized their downtowns in Melody Warnick's This Is Where You Belong.
posted by pollytropos at 9:55 AM on August 25, 2023

I think it really depends on whether you are talking about small-ish towns or big cities.

When all the workers left from downtown Seattle, it basically just collapsed. And then, the unhoused fentanyl users came in, making many people who actually lived down there afraid, and many of them left. And then, there was so much shoplifting going on, many stores closed their doors. And other businesses down there closed because they couldn't guarantee the safety of their workers. And it becomes a vicious circle.

But a big city's downtown, surrounded by skyscrapers, is very different than smaller town's downtowns. The latter can be improved and made more of a destination, more walkable, and more lively. Big city downtowns have so much inertia, it is hard to know how to fix that.
posted by Windopaene at 10:11 AM on August 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Outdoor movies with a theme that highlights a feature of something-to-do, like Brooklyn Castle then provide information on chess tables, clubs and library activities nearby.

Have tabling/a panel of conflict non-profit resources and play a movie like The Interrupters….

Hold an urban birding outing

Partner with a nearby bike store and have two regular bike rides: one for people who can do 10 mph, and one for people who WANT to get there (which could involve a high school track)

Partner with local colleges and bookstores and have people read poetry.

Have a silly race that is rewarded with a food that is synonymous with the town (like that downhill cheese race, but less painful, more fun)
posted by childofTethys at 10:56 AM on August 25, 2023

Best answer: There's a lot of writing about this, but it sounds like you're asking for anecdotes. Luckily for you, I have both read a lot of the writing and have plenty of anecdotes. ;)

I live within walking distance of my town's downtown. (>100k, but nonetheless the second-biggest city in my state, so it's kind of a regional draw.) I go downtown somewhat frequently, because it's a pleasant walk and my kids get to sing the Petula Clark song on the way. One of my friends used to be the ED of our downtown redevelopment nonprofit, so I have some insight into why our downtown is the way it is, too.

I don't really listen to people who say "downtown was better 50 years ago". First of all, the only people who can say that are boomers, and it's the boomers who killed downtowns. Maybe they're feeling regret, but who cares? They're going to die off in a few years. Their input doesn't really matter for the future of downtowns, even if they're the ones who show up to town halls and respond to surveys. Try to determine what millennials and zoomers would like (with the caveat that millennials' ideas about downtowns are all pretty ill-informed and lack any nuance beyond "cars are bad").

The big problem with any downtown is a lack of reasons to go there. Pretty much everywhere I've ever lived or visited, the primary draw to get people downtown was restaurants. That's... not a great draw. There are restaurants in every neighborhood. Maybe there are better restaurants downtown, but weighing the marginal quality against the time and hassle of going downtown, a lot of people are going to just eat closer to home.

So what else could draw people? Work, for one thing, but most commercial real estate is cheaper outside of downtown, so not many people work downtown anymore, and the people who do are usually people who have a compelling reason (e.g., lawyers who want to be near a courthouse, etc.). Most small businesses aren't great anchors, like you said, and service providers like yoga studios or masseuses (in addition to the cheaper commercial real estate elsewhere) just don't have that many customers.

The best anchors tend to be public, e.g. libraries. Both my current town (recently) and my hometown (when I was in high school) opened publicly-funded performing arts centers. That's a good anchor, because there's not really any competition. My current town's PAC just hosted Toad the Wet Sprocket. That's not a band that's packing people in, but where else would you go to see them? It's not like a band of that level is playing a bar in the suburbs. Likewise community theatre - most towns don't have a lot of theatre venues. If you want to see a play, you've got to go to the PAC. And these will attract out-of-towners, too. Touring acts and productions generally don't book shows in adjacent towns, so if they book your PAC, people from other nearby towns will come see the show (the flip side being that you'll sometimes have to go their town to see a show in return). Museums and parks are other good attractors, in my experience. Sports, too, although you're limited in what you can do there. Rule of thumb: could an elementary school justify a field trip there? If so, it'll probably bring people downtown.

