The summertime in Downtown Champaign is something special. There’s a vibrant bar and restaurant scene, a farmer’s market, and a handful of local shops that make walking around outdoors enjoyable. Those of us that spend time in the area typically don’t travel to just one location and go home. It’s the perfect environment for bar hopping, sampling food, and anything else you might do in a downtown setting.
Some of us are lucky enough to live within walking distance of Downtown, but many, if not most, of the patrons have to drive or take public transportation to the area. If you’re driving, you have to park your car somewhere. During normal business hours you might opt for the pay-to-park Hill Street Parking Deck or try and get lucky with metered parking. Finding a meter is an incredible pain in the ass — meters are located on both sides of a two-lane, one-way street. You might end up in a hellacious loop of turns trying to locate the perfect spot before someone else swoops in and snipes the spot you were eyeing. It would make Chevy Chase angry. First-world problems, for sure, but nonetheless, it’s a hassle.
Once parked, though, you’re free to explore Downtown Champaign. Buy a record on the east side of the area at Exile on Main St., walk a few blocks and play billiards at Jupiter’s, go south on Walnut St. and grab a coffee at Cafe Kopi. You’re pretty free.
But, you’ll have to stop at a light and wait for a handful of cars to drive past. A few times.
That’s not the biggest deal in the world. A minor inconvenience, really. A few seconds of waiting around. We can all do that.
As there are more bars and restaurants popping up in Downtown Champaign, the space needed to walk around will increase. The restaurants that have outdoor seating and see outdoor-sitters and smokers milling about outside will inevitably aid in blocking some of the sidewalk. Again, a first-world problem. It’s a minor inconvenience.
Space, and the necessity for more of it, is important in having a fun and vibrant downtown. It makes it more attractive for shops and hotels and bookstores.
Since I’ve not really defined a REAL PROBLEM with Downtown Champaign, I can’t offer a solution. But I can make a suggestion that might improve the experience.
Turn a portion of Downtown Champaign into a Ped Mall.
Ideally, in my perfect vision, eliminating north-south traffic on Walnut St. and Market St., and turning that area into a pedestrian mall would be huge for Downtown Champaign. A re-route of Neil St would be necessary for thru-traffic, and those wishing to avoid the area or needing to make deliveries can take Chester St. to Main St. Taylor St. is already a walking street, but East Taylor Street, to the east of Walnut St. is more or less just a dingy back alley.
If you can think of the successes of outdoor beer gardens and patios in the area, this makes sense. The fluidity of patrons through the backyards of Quality, Aroma Cafe, the Blind Pig, and Cowboy Monkey is my basis for this. It’s a communal area, though separated by businesses.
Closing streets to thru-traffic and making them pedestrian walkways would give businesses more opportunity to have outdoor seating or waiting areas and would make it much easier to venture about town. It might also entice businesses to open up downtown if this becomes a spot where people can do more than just eat and drink.
The re-appropriation as a ped mall also expands the presence of Downtown Champaign. What that means is that streets that lead into the downtown area become showcase streets. A showcase street can be a street that is beautified and has limited parking but also gives a memorable entrance to the gem of the City of Champaign. Having inviting places of business open up on these streets gives credence to the downtown area by showing that there’s more than a cluster of bars nearby. For example, just north on Neil St., is a perfect showcase street with businesses to the east and a parking area to the west.
Outside of just business, there’s an opportunity to better showcase outdoor concerts and shows in conjunction with the festivals that already take place. Community pin boards can be placed on the ped mall so that groups can pass information along without being relegated to the overcrowded tack boards at the backs of coffee shops.
The sky really is the limit with how a ped mall can be utilized in Downtown Champaign.
I’m not a city planner, by any means, but in theory, this is something that can be done.
The Ped Mall in Iowa City is a perfect example of this vision for Downtown Champaign. It’s an ongoing process in Iowa City, but the beautification of their downtown area is stunning.
The Ped Mall only takes over a few blocks, but the surrounding areas that contribute to that space being the a hub of the city accounts for about 16 blocks. It’s an enormously important part of their downtown cityscape, and it’s vibrant as heck. There’s even a children’s playground.
Maybe you’re not sold on the idea that just sticking some businesses in an area and removing a place for cars to drive is a good idea. And hey, that’s reasonable, you’re reading something not written by a city planner. But as we’re talking about Iowa city’s Ped Mall, maybe this might help:
Six new businesses have opened in Iowa City right downtown on or near the Ped Mall that are a mix of retail and software firms.
Software firms… Aren’t those the types of folks we’re targeting to move and stay in Champaign?
How do they think this is working out so far?
Nancy Bird, executive director of the Iowa City Downtown District, said all the changes were cause for a celebration.
“There’s a lot of new projects going on, and it’s brought interest from new investors and new visitors,” Bird said.
This unquestionably is not something that can be done overnight. But it’s something that our city should think about and consider. If we’re being serious about making Downtown Champaign an even more unique and exciting destination, making it a place for high quality businesses and retail stores where people can walk freely seems like a good start.