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Like he said, it was too late. You don't know that the results would have been different if the stores on the promenade had been able to compete with the big bo
by w1ntermute 16y ago
Like he said, it was too late. You don't know that the results would have been different if the stores on the promenade had been able to compete with the big box stores.
- blahedo 16y agoNo, but you can run a natural experiment: look at towns of similar size (let's say 30k-50k) that had shops downtown and competition from big box stores on the outskirts, but did not block cars from the downtown stores, and see what happened there. Answer: there are a few towns that retained or have regrown a vibrant downtown (I live in one), but not many. Most small cities have a downtown that is either functionally a ghost town, or that has been converted to low-traffic uses (like lawyers' offices). Though not a certainty, it's a pretty fair conclusion that the bricked pedestrian mall is not what killed Richmond's downtown.