The biggest complain that people say keeps them from going downtown is how to get there. For boomers and Xers, that means parking; for millennials, public transportation. Parking is tricky. You say your town has plenty, but do they? Is it pay parking? My town has a garage, a couple surface lots, and on-street parking, but it's all metered. To me and a lot of other people, that makes it too much of a hassle. There are apps and stuff to make it easier, but the reality is that if there were somewhere free to park downtown, I'd drive there a lot more often. (And when there is free parking, it's usually tied to a single business, so you can't go from dining to retail to PAC.)

Public transportation is an alternative, but its advocates usually overlook just what an unpleasant experience using it is, especially in smaller cities. There are few routes, they run inconveniently, and, perhaps most saliently, the other riders are people you'd rather not be associated with. In big, dense cities, it makes sense for people to ride the bus, but in smaller cities that were never very dense in the first place like where I live now and where I grew up, the only people who ride the bus are the people who have no other options: the elderly, the unemployed, the mentally ill, and poorly behaving young people. There are people who don't have cars, but even those people try to get a ride from a friend or family member before taking the bus. The people on the bus are people who don't even have friends or family members to give them a ride. It's not an experience that most people would choose. Solving that problem might help, but I'm not sure it's solvable, because a lot of small towns were never dense enough.

A big part of the problem with downtowns is the neighborhoods around them. In a lot of places, the residential areas surrounding the central business district are poor and/or crumbling. Even if your downtown has a lot of nice anchors pulling people in, if they have to drive through the hood to get there, a lot of people won't bother.

One other problem I see a lot is neglectful property ownership. The good and the bad thing about owning property in an area that peaked half a century ago is that, if you bought when times were good, you've paid off the mortgage by now, so the downturn doesn't affect you. You don't care if half your space is vacant. It's not like you need that rent to pay the mortgage. You just pay taxes and maintenance, and you defer as much of the latter as possible. And businesses who own freestanding buildings often have no real incentive to quality - see the responses to this question I asked a few years ago. (That restaurant has closed, btw.) This creates something similar to the public transportation problem: the only people who rent this office space, shop at these stores, or eat at these restaurants are people who either don't know any better or people who don't have any other options. Not desirable company.

An even bigger problem is when you move from the wrong types of people (bad enough) to the wrong types of businesses. Drive down any Main Street in a small-to-midsize town, even in "nicer" parts of the country like New England. It will consist of a tattoo parlor, a thrift store, a vape shop, and maybe a payday lender. Maybe if you're lucky there'll be a local bank that hasn't merged with Chase yet, or if it's really hoppin' there might be a second vape shop or tattoo parlor, or maybe a nail salon. Now drive down Main Street in a desirable suburb: Lexington, Mass, Naperville, the Park Cities in Dallas, etc. You know what you don't see? Tattoo parlors, thrift stores, and vape shops. Coincidence? That's not to say you can't get a tattoo or buy vape juice in those places. Just that they try to keep them on the sidestreets, out of sight, so as not to scare the kinds of people who are going there for more respectable reasons.

Add this all up, and it creates a perception problem. It's not so much that there's crime, it's that there's the perception of crime. More accurately, it's the absence of the appearance of safety. Everybody here knows the stats about crime; it's not nearly as common as people think. But people want to feel safe. So that's my first bit of advice: Make the people who do visit your downtown feel safe. I don't really have a lot of suggestions on how, but whatever you can do will pay off.

One thing my town did during Covid, when people couldn't go inside, was to spruce up outsides. Specifically, they hired some local graffiti artists to paint some murals. We had a couple murals already, and now we have a bunch. Nobody's going downtown to look at a graffiti mural, but if you're already there for something else, it does a lot to make the place feel nicer. You get the sense that somebody actually cares about the place. That's what I'm saying about the appearance of safety as opposed to actual safety. You're just as likely to be robbed in front of a mural as you are to be robbed in front of a cracked concrete wall, but one *feels* much nicer than the other.

