Table for One

What a great idea! This shows how a simple and little (or no) cost idea can make our sidewalks more attractive to pedestrians. That photo with the cozy awning and tables on the sidewalk could have been taken in New York or San Francisco. Now if we can just get Downtown streets to be less like freeways with fortress-like building facades acting as “sound walls.”

Agreed, excellent idea! I love how the people in the neightborhood work together to enhance the street life. The tables obviously don’t work directly with DVD rentals, but inviting people to stop and linger in front of your store is always a good thing.

… and the true spirit of Downtown makes itself known yet again. For all the bad press and blog-bashing Downtown endures (on “other” blogsites), this spirit of working together to make things better is what attracted me to Downtown LA. Sure, we have huge challenges and a definite need for improvement, but this is not the only example I can think of where people, businesses and public agencies have taken steps to go above and beyond the typical here. Congrats to both Old Bank DVD and Banquette - let it be an example. Now for the rest of Main Street Downtown…!!!

I’d echo lastraphanger’s thoughts about buildings with fortress facades that turn their back on the street and make it an inhospitable place. I think one of the problems which downtown has is that planning and zoning allows buildings like the Medici et al, Mosaic near Union Station, and that complex over near Little Tokyo at Alameda & First.

All of these buildings don’t have any interaction with the street because of the way they are built. The result is bad for the street because it creates an inhospitable environment for pedestrians, which are the life blood of a living street. Clearly, these buildings are designed for a suburban environment. Why would city planning and zoning allow designs like this in an urban setting? Probably because the dominant thinking for the city’s planning staff is suburban living. I bet most of the city’s planning staff don’t understand cities in their classic urban form. So they don’t think through details like how a building interacts with the street and what kind of environment it creates for pedestrians.

I’d wonder if there is some way this kind of urban detail can be encouraged by city planning and zoning. As it stands right now, it appears that it is not something which the city considers in the planning process. That’s too bad.

Regardless, kudos to Old Bank DVD.

I noticed The Wooden Spoon now has a bench outside their front door. Another small advance for urbanity.