A Downtown Made for People

Downtown Robbinsdale already has what most suburbs spend millions trying to fake: a real main street, with old storefronts, local restaurants, and businesses owned by people who live here. The 4100 block of West Broadway is the heart of it. The city's own comprehensive plan says to preserve it for "small scale 2-story development" to keep its main street character (Robbinsdale 2040 Comprehensive Plan).

What it doesn't have is room for people. We want to change that in two steps:

  1. Make the 4100 block of West Broadway a pedestrian street.
  2. Make downtown a social district, where you can buy a drink at one business and carry it down the block.

Why close a street to cars?

A street is a place where people live, shop and gather. A road moves cars quickly between places (Strong Towns). Downtown West Broadway is trying to be both, and that makes it worse at each. Downtown should be a destination.

When we close West Broadway for the Whiz Bang Days block party and parade, it fills with people. That's not a coincidence. For one day we get to see what our streets "could look like if they were made for people, not cars" (Our Streets Minneapolis).

It's better for business

Business owners worry, reasonably, that losing parking in front of their door will cost them customers. The research says otherwise.

  • Merchants overestimate how many customers drive. On Bloor Street in Toronto, a main street much like ours, only 21% of shoppers surveyed had arrived by car. Most merchants guessed it was higher. Customers who walked or biked visited more often and spent more per month than those who drove (Clean Air Partnership).
  • Plazas raise sales. New York City turned a parking area under the Manhattan Bridge into the Pearl Street plaza. Retail sales at nearby businesses grew 172%, compared with 18% across Brooklyn. Where the city added public space at a difficult Harlem intersection, sales rose 48%, beating the Manhattan average (NYC DOT).
  • Parking is expensive real estate. A new parking garage costs about $33,000 per space to build, before land and design costs (WGI). Even a surface lot runs about $8,000 a space once you count the land (VTPI). And a parking space serves one car at a time. In Philadelphia, a parklet in the space of one or two parked cars drew well over 150 people a day, and most businesses with parklets reported about a 20% bump in sales (WHYY).
  • Easy parking isn't the draw. "If parking downtown is easy, the hard thing to find is a reason to be there" (Happy Urbanist). People come downtown for the places, not the parking lot.

Downtown already has parking lots behind and beside West Broadway. A pedestrian block doesn't remove parking from downtown. It moves cars a few steps away so the street in front of the shops can work for people.

Why a social district

A social district is a defined area where people can buy a drink at a licensed bar or restaurant and carry it outside. You can walk the block, sit in a plaza, or step into a participating shop. Drinks come in a marked, non-glass cup, and the district has posted boundaries and hours.

It turns a row of separate businesses into one place to spend an evening. Anoka has run one since 2023. Shakopee started one in 2025 (Mpls.St.Paul Magazine). Anoka officials extended it, citing its success and minimal law enforcement issues (FOX 9).

Robbinsdale can't do it yet. Minnesota only allows social districts in cities the Legislature names. A statewide bill passed the Senate in 2025 but stalled in the House (FOX 9). In February 2026, Reps. Freiberg and Frazier introduced HF 3364, which would add Robbinsdale to the list alongside Anoka, Shakopee and Stillwater. It was referred to the Commerce Finance and Policy committee and hasn't had a hearing.

How we get there

Start small, measure, and build on what works:

  1. Pilot it. Close the 4100 block to cars on summer weekends, with tables, planters and room for businesses to spill out. Count visitors and ask businesses about sales, before and after.
  2. Make it seasonal, then permanent, with a curbless street, trees and seating. Keep access for deliveries and emergency vehicles.
  3. Pass HF 3364, or a statewide social district law, so the city can create a district by ordinance.
  4. Drop parking minimums downtown, so businesses can choose café seating over parking spaces.

What you can do

  • Tell the City Council you want this. Projects like this usually only hear from opponents.
  • Ask your state representative and senator to support HF 3364. Find them with the Legislature's district finder.
  • Talk to downtown business owners. Their support matters most.
Email the council

Opens your email app with a message to the Mayor, all four council members and the City Manager. Add a line in your own words, since personal messages count more than form letters. Emails to the city are generally public data.

Sources

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