Success Story #1

a downtown revived from the dead by widening the sidewalk

    Once a thriving business district, Chapel Street in New Haven, Connecticut got hit hard by urban decline. In the 80s, a mere 5 percent of the residential/commercial spaces were occupied. Almost everyone in the 124,000-person city had given up on the place. But a progressive developer convinced the city to undo the damage of their street-widening projects by extending the sidewalks. This convinced a café to add outdoor seating, two other cafés opened up, a newspaper vendor set up shop, and soon it became a hangout destination. Today there are nightclubs, restaurants, theaters, and all manner of shops.

– from The Great Neighborhood Book by Jay Walljasper