The Many Efforts to Improve Mid-Market

There is no shortage of efforts and opinions on improving Mid-Market. I've been bookmarking this work through delicious. Taken together, the links provide a sense of all the activity.

Progress on Mid-Market Visioning, by Cindy Talley

There was a time when the character of city life was unrelated to the quality of urban space. Around the turn of the century, streets were full of people completing the necessary arrands of the day. This film of Market Street -taken in 1906- shows just how bustling the street was.

Today, Jan Gehl explains, we are often able to plan our lives so that we don't need to use the public realm. This means that the quality and content of our streets and parks have a major impact on how frequently they are used. In mid-market's case, the decline of first-run cinemas mid-century left a stark void on the street. As I curate temporary program and design interventions to last until Market's repaving around 2015, I am striving to build upon existing activities and create new attractions that will once again bring people the area. A better used mid-market means a safer, more delightful place.