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16th Street Mall Makes Endangered Places List

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Feb 8, 2009 2:59 pm US/Mountain

16th Street Mall Makes Endangered Places List

Reporting
Molly Hughes

DENVER (CBS4) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: The 16th Street Mall is threatened by the very busses that make it so successful.
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One of Denver's most visited places is on the state's most endangered places list -- the 16th Street Mall.

On any given day, the 16th Street Mall seems alive and vibrant.

"The mall represents one of the top attractions in Denver these days," Bob Musgraves with Historic Denver said. "It carries 50,000 to 60,000 people on the shuttle every day. From that vantage point it's been hugely successful."

At the heart of the landmark is the signature granite pavers that line the street and sidewalks.

"If you see it from a building, it represents an amazingly intricate series of granite pavers that are said to resemble a diamondback rattlesnake," Musgraves said.

It seems a bit odd to have a place as active as the mall is to be considered endangered. But the 16th Street Mall is threatened by the very buses that make it so successful.

"The (Regional Transportation District) has responsibility for maintaining the transit pavers, and their budget for yearly maintenance is nearly $1 million," Cassie Milestone with Downtown Denver Partnership said.

So RTD proposed a pilot program aimed at reducing their maintenance costs.

"There were rumors around that they were going to pave the transit-way with concrete," Milestone said.

It was enough to raise the eyebrows of a few key people.

"It was not right for the integrity of the mall," Carla Madison from Denver City Council District 8 said. "(That's) one of the reasons I ran for council, was to make sure this mall got respected, but renovated."

While the threat of concrete seems to have been avoided, the hard fiscal realities still remain.

"After we figure out what these technical issues are and figure out what we need to fix on the mall, we're going to have to start identifying funding and other support for this project," Milestone said.

Maintaining the character of the mall is still the priority.

"It's important that it looks good and that we welcome people here and they feel welcome here," Madison said.

The mall has been closed to traffic since 1982.

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