Over the years, I’ve written many columns about the role of public policy in good urban planning and design.
But it’s been awhile since I’ve written about the problems created by the Chatham County courthouse parking garage on Broughton Street between Montgomery Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Most of the time, I just try to ignore the south side of that block, but one can only shield oneself from that mass of ugliness for so long.
If the courthouse garage had been built more recently, we might have been able to lobby for something with a much better design. There could be a row of small retail shops along Broughton, with the parking behind and above.
If the south side of Broughton between Montgomery and MLK were as active as the north side of the block, we’d see a real synergy between businesses. That block should and could be just as vibrant as the blocks immediately east.
A more vibrant final block of Broughton Street becomes even more important as investment, especially hotel construction, continues along the MLK corridor.
But the poor design of the Chatham County courthouse complex doesn’t just impact Broughton Street. The closed streets between Montgomery and MLK hurt neighborhood connectivity and contribute to traffic snarls, and the complex’s design impedes Oglethorpe Avenue development too.
We’ll eventually see Savannah’s new cultural arts center near the southeast corner of Oglethorpe and MLK, so we can hope that building will beautify and energize the key corridors nearby.
An attractive new public building on the south side of Oglethorpe would certainly be an improvement over the ugly parking lots there now, but what could we ever do about the old jail on the north side of the avenue?
Oglethorpe Avenue is a key gateway to the city, and that role has been heightened in recent years by the development west of MLK.
But consider the experience of a tourist who pulls into town and checks into a hotel west of MLK. Those tourists’ first impressions of the city are formed as they cross the threatening crosswalks on MLK and then are faced with the unkempt, forbidding jail building.
There are no easy fixes here. Undoing the damage of the courthouse complex’s poor design would be expensive and protracted.
But if we want to rebuild the urban fabric of the western portion of the Historic District, we will eventually have to think big.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.