Opening Up the Open Air

Los Angeles, California has long suffered from an image that it is car-friendly, pedestrian hostile place. There is plenty of irony in this. The balmy climate draws one outside, but there's no place you'd want to walk to once you get there. Or so the story goes. Downtown redevelopment during the car crazy 1950s and 60s encouraged this view. Streets were widened to speed automobile traffic, while sidewalks remained narrow afterthoughts.

This week the Los Angeles City Planning Commission approved new design standards for downtown. Instead of requiring developers to widen streets, they'll be asked to widen sidewalks. According to the Downtown Design Guide published by the Urban Design Studio of the L.A. Department of City Planning, the extra sidewalk space is intended for outdoor dining and "commercial activity." http://urbandesignla.com/downtown_guidelines.htmp. graphic at 16.

This is good news for advocates of outdoor street commerce and street life generally in the city. Streets become attractive to pedestrians not only because there's room to walk. There has to be something to walk to. Street vendors and other forms of street commerce are magnets for pedestrians. L.A.'s street vendors have long been stymied by narrow sidewalks in many parts of town. It doesn't help matters either that a city ordinance prohibiting street sales remains on the books. But widen sidewalks is a step in the right direction. If we build it, they will come. And as long as we're building it, why not make it legal for them to use it?