Oppose Downtown Mall Cross Street Closures

Charlottesville’s City Council is being asked to consider closing both E 2nd and W 4th Streets that cross the Downtown Mall. Closing 2nd and 4th Streets would damage businesses that depend on this street access both for parking and for deliveries. Many downtown businesses located on these streets precisely because of easier customer access, and signed long term leases premised on that traffic.

Closing 2nd and 4th Streets would worsen an already troubled parking situation for downtown merchants, and place increased pressure on already overloaded Market Street and Water Street parking garages. Street closure would also increase congestion on both Market and Water Streets, increasing both double parking and illegal parking for deliveries and pickups, simply relocating the alleged safety threat of the Mall crossings to these two already busy streets.

This closure and resulting congestion would reduce the ease with which customers can reach these stores. It would also reduce retail sales volumes to stores located on and near these streets and thereby reduce the sales tax revenues they generate for the City. Reduced retail volume would also tilt the Downtown Mall even more sharply toward being an eating and drinking venue and reduce retail employment at a time when retailers are facing increased threats from online businesses like Amazon.

These crossing streets are vital arteries for commercial traffic in the downtown area, and are a major reason why retail businesses on these streets are successful. If the City wishes to increase safety of these Mall crossings, two attractive options are contrasting brick on the Mall at these two streets, and safety chains crossing the Mall on either side of both streets, both to raise pedestrian awareness of crossing traffic and channel pedestrian cross traffic to the sides of the Mall.