A new public space project offers an ambitious vision—so why is the city implementing it at such a small scale?

A redevelopment project in San Francisco is being touted by local boosters as “a bellwether for the resurgence of a struggling downtown,” writes Patrick Sisson in Fast Company. An alleyway now called the Landing at Leidesdorff, designed by SITELAB, “will feature removable street seating, murals recalling the area’s maritime history as a former wharf, and a village-like atmosphere in the center of downtown, complete with events and programming.”
The project is one effort to revitalize languishing public spaces around office buildings with vacancy rates of up to 31 percent. For Sisson and others, like SITELAB’s Laura Crescimano, the small scale of the project falls short of its grand vision. “Despite a year of work to make it happen, despite the wealth of historic architecture, support from the Mayor’s office and $385,000 in city investment, San Francisco will only pedestrianized a single alleyway as a pilot project (it will be car-free for 16 hours a day).”
But changing the shape of public space in downtowns can be tough. “Cities have traditionally over-indexed on offices because it was a way to make money on property taxes without having to provide the public services, like schooling, that residential neighborhoods demand.” Now, it will take effort to “restore a more diverse ecosystem.”
FULL STORY: The solution to cities’ downtown doom loop is simpler than you think

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City of Kissimmee - Development Services
City of Kissimmee - Development Services
Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
Park City Municipal Corporation
National Capital Planning Commission
City of Santa Fe, New Mexico
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