What Main Street Can Learn from the Mall

1. List the criteria Robert Gibbs uses to evaluate a Main Street.

1. Does the street lend itself to commercial success? Is it easy to navigate? Is the right-turn tendency ALWAYS maintained?
2. Is the street clean? Easy to keep clean?
3. Is the street safe? Is it well-lit? Does it give patrons a sense of security?
4. Are stores, restaurants, and other destinations situated where they belong?

2. Think critically of Gibb's argument. Do you think "Main Street" should be a mall?

I tend to disagree with Gibb's assessment. I live in a small, relatively rural town with a beautiful downtown area that has been irrelevant for decades. The only way to bring people downtown is to provide a space they are comfortable shopping and moving through. The affordances that make malls a desirable place to shop also provide a main street with its personality and attraction. In that sense, I think that main streets should possess mall-like qualities. Unlike malls, however, a main street should retain more individuality and personality than Gibbs tends to give them. Sure, the main street should appeal to shoppers and tourists, but it is also a place where locals go. Give them a town they can love.
Gibbs believes strongly that a main street needs to sell its soul to national retail to be successful. One some level, this must be a successful tactic, but I'm not convinced it's the right way to do things.

3. Make your own checklist to judge a Main Street. What things do you think are important?

1. I think it is important that a main street possess an undefinable character, an attitude. Whether it gains this through a single, unified theme or through individual efforts, it is a necessary intangible for any successful downtown.
2. Main streets should be more than just an avenue for travel. If they will truly be a shopping, eating, and enjoyable destination, they have to act like it. In the spirit of behaving like a mall, they must draw traffic to them rather than through them. Along this same line of thought, a main street should be more than just a car thoroughfare. It should be readily and enjoyably walked. Everyone who visits, be they tourists or locals, should be comfortable and even excited with the prospect of walking downtown.
3. Food. In my opinion, good food is a big part of what will endear people, both local and visiting, to a downtown area. Good food is not a nationwide chain found in every major city, it is unique, authentic, and fresh. Good food will keep people returning and enjoying main street.