The function and role of "downtowns" in
North America has varied since the first colonies were established on the continent in the
17th century. At first, the centre of the city was the part that defined its role in
commerce – in a port city, for example, the centre of town were the piers and wharves
on which goods from across the globe arrived. In cities located on crossroads, often it
was a central market in which goods from across the region converged and were traded.
Since the early 20th century, downtowns in the United States and Canada were primarily
used in two ways – office space and retail stores. Since the city's downtown core was
often centrally located, it became a natural place for a large company to establish its
headquarters or a retail store to make its presence known. The easily accessible location
from which all in the city could access made business thrive. Naturally, where good
commerce flourished, property values rose. With so many companies vying for space in a
centrally located area, there began to be an impetus to build up, resulting in the
skyscrapers which define every North American downtown today.
However, the advent of suburban sprawl and the automobile
led to the death of the American downtown. It should be noted, though, that the suburbs
were not always so destructive to the core – in fact, streetcar suburbs, which
started to rise in the mid to late 19th century, were built around transit lines leading
into the central city. When public transit was destroyed by the automobile in the first
half of the 20th century, the face of suburbia began to change.
Due to various media influences and the marketing of the
"American Dream", many began to strive for the ideal of a home located in a
safe, spacious neighbourhood and one or two autos. Many believed that the city, originally
built for transit and pedestrians, was counterproductive to their auto-driven dream, and
they moved to new speculative developments outside the city. In time, even the close-knit
streetcar suburbs were being abandoned for the new subdivisions that sprawled over former
countryside. Various other factors influenced the spread of the populace out of the city,
including racial stereotypes about the immigrants many believed were "infesting"
their neighbourhoods.
The decentrilized populace demanded more local
institutions, so retail industries began to move to the suburbs. By the 1970s, many
American downtowns were virtually ghost towns inhabited only by office workers, their
retailing past reflected in little more than abandoned facades. Surprisingly, the large
offices stayed downtown, partially because they were usually still centrally located
within a region. The modern "office campus" or "office park" did not
take hold until much later, but American downtowns still clung to their office hearts. The
result of this was that downtowns became abandoned after evening hours and often on
weekends. They lost their places as spots of congregation and social interaction and
merely became shiny towers off in the distance where people would work.
With the advent of the personal computer in the corporate
world in the late 1980s, even the office core emptied out. No longer needing a massive
staff for what computers could do, companies fired many and closed their overbearing
downtown headquarters to move to the suburbs, where there was less of a driving nightmare
for workers and more modern facilities availible for the use of computers. Thus, the
downtown lost all parts of its soul, its property values dropped exponentially, and it was
infested with only the lowest forms of society: beggars, street gangs, petty thiefs. Not
only were the downtowns dead, but the people, who were now tired of the auto-driven
unwelcoming suburban world, fearing moving back.
The American downtown can no longer stand as a centre for
just offices and retailing as it once did. To rebuild America's downtowns, people need to
be injected into the scene. To facilitate this, housing must be inserted into the downtown
landscape. People need to envision a world where one can walk to shops, job, and
transportation hubs. As we look at downtowns today, we see that those that have been
successful have all either recently created or have always had housing in or very near to
their downtowns. Eastern American cities, which arose before zoning laws were invented,
often do have a large mix of housing in their downtowns, and that injects life into the
streets. Many midwestern cities, by comparison, are struggling due to their initial
planning. Because these cities relied on zones laid down for the purposes convienient at
the time, they have become antiquated and dead. Commerce has long replaced industry as the
main force behind first world nations, and since many cities in the Midwest were planned
around industry, even having industry surrounding the downtown area, it harms the city
with its abandoned and bleak face, cutting off downtown. And, because most commerce had
moved to the suburbs and the downtown was abandoned, most commercial institutions fear
reviving the central city.
Various facets made the American downtown a retail heart,
a place where property values were high, everyone shopped and worked, and a place to be.
Various facets killed many of them. Many can, and are already being revived. Cleveland was
once an industrial wasteland, a shame for the country. Industrial waste from Cleveland
industries once made Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River toxic bodies of water. Nowadays,
however, Cleveland has cleaned up its mess, and is building museums and attractions on its
lakeshore, as well as housing on the river. Although for much different reasons than what
first created it, Cleveland's downtown is again thriving. As times change and the economy
changed, American downtowns must reflect that evolution, and morph into what the people
demand.