No reason to go with third-rate downtown

Earlier this month, thousands of families flooded downtown to celebrate Mother’s Day. Restaurants were full, the pier was packed and cash registers were ringing. My business had the best Mother’s Day weekend ever.

All without a pedestrian mall.

Not that I’m opposed to one ? I would welcome a downtown mall if Huntington Beach officials were to propose one with even one-tenth of the scope of Santa Monica’s ? but they’re not, and they probably won’t.

Urban planners and countless studies have shown that for pedestrian malls to work, the following things are needed:

1. Abundant, affordable parking. Huntington Beach’s downtown parking spaces gouge tourists and locals alike with exorbitant rates. Santa Monica has nearly 5,000 city parking spaces and 4,500 private spaces, and has plans to add more, for a total of more than 10,000 spaces. Their six public garages offer two-hour free parking!.

2. Attractive landscaped walkways, streetlights, fountains and outdoor seating. Luckily for me, my business is located in the Plaza Almeria on what is arguably the best-looking block in downtown. Do our city officials plan to spend the money necessary to make the rest of downtown as beautifully landscaped and as clean as our building?

3. Private and public investment in the infrastructure. City leaders have not stepped up to the plate to provide adequate funding for maintaining the infrastructure or sought out funding sources to develop a truly workable pedestrian mall. It will take vision and forward thinking to create a workable pedestrian mall. Hundreds of cities across the country have tried them, and only a small handful have been successful.

Will the residents of Huntington Beach demand that the city provide the money needed to create a pedestrian mall we can be proud of? Our city council and staff need to come up with something more than half-baked ideas for closing Main Street, and the press needs to take more than a superficial look at what is a complex issue.

Huntington Beach deserves better than slapping up a few cement blocks at the ends of Main Street. Why should we settle for a third-rate pedestrian mall for what is already a first-rate downtown?