Downtown Las Cruces
Saving some key details from Las Cruces’ Worst Mistake:
Here are two postcards depicting Main Street in Las Cruces, NM in the 1940s.
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In the 1960s, federal funds for urban renewal were available. The city embarked on a plan to convert Main Street into a pedestrian mall with shade canopies. Businesses, housed in buildings nearly 100 years old, were expected to renovate or relocate. Less than one-quarter stayed. The outer blocks were razed to make way for new construction. The streets on either side of downtown were converted to one way streets, creating a “racetrack” around the mall. The city managed to convert an entire Main Street into the center of a traffic circle.
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| Aerial view of downtown Las Cruces in 1974, just after the pedestrian mall conversion was completed. |
When I moved to Las Cruces in 2008, the pedestrian mall was virtually dead. The city began plans to try to restore what was lost—recommendations were made to reopen Main Street to vehicle traffic, make the streets on either side two-way streets again, and reopen cross-streets to the adjoining neighborhoods.
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| Downtown Las Cruces illustrative master plan, summary of recommendations, 2013. |
The changes that were made before I left in 2019 included:
- reopening Main Street in phases
- restoring the Plaza Theater
- constructing a new plaza across from the theater
- facilitating construction of an entertainment venue at the south end (one building with two or three restaurants/bars in it)
- Some of the cross streets were updated as pedestrian walkways with landscaping and lighting
It seems like the city intends to keep these blocks commercial instead of inviting mixed use throughout.
As you know, I love a streetcar system. I’d love to see one connect downtown and NMSU. There are other neighborhoods that I think would be well served by a streetcar (as a tool to spur development, too), but the wonky street layouts make it more difficult to select routes.