Letter to the Editor: Downey could draw inspiration from European cities

Dear Editor: 

Some years in the past, I used to live in France in a flat above a pharmacy on a street that qualified as a pedestrian street. I have to admit the first time I visited that apartment, I was less than excited that I had to walk 5 minutes from my dedicated parking spot to the building entrance but with time I ended up being a big proponent of this approach.

A pedestrian street does not mean that cars can’t access at all, it simply regulates and limits that access. The street was closed for cars from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday. During the day, commerce and restaurants had the option to occupy the area dedicated to night parking, leaving the center alley open for first responders in case of emergency.

The city was a medieval regional capital, it was a historical site, but none of these buildings are older than 70 years, and most if not all were at some point renovated at the same time as Downey was built; the difference is that at some time in the 90s in France, a decision was taken by the city’s management to create some separation between cars and pedestrians in the heart of the downtown. 

What you see here, and we pay thousands of dollars to go experience in Europe, is actually a very new concept. It was designed to make the city more attractive to tourists and to bring back the city to the scale of the person and not the scale of the car.

I left that city a long time ago, studied architecture and urban design, but kept that nostalgia of an urban space car-free. I applied it several times for projects in other countries, but never yet in the US. There are several similar areas in the US for sure, the closest I have seen in the Los Angeles area is Larchmont Village.

To come back to the topic of outdoor dining, especially on Downey Avenue, maybe it’s time to start taking the heart of the city and giving it back to pedestrians. The infrastructure is existing with the available surrounding parking, why not make what I believe we all enjoyed every Saturday with the farmer’s market a permanent experience in that couple of blocks? Give those restaurants and brick and mortar shops another chance to offer something people are willing to pay fortunes to see a continent and an ocean away.

It’s time for our elected officials or those running to become ones to take a bold move; trust me, there is a reason why we like those European cities. It is a first step, but remember Rome was not built in one day.

Terry Saikali
Downey