Turn Congress Street into a pedestrian space!

by David Safier

It's such a great idea, it's almost a no-brainer. Keep a stretch of Congress Stret closed to traffic that's already closed to traffic due to streetcar construction. Don't open it when the tracks are laid. Instead, gussy it up a bit and turn it into a pedestrian space.

Congratulations to Mayor Jonathan Rothschild for proposing the idea. Let's hope the council gets behind him and makes it happen now, at a moment when it will cause the least expense and inconvenience. Want a better, more attractive downtown? A pedestrian space on Congress is a piece of the puzzle.

Randy Serraglio has a good column in the Weekly discussing the idea in some detail.

"OOPS!" UPDATE: When I originally wrote this, it was obvious to me that "Congress" meant Tucson's Congress Street. When I looked at it an hour later, I realized the headline, "Turn Congress into a pedestrian space!" sounds a little like a recommendation for how to fix things in D.C. As reasonable as that suggestion might be, it wasn't my intention. I regret the careless (but kinda amusing) confusion.