

More on Nice Downtowns: Do They Just Happen? Or Are They Made? - user_235711
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/04/do-nice-downtowns-just-happen-or-are-they-made/390921/?single_page=true

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JoeAltmaier
Better question: what is a successful downtown? An entertaining Main Street
USA style place that pleases visitors? Or a living place with commerce,
residents and industry living in harmony? Or what?

Maybe its easier to define a failed downtown - closed storefronts, declining
buildings and poor streets are red flags.

I recall the old Sunnyvale CA downtown, with its corner bar with mariachi
music at all hours, its mix of thrift shops and restaurants, the old pavement
with makers marks from the early 1900's. It was ... interesting. They remade
it as a boutiquey shopping district with fake old English streetlights and
brick pavement and chainstores, and I never went back.

