Downtown Madison Inc. has kicked off a community discussion about removing buses from State Street and making it into a true pedestrian mall.
In order to thrive, or even to survive, retail areas need to reinvent themselves now and then.
Think about what’s happened at Hilldale in the last few decades. It was a typical open air mall when it opened in the late 1960s. It became an enclosed mall when that was the trend 20 years later, and in the last decade it was opened back up again and structured parking and housing were added to make it a mixed-use “lifestyle center.”
The need for a retail area to change has never been more true than it is for State Street right now. Madison’s iconic street was already being buffeted by consumers moving to online shopping before it was hit by the COVID shutdown and then again by looting during last year’s protests.
But there are a couple of encouraging things on the horizon. Downtown Madison, Inc. is dusting off an old idea to convert the street into a pedestrian mall and an experienced developer is planning another big investment on the street.
Let’s take the mall idea first. In an excellent recent report DMI laid out the history of street-to-mall conversions (The report is excellent in part because they had the good sense to interview me as part of their research; the fact that little or nothing I told them found its way into the report also speaks to its excellence). They’ve been uneven, to say the least. In fact, most conversions that were part of an urban design fashion of the 1970s and 1980s have reverted back to allow car traffic. But a few have hung on, including Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado and Church Street in Burlington, Vermont.
State Street is a hybrid. We don’t allow car traffic, but we also don’t encourage pedestrians to walk in the actual street because that is used by buses, bikes and delivery vehicles. With its report, DMI has now kicked off another community discussion about removing buses from the street and making State Street into a true pedestrian mall like those in Boulder and Burlington. The Wisconsin State Journal editorial board has jumped in with both feet behind the idea. And, judging by letters to the editor in the paper, it looks like a very popular idea.
I think they’re probably right. I never liked having buses on the street. That’s because State Street has been transitioning from a primarily retail center to an entertainment district with more restaurants and bars. The expansion of the old Civic Center into Overture and the resurgence of the Orpheum as a live entertainment venue have hastened that transition. And the UW’s new performing arts center on University and Lake, while not on State proper, still adds another big entertainment venue at the other end of the street.
All of that leads to more restaurants and bars to cater to people looking for something to eat and drink before or after a performance. The noise and smell of the buses just doesn’t work well in an environment where outdoor cafes are more plentiful than ever.
It was actually this realization and a visit to Portland, Oregon that got me thinking about streetcars even before I was mayor. My idea was that clean, cool, electric streetcars could be the next phase in the reinvention of State Street. And, like Portland, streetcars could also be used to spur dense and walkable redevelopment in downtown neighborhoods and those close by.
Well, I just couldn’t make the sale. In addition to myself, there were about three people who shared my passion for the idea — and my mother doesn’t even live here. The hard political reality made me abandon the effort, though a study was completed. Nobody is talking about streetcars today, but the proposal for a pedestrian mall comes out of some of the same observations about how to make pleasant, vibrant, walkable places.
And, of course, we already banish buses from the street with some frequency. Think about Maxwell Street Days, other festivals and the weekly jazz concerts in the late summer, all of which open up all or parts of the street to pedestrians. It works just fine.
There’s a little speed bump, which explains some of why this old idea has never gotten very far in the past. The city gets federal money for State Street being a “fixed transit guideway.” So, if you take buses off the street it puts that funding in question. There’s probably a way around that and assuming there is, let’s do the pedestrian mall. It could be just what’s needed to help bring people back to the street once we get beyond the pandemic.
And here’s another good sign. A Chicago developer, Core Spaces, is proposing a $100 million mixed-use project with 481 units of housing and retail space on the 300 block of State. They’re also proposing 278 stalls of parking on that site, which could mean the answer to the long-lamented mid-State Street parking shortage.
It’s not clear just yet if the latest proposal from Core Spaces will encounter opposition. At 10 stories, their project would exceed current height limitations by two floors, which would require council action to allow. And, it would require some long-established Madison businesses to relocate, though some already had planned to do that for other reasons. Still, the company has already completed the Hub and the James, two large mixed-use developments on or near the street. They know how to get a project done in Madison.
The fact that Core Spaces is looking to make this kind of investment in the midst of a pandemic means they’re bullish on State Street’s future. The pedestrian mall idea will only add to the momentum. In fact, the two proposals work well together because more people living on the street will just add that much more activity there.
It’s time for State Street to reinvent itself again.
