Promoting Life on the Ground Floor of North American Cities

Commercial streets provide the human contact that is essential for healthy residential neighbourhoods. Their success depends on density, the quality mix and ownership of commercial outlets and services, and the physical pattern of streets and buildings. This article focuses on three types of local commercial streets: legacy streets that owe their origins to streetcars and mass transit lines and today must deal with declining commercial prospects driven by internet shopping; new street-oriented retail areas that are replacing shopping malls that have outlived their purposes; and converting single-family residential areas into mixed density mixed-use areas through the addition of new retail outlets, services and small-scale businesses to increase the contact of neighbours. The actions needed to cultivate healthy local shopping streets require changes in development regulations, redesigning alleyways and roadway layouts, and adopting new mixed-use building forms combining housing, workplaces, and commerce. The outcomes can be a greater sense of localism and more toleration of the hidden diversity of residential neighbourhoods.