This is part of what makes solving the parking problem so difficult. Would more parking bring more people downtown? Maybe. But then you'd have vacant lots interrupting the street wall, or worse, a garage where would-be criminals can loiter in the darkness. This is why I'm inclined to listen to the one-note millennial "cars are bad" people. I don't agree, I like cars, but it's a lot better to have a row of well-maintained facades or some green space than it is to have a parking lot. It feels nicer, and like I said, feeling nice is an important way to get people to go.

In terms of feeling nice, there's one thing that stands out above anything else, and that's nature. There's a reason people tell you to "touch grass". If you have any green space in your downtown, take advantage of it, and if you don't, find ways to create some. Columbus, where I used to live, demolished a dead mall and turned the lot into a park, complete with a vintage carousel. It's literally just a flat piece of grass, with a couple trees at the corners, but it absolutely ruled. I loved it. If you've got any condemned buildings or vacant lots, turn them into pocket parks. Even better, try to link a couple up a couple of properties to make an even bigger park.

That leads to my final suggestion, which is to take advantage of the natural features you do have. Most towns have a river or creek running through them, but many towns industrialized their riverfronts. Do what you can to reverse that. Create a pedestrian path along the river. Open the river to kayakers. Open a restaurant with a patio overlooking the river. Tie that in with your green space. Then do things there. There's a "park" in my town that's actually just a parking lot with a strip of grass between it and the riverbank. They painted a mural on the wall, erected a small statue, planted some flowers, and called it a park, and now we go there fairly often. In the fall they build a stage in the parking lot for a polka band, stick a hot dog cart at the other end of the parking lot, and boom, it's Oktoberfest. I fucking love our Oktoberfest. When I first met my friend who used to be the downtown ED, that's the first thing I talked to him about. This past weekend they did a kayak light parade - kayakers strung up Christmas lights and paddled through downtown. We were out of town, but when they've done this in the past, we've made a night out of it: dinner at one of the restaurants downtown, ice cream, watching a band at a bar, and then ending up at the parking lot park to watch the kayakers. And yeah, this is all in a glorified parking lot. It doesn't have to be great to be good.
posted by kevinbelt at 11:09 AM on August 25, 2023 [5 favorites]

From above:

You say your town has plenty [of parking], but do they? Is it pay parking? My town has a garage, a couple surface lots, and on-street parking, but it's all metered. To me and a lot of other people, that makes it too much of a hassle.

Free on-street parking often does the opposite of what you want, as described by Shoup & Kolozsvari in Turning Small Change Into Big Changes (PDF):

The right price for curb parking is the lowest price that keeps a few spaces available to allow convenient access. If no curb spaces are available, reducing their price cannot attract more customers, just as reducing the price of anything else in short supply cannot increase its sales. A below-market price for curb parking simply leads to cruising and congestion. The goal of pricing is to produce a few vacant spaces so that drivers can find
places to park near their destinations. Having a few parking spaces vacant is like having inventory in a store, and everyone understands that customers avoid stores that never have what they want in stock. The city should reduce the price of curb parking if there are too many vacancies (the inventory is excessive), and increase it if there are too few (the shelves are bare).

The whole thing is worth a read. It of course doesn't get into the other and myriad negative effects of parking, to which it must be said: down with the short-sighted car-first mentality. You can build a place for people or you can build a place for cars. That boarded up strip mall in your town tells you how resilient places built for cars are.
posted by daveliepmann at 12:29 PM on August 25, 2023 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: I don't want to make this too much about my particular place. I'm actually more interested in others' experiences and the offerings so far have been generous and really informative, so thank you!

parking...Are you acquainted with the trending crop of urbanist writers and youtubers?

So (1) 'yes', I've been thoroughly steeped in the tea of new-urbanism, shoupian parking, form based zoning, etc. (2) 'no', there's so much out there and some of the suggestions above were new to me and I will be looking into. So I'm somewhat educated, but please keep suggesting things.

My area has invested enough in physical plant. It looks good. Parking is free and still underused. Nearby areas are 'nice' and crime isn't an issue. Our consumer base is semi-rural / suburban, but wealthy and there are visitors that come through.

