I strongly support adopting the Final State Street Master Plan, and I want to make two arguments that I think have been underweighted in this debate: that a rebuilt, people-first State Street is the most powerful housing tool this Council has available to it, and that a car-free State Street is not a break with the street’s history but a return to it.
State Street Was Built for People
When Colonel Salisbury Haley laid out the city’s grid in 1851, the corner of State and Carrillo was designated the center of downtown. What followed was a century of shared, largely non-automotive use…