Trying to Undo a Downtown Makeover Done 30 Years Ago
This city is often cited as one of the most livable in America, and with a warm, dry southern New Mexico climate, it is rapidly becoming a popular destination for retirees. Even though the population has been growing, from 74,000 in 2000 to 80,000 in the most recent census, the central business district has been all but a ghost town for more than three decades.
In 1973, an urban renewal plan practically leveled Main Street, as well as many homes in Mesquite, a nearby historic neighborhood.
In the 1970’s, Main Street in Las Cruces was replaced by a pedestrian mall, an urban planning idea popular at the time as a way to shore up downtown districts that were losing business to indoor malls. More than a hundred downtowns across the country closed streets to traffic and installed big planters and sidewalk furniture. The intent was to make downtowns more like suburban shopping districts.
Pedestrian malls really haven’t worked well in many cases and most of them have been replaced,” said Amanda West, assistant director of community revitalization networks for the National Trust Main Street Center, who has written several articles on pedestrian malls. “The important lesson that communities learned from the wave of pedestrian malls in the 1970’s is that you can’t have a cookie-cutter approach to revitalization.”
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