Anne Macquarie: Narrowing Carson Street - it's a good idea

When my kids were young I didn't let them cross Carson Street. I saw it as a big river cutting our town in half - dangerous, sometimes fatal to cross. I still wince when I drive by and see a cluster of kids walking home from school, waiting at Carson Street, trying to cross. Or when I see the rare tourist who ventures out on foot in downtown Carson City trying to cross Carson Street on one of those midblock crosswalks.

It doesn't look like the kind of downtown I'd like to walk around in and spend my tourist dollars. In fact, when I gave my parents a 50th anniversary party several years ago at the Station Grille and the out-of-town guests stayed at the Carson Station, I worried much of the evening about how the guests, many of them elderly, were going to get back to their hotel across the four lanes of Carson Street, at night.

But then, I walk and ride a bicycle. I have the old fashioned notion that the streets of Carson City should be safe and convenient for all users, not just for cars and trucks. So I think the narrowing of Carson Street is a great idea. And I showed up - along with a lot of other people - at those "Envision Carson City" meetings when the narrowing of Carson Street emerged as a possibility. People at those meetings wanted Carson City to have a real downtown again, one they could walk around in. Maybe sit in a sidewalk cafe. Maybe go patronize a small, locally-owned business. A real, old-fashioned kind of place that is welcoming to people on foot - not just a place to drive through.

I agree with what Dan Allison wrote in Muscle Powered's blog a couple of weeks ago: "I want a healthy downtown Carson City, in part because without a healthy downtown, Carson City as a whole cannot be healthy. I mean economic health, I mean physical health, I mean a real community.

"We have allowed Carson City to spread out, to separate home from work from commerce, and have built a place that works well for cars but not for people. Now that the economy has slowed, I think we can really see the folly of that sprawl. We have become very car-dependent, but cars are letting us down."

I urge those who have been so quick to dismiss the idea of narrowing Carson Street to park their cars and take a walk downtown. Imagine passing other pedestrians on the street and saying hello. Imagine riding your bikes downtown with your grandkids to get an ice cream cone. Imagine getting out of your car and joining the world again.

• Anne Macquarie, a private sector urban planner, is a long time resident of Carson City.