I’m a little late responding to the news that Mayor Bob Cashell took the Reno City Council on a trip in a chartered bus – with his own money – to visit the Ferry Building Market in San Francisco and Napa's Market as well.
The point of the trip was to gather ideas for what to do with the plaza over the ReTRAC trench in downtown Reno. The plan that was in the works before the economy tanked was to build some retail on the plaza facing into the plaza that would create a draw to the area. Mayor Cashell wanted to look into what some other cities have done with their downtowns for when the economy improves.
Watching a video posted to Youtube by the City, it’s immediately clear that the Ferry Building and Napa concepts for markets are not the right concepts for this space. Both of those concepts are great concepts – concepts already being tested out with some interest in Reno. Those projects use the meta concept that is responsible for the West Street Market and it is a concept that is worth encouraging.
The problem is that Reno already is working to build the asset these projects represent. One thing Reno doesn’t have, however, is a pedestrian mall that spans several blocks and ties multiple edges together in a sea of color and crowds.
ReTRAC Plaza – and a fine location for retail development just beyond (City of Reno)
I keep being taken back to memories of Boulder, Colorado’s Pearl Street Mall. This is a wonderful space created on old Pearl Street in Boulder’s downtown. On either side of it are retail and restaurant and office spaces, and the way this urban space comes together makes it a naturally inviting area to want to visit.
Retail happens on the mall – to be sure. Painters, street musicians, flower vendors, beaded jewelry, and more are all available – out of public market tents and even some at the level of being sheds or kiosks.
The great thing about this concept is that the trench plaza in Reno is currently bounded by one street already named Commercial Row – and it is surrounded by perfect opportunities to develop retail spaces. The hollowed out former train passage of the Fitzgeralds garage, Fitzgeralds itself for that matter, Old Reno casino, Masonic building. There will be retail in any parking garage that is built on the site of the old soup kitchen and cabaret building. Montage has retail potential. Kings Inn.
Boulder Pearl Street Mall by Flickr user Xingu
The site is surrounded by testaments to the need to infuse public capital into the area to redevelop its commercial potential. That (fixing up all those buildings) is the proper use for redevelopment funds. The plaza needs some planters with small trees and flowers, a busker or two, a portrait artist or caricaturist or both, a news kiosk. And those should be possible for not much money at all – the right price in today’s economy.
