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one of the "pathbreaking" concepts I've worked to develop is planning the retail and attraction mix of commercial districts by time of day and day of the week, to better balance and spread out business across more hours of the day.

I don't see how tour buses would impact commercial districts negatively, although residents might not like it, but even so, it's going to be during the day, and during the week, it would have minimal impact on residents.

Similarly, the nightlife establishment issue is one for residents, but for the most part, most neighborhood commercial districts aren't going to be that attractive to nonresidents for nightlife purposes.

The issue of commercial district revitalization planning and management of commercial districts is more complicated than most of the proscriptions for "fixing" them. The biggest issue is lack of enough population to support "quality" retail offerings--basically, you need about 30,000 people minimum to support 50,000 s.f., that's basically a grocery store, plus pharmacy and hardware store.

WRT the "neighborhood" commercial districts that serve as regional destinations (Georgetown, Friendship Heights, Adams Morgan, to some extent H St., Connecticut Avenue in Dupont Circle), how much is the neighborhood really impacted?

WRT P St. and 17th St. in Greater Dupont Circle, it would be very interesting to see a detailed market study including demographic info on patrons. Likely the prevalent customer base is drawn from the greater neighborhood.

by Richard Layman on Aug 26, 2011 5:07 pm • link • report