In my view a lot of the obvious and low-hanging fruit has been taken care of. That's why I'm positing that something feels different. Not just here, but when I visit other places too. Maybe it's just me, but the point of me asking here is wondering, are others seeing a change in their relationship to downtowns too?
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 1:02 PM on August 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My downtown has a heart, which is a big park. One side of the park has a big pavilion and lawn which is used for farmers markets, performances, and just general happenings. This is also one side of a big intersection leading in to the downtown strip of businesses and restaurants. The library is also close by, ditto a couple of small museums. The other side has a big playground and a more park like area going along the river. There's a wide range of housing around within a half mile of this: subsidized senior housing, newer buildings targeted towards yuppies and dinks, a few condo developments, older apartments and duplexes and subdivided old houses, big restored Colonials and Victorians, and the big one, the renovated mill building right smack downtown. So there's really a huge socioeconomic spread (or there was, until people like me, who were priced out of Big Tourist City and University Town and Big Expensive City an hour south started moving in; more people are moving up to Slightly Less Nice Former Mill Towns #1 and #2 nearby to find slightly more affordable housing) which means you go to the playground or a summer arts performance and you're seeing a huge range of people there which makes it feel like a community. I grew up in a small town where people moved out the second their kids graduated so you didn't have that sort of depth.

Such that there's been a change in the relationship to downtown in the city it's generally been positive, with people pinning the growth/turnaround to about 15-20 years ago which was about when the mill building was renovated. There's still the "remember when???" crowd but nobody actually wants to go back to when the mill building was abandoned. The main concern now is gentrification which, honestly, is somewhat warranted, see point above.

So yeah, the boring answer is diverse housing stock, adaptive reuse and have a focal community gathering point!
posted by damayanti at 4:11 PM on August 25, 2023

Parking is free and still underused.

Right, and could be much better allocated, as bike lanes or restaurant seating (if we're talking about street parking) or as a building with amenities. All the parking lots mean less restaurants, shops, playgrounds, and other attractions. The most vibrant downtowns aren't the ones that bring lots of folks in via car and give them lots of free parking. I'm sure others will be along to say more, but free parking is a huge trade off, because you're not using that space for the places people want to visit. Is your city on this map?
posted by bluedaisy at 5:29 PM on August 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

A recent(ish) Washington Post piece that may be of interest: gift link.
posted by gudrun at 10:19 AM on August 26, 2023

I visited several downtowns on the Gulf Coast during and after the pandemic, and they are about the same. This place was a big party during the height of the pandemic due to non-existent restrictions, so businesses did no worse than usual. WFH was not a thing here for most.

The idea of "downtown" as a primary destination is not as strong here. Many of them exist for the courthouse, police station, banks, lawyers offices, and a few businesses that service them. If you're lucky, there are a few things open until 9 PM. All of them have more entertainment options than 40 years ago. The downtowns that seem to be doing better have high-value housing on all sides and sidewalks for access -- and zoning that prevents much competition from the downtown area.

This year seems like a big of a hangover, though. NOLA in particular was deserted when I visited this summer. The extreme heat may be playing a role, and probably economics. Maybe everyone learned to cook during the pandemic and realized how much better they feel than when eating restaurant food.

I do feel like social media has affected our interactions with strangers and the vibe of things, and it started around 2014 or so. But I see a lot of social-media-organized events like silent dance parties and scavenger hunts.
posted by credulous at 10:23 AM on August 26, 2023

Pre-covid, my downtown used to shut down streets often for parades, races, festivals, pop-up markets... I was being delayed or detoured every week or two.

Now my personal travel through downtown is back to normal, and the downtown events I personally like to go to feel vibrant.

But I can't remember the last delay or detour I experienced for an event I wasn't interested in. I'm guessing this may mean demographics other than mine were hit harder by the problems you mention.
posted by Former Congressional Representative Lenny Lemming at 4:42 PM on August 27, 2023