Ithaca Commons, a forty-year-old no-car zone covering several blocks in downtown Ithaca, New York, is considered a pioneer in the “pedestrian mall” concept in the U.S.  The City of Ithaca just unveiled a major renovation of the Commons.

Such pedestrian-only districts have been tried in other parts of the country, with mixed success. Charlottesville, Virginia’s Downtown Mall, completed in 1976, has experienced ebbs and flows, and is today quite vibrant, but more locals and even some urban planning experts believe that blocks of downtown main streets, if re-opened to vehicular traffic, would make those areas more successful.  Buffalo has already taken action on this belief, and is in the process of returning vehicles to its downtown pedestrian-only Main Street blocks.

Read about the Ithaca Commons transformation here, in the New York Times