I am not a fan of the Sparks Street Pedestrian only Mall in Ottawa. The National Capital Commission has tried to fix it for more than two decades and it still, basically, sucks from an urban design POV. They have tried to rent space to upscale retailers and encourage more restaurants and bars so that there would be some life on the Mall after all the civil servants go home at 3 pm. They spent a few million dollars of taxpayer money putting sculpture on the street and adding on-street kiosks. None of it worked at all.
But there is no secret to making urban streets work—you need a significant residential population that lives within a five or ten minute walk or nothing is going to work. People like to be where other people are—we are social animals and we feel (and are) safer too.
If it were up to me, I would fix it by:
1. Giving every developer a density bonus within 1,000 metres of the Mall for residential, hotel, apt. development above CO or CC;
2. Putting cars back on the Mall with two lanes for through traffic (one in each direction) and two lanes for on-street parking at all times. I am not sure if I would allow buses or not… Probably not. Maybe if Ottawa ever gets LRT, then let Light Rail cars trundle down the street maybe.
3. Putting street-fronting uses on Sparks that are busy evenings and weekends but only after establishing a residential population of a minimum of 3,500 people within a 10 minute (1 km. walk of the street).
Look at the section of Elgin Street in Ottawa that works. Same thing.
Dr. Bruce