It has been over a year since the pandemic first impacted our day-to-day lives. Among the struggles that swept across the world, one silver lining has been the increased emphasis on outdoor dining and placemaking. Faced with the challenge to keep business and restaurants alive while keeping their people safe, cities across the world took a hard look at how they were utilizing their existing spaces. In many instances, this meant creating new outdoor gathering locations.
San Jose was no exception. We saw the expansion of
existing parklet programs, seating in
some pedestrian areas, and in some cases, complete street closures (dubbed the
"Al Fresco" program). As COVID-19 infections start to decline, and vaccination programs pick up speed, it's time to consider what we've learned from these projects. More importantly, we have an opportunity to make our spaces better than pre-pandemic.
In this blog we'll focus on the street closure program. Specifically, the N San Pedro St implementation of Al Fresco. We have examples that will likely be temporary (e.g. Santana Row), and examples that have gone above and beyond (e.g.
Post Street). The San Pedro experiment stands out because while it served its purpose, it also showed how much potential there is for permanent improvement in the area.
There's support from
neighboring businesses, but we shouldn't accept the status quo as the final state of a pedestrian-friendly San Pedro St. We need to think bigger without being unrealistic.
The progress
A few things have already happened over the past couple years (even before the pandemic) to boost activity, to varying results.
- Moment San Jose finally created retail on the street for patrons to check out before/after their meals. This has created some success stories, and some former tenants even ended up expanding to their own brick & mortar locations. There's a mix of fashion, art, and essentials (e.g. The Source Zero).
- There have been various pop up events that already closed off the street. The longest lasting example was the downtown farmer's market on Fridays. Other examples included Superbowl 50 promotional events and a placemaking experiment with ping pong and corn hole.
- Nearby construction brings more of a complete retail experience (or at least the potential for it). Modera San Pedro created a new lively alleyway. 188 W St James should, in theory, bring a new block of retail and/or restaurants, including a two story building dedicated to a restaurant. Centerra has finally started filling in its retail spots. In other words, folks will be walking further and further from central San Pedro Square.
The challenges
There have been rumors for years that the core blocks of N San Pedro St would become a pedestrian-only zone. We saw some hints of it during downtown farmer's markets. But there are a few reasons why it's been a little controversial.
- One side of the street is the parking structure, with one of the main entrances on San Pedro St.
- The parking structure exit is on the north side, and flows out into either Market St or San Pedro St. This means there's a bit of a pinch--the San Pedro St entrance and exits will always mark the end of the pedestrian zone unless they are relocated or shut down.
- There isn't a lot of pedestrian traffic at all times of day. San Pedro Square tends to attract an employee lunch crowd and a social dinner crowd.
- The street itself is not built for pedestrians. The walking experience feels incomplete.
These are some reasons to keep the street open to cars, but they are not insurmountable issues. The area just needs some adjustment and planning to unlock its full potential.
The potential
I'm not saying the following changes are necessarily easy or cheap. But they are details that are required to take San Pedro Square to the next level.
Level the entire street
The first thing I notice when I walk through the area is that there are a lot of attempts to work around the inherently pedestrian-hostile features of a street. The ground is dirty and unpleasant to walk on. It's easy to trip over the curb, which also means most parts are not accessible to the disabled. There's a constant nagging feeling that you should probably walk on the sidewalk as you've been conditioned to do.
Some restaurants have found workarounds for the
pedestrian-hostile features of the street
The most important change is to make sure there's no leveling transition from the "sidewalk" to the "street". In fact, get rid of the two concepts altogether so patrons don't have to think twice about walking to the middle of the street. I understand there maybe some requirements for purposes of drainage, but I think this can be done strategically with as little obstruction to the general walking experience as possible.
Make the street more welcoming with brick (or anything but asphalt)
A level street also means an opportunity to improve the material used for the flooring. Personally, I find brick to be versatile, friendly, and theoretically easy to keep clean. We don't have to look too far for examples of this. For example, the following stretch of Redwood City is easy to navigate on foot.
Not only is it more comfortable to walk on brick, seating options also feel less temporary and more deliberate.
Expand the Moment San Jose program
There are currently four storefronts that occupy Moment San Jose. This was a great start, but the program should expand to help plug in the gaps in street activation. Ideally the entire street-facing side of the parking structure should be some sort of art or retail.
Not only should more parking spaces be converted into retail, the program should experiment with more spaces of different sizes and functions. If this is indeed a way for small business owners to blossom and graduate into other storefronts, the city needs to invest in it.
One of the biggest gaps that can benefit from this program is the N San Pedro St garage entrance. Which leads me to my next point...
Update the N San Pedro St. entrance and exit plan
First off, the parking structure does not require an entrance on both sides. For the benefits of the N San Pedro St pedestrian plan, the only entrance should be through Market St. This allow the current entrance area to be repurposed into something worthy of its premium location (e.g. some form of the Moment program).
Second, the parking structure exits are very awkward today. The parking structure exit faces north, but the actual street exits are on the east and west. Both exits interrupt pedestrian traffic: the west exit prevents full street closure to cars on N San Pedro St, while the east exit does not make it clear to pedestrians in the corner if they have right of way or not.
Here's a crude marking of the two exits in red (camera facing southeast):
San Pedro Square parking structure, looking SE
I'm not an expert in traffic design, but at least one option seems to be to exit all traffic (multi lane if needed) on the north side (blue arrows), which gives the east and west more flexibility to optimize for pedestrians.
Just to clearly illustrate why the eastern exit is confusing, here's another angle:
A car approaching this exit may very well think they can exit at the corner or that they have right of way to exit to their right. A pedestrian may very well assume the continued sidewalk means they have right of way (and they might). There are some guiding cones, but they're flimsy and offer no protection.
If the exits were at the north side, then some of these corners can be used for other purposes.
Add some density
For now, the street is dominated by outdoor seating from existing restaurants that cannot (or prefer not yet to) use their regular indoor capacity. When eventually indoor dining is fully accepted again, there's no good reason for these restaurants to be the primary occupants of the street. I'm not opposed to expanding their existing patios, but I also think there is room for more to see and do on the street.
There's no singular idea on what should be there instead, but here are some ideas.
Bulletins
If you've heard locals ask "what's there to do this weekend?", then you've seen first hand that it's difficult to learn about events around the city. A bulletin can give locals a way to advertise.
They can also be designed in such a way that they showcase artwork instead. Either way, it is something that passersby can spend some time absorbing, admiring, considering.
Kiosks
In other countries and cities I've seen this concept executed well. Kiosks can be an open storefront for retail or food. They can be fully enclosed. They can even be primarily used for information/advocacy.
Open concept
Regardless of the format, they are a great way to liven up a pedestrian area and make it feel like a street for people, not cars.
A small stage
N San Pedro St. is actually strangely quiet a lot of times. It's worth considering adding a small stage for small shows throughout the week.
Depending on the design this might be best fit for the ends of the street (and provide a natural way to close off the street) or it can be toward the middle.
The conclusion
I'm not a designer, but I consider most of the suggestions in this post to be incremental, realistic, and feasible. I've seen other cities do a much better job of livening up key blocks for pedestrians, and the city should really focus on making sure this is a no-brainer area to visit. I think any one of these improvements would be great, but a comprehensive set of changes can truly unlock the true potential. Let's hope that the success of the Al Fresco program will lead to more sophisticated concepts!
