A rougher version of the French Quarter, Mobile plans resurgence

A street in Mobile, Alabama. photo from Downtown Mobile: Keeping it Easy

Mobile, Alabama, has a scale of blocks and historic architecture that is not so different from New Orleans — only its city leaders were more efficient in dismantling its urban fabric in the middle part of the 20th Century.

Some of the architecture is still in place and “good bones” allow for redevelopment on a walkable scale even as educated young people are rediscovering downtown living. A new plan and form-based code by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., commissioned by the Downtown Mobile Alliance, sets a framework for transformation. A charrette was held in the fall and a draft code is now being prepared for submission to the city planning commission.

“Mobile is a wonderful city: It’s smaller and more damaged than New Orleans, but absolutely taking off and full of young people,” notes Duany. About half of downtown’s urban fabric has been demolished over the years — so redevelopment sites are abundant, he notes.

The plan covers two hundred blocks, including the central business district and surrounding residential and mixed-use areas. A warehouse district of about 25 blocks, which could house high-tech firms, is part of the plan.

The Alabama Department of Transportation has budgeted the removal of a massive cloverleaf feeding I-10 on the southern edge of downtown, which will open up a new development district envisioned by planners. The plan also calls for a miniature version of the “High Line” — an elevated park that pops over a surface highway — to connect downtown to an underused waterfront. Beyond that, the plan mostly avoids grand gestures.

“It is about many smaller moves, like maintaining the perfectly embedded theater where Yo-Yo Ma played the week of our charrette—and which brought out a most impressive array of cultured people, who were then able to walk to art galleries and enjoy the restaurants and after-show urban experience,” says Duany.

The city has 195,000 people in a region of just over 400,000. Mobile peaked in population in 1960 and has dropped by less than 10,000 since — and the city is poised for a new round of growth now that Airbus plans to start construction this year of an aircraft factory 2.5 miles from downtown. The city retains a strong shipbuilding industry.

“To be competitive in the future it will not be enough to have the jobs, it will also require a thriving downtown to attract the talented workforce that attracts the corporations that create the jobs,” Duany says.

In order to make the downtown a regional and perhaps national attraction, the quality of the public spaces and walkability of streets must be enhanced. Three downtown streets are identified for conversion from one-way to two-way to improve access and calm traffic. Retail corridors and “A” streets, where the pedestrian experience must be first-rate, are identified so that redevelopment can be focused. Bicycle corridors, as well, are proposed — because that expands the potential for nonautomotive travel.

“It is one of the greatest amenities for those who are considering living downtown that they be able to walk to most of their daily needs, and perhaps even to dispense with the burden of having to own a car,” the planners note.

Mobile should also solicit federal funding for a streetcar system of the low-tech variety such as those in Portland, Houston, or Dallas, the plan recommends. Streetcars are durable and can last 50 years, compared to the 7-year lifespan of a bus, planners note. The downtown could have 10 streetcar stops, bringing the majority of downtown within a quarter-mile walk of rail transit.