crowdsourcing), and more so, words that have taken on a whole new significance, like ‘organic’ for instance.

Thus, from a city point of view, perhaps we should transition from defining streets and places from a car-oriented point of view (ie pedestrian-only, car-free).  In the food industry, instead of pesticide free (ie car free) or naturally grown (ie pedestrian only) which implies that it’s competing with/giving up another market, the industry went with organic, and it’s done nothing short of significantly evolve supermarkets across the country, even Wal-Mart (and that’s saying something).

Here are some suggested terms:

Promenade - A grand pedestrian street, like Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.
Esplanade - A promenade along a large body of water.
Paseo - A narrower, more irregular mid-block pedestrian only street, like in Sienna.
Mews - A residential pedestrian-only street.
Piazza - A primarily pedestrian-only square fronted by buildings (ideally restaurants with outdoor dining) on all sides.

...and now some demand-side/marketing-oriented terms…

Living street - (link) Instead of pedestrian street.
Organic street - Ok, I just made this up when writing this post, but this would imply a street de-emphasizing cars, national chains (which are artificial transplants, not organically grown like people and local indie businesses), and emphasizing green buildings and of course, healther dining/food and health in general (ie yoga, fitness, spas).
Portal - Borrowing a web term, “presenting experiences from diverse sources in a unified way,” a pedestrian-only town center.

What’s your opinion? Comment below, or continue a threaded discussion here.

Source: Crashworks