“What brings you to Broadway?”

Greg Taylor, president of Sacramento’s Urban Design Alliance (UDA), posed this question to city planners, residents, professors and employees that attended a dialogue about Downtown’s popular Broadway held at the American Institute of Architects on Wednesday evening.

Taylor answered his own question by saying that Broadway has “great urban character, great bones and great food.”

Many agreed that food is Broadway’s main attraction, with popular eateries like Tower Café and Pancake Circus dotting the strip.

One woman said that Broadway is a place she feels safe to spend time after hours. Others chimed in that they enjoy perusing specialty shops like R5 Records and the Avid Reader.

Perhaps most popular was the echoed sentiment that Broadway has everything one might need and is sort of a one-stop shop with Target, Walgreens, restaurants and gas stations lining the street.

The dialogue, facilitated by Midtowngrid.com founder Brian Fischer, was a question and answer session by a team of three panelists and a room full of interested and concerned residents and stakeholders of Broadway and surrounding areas.

Attendees were welcomed to the discussion with catering by Broadway’s Bali restaurant and a display of design work created by students from UC Davis and Cosumnes River College featuring plans and highlights of the Broadway corridor.

To begin the one hour question and answer session, three panelists were given 5 minutes each to discuss different aspects of Broadway.

Tina Suarez-Murias, environmental planner, explained Broadway’s status as a sociotone and to help the audience understand the concept first described, ecotone, which forms when two different types of landscapes converge to form an “edge effect.”

In ecology, the effect occurs when elements such as soil, plants and animals are different between the two parts, which creates for a wider range of plants, animal and shelter within the effect.

A sociotone is essentially when humans develop around the sociological edge effect and Suarez-Murias explained that Broadway is a perfect example of this phenomenon, still serving and attracting neighbors from either side of the “edge” because of its wide range of diversity.

Robin Datel, an urban geographer, focused on Broadway’s rich history from the donation of land in the Sacramento City Cemetery in 1849 up through 1990 when the State of California leased the Bishop Manogue High School building to become part of the DMV complex. Datel described Broadway as a sort of “service” to its residents, not only as a shopping street but as an “urban and suburban arterial.”

David de la Pena, who is both a member of the UDA and an architect and designer, focused more on the future of Broadway.

“It’s our responsibility to acknowledge what’s there and then enhance it,” Pena said. He continued on to discuss areas that can be improved, such as accessibility and traffic issues.

After a question and answer session from the audience, Teresa Rosa of the Broadway Partnership assured everyone that change will happen organically and stressed the importance of Broadway and its diversity.

“There are many Broadways. There is a Broadway-Monday-through-Friday. There is a Broadway-at-night and Broadway-on-Sunday-morning...It’s not pretentious and each of us can relate to it,” said Rosa.

The Urban Design Alliance holds planning meetings on the first Tuesday of each month. For more information about upcoming events visit uda-sacramento.org.

Below are highlights from the question and answer session with the panelists

Tina Suarez-Murias

“[We need to] look at physical barriers and one little step at a time tear them down”
    -In response to an audience member in a wheelchair who noted difficulty accessing the street

“We can’t design for just one slice of community, have to design for it all”
     -Responding to a concern about Broadway losing it’s small-town feel and low-priced restaurants

“It’s unique that we are making use of area under a freeway”
    -Commenting on development opportunities

Robin Datel

“More signs, self-guided tours, organized walking tours, naming districts”
    -Discussing ways to bring more attention to Broadway

“Because the freeway is so high, there’s a lot of back and forth and opportunity with that”
    -Commenting on development opportunitiesDavid de la Pena

“More energy needs to be put into the designing process”
   -In response to the current involvement with development

All photos by David Watts Barton