The City of Fresno should, as a part of its revitalization efforts in Downtown, open the Fulton Mall to vehicle traffic.
Currently, Fulton between Inyo and Merced streets is a pedestrian mall, a stretch of concrete modern architecture dotted with dried up fountains, abstract tile mosaics and twisted metal sculpture that is lined with vacant storefronts and restaurants.  
This part of Fresno was once the city’s cultural and economic center, but it has been in decline for many years. Currently, more than a quarter of the mall’s ground-level properties are vacant, retail sales are flagging and rent levels are depressed, a symptom of the lack of demand for space on the mall.
The City believes that it can restore Downtown to its former glory, and has drafted the Fulton Corridor Specific Plan to outline the strategy for doing so. The way Fulton Mall is dealt with is one of the focuses of the plan; the question of whether to allow vehicle traffic in Fulton has yet to be decided. It is vital that Fulton Street be reopened.
Downtown’s troubles began during the 1950s when community leaders, fearful of competition from businesses in the growing suburbs, went to the City demanding help. The City responded quickly, hiring famed urban planner Victor Gruen to redesign Downtown. Gruen decided, as a part of a broader plan, to close Fulton Street, which was still a thriving business center, to all vehicle traffic and convert it into a pedestrian mall.
In a glorious example of the kind of karmic revenge that only the free market can provide, limiting vehicle access (and thereby consumer access) to Fulton Street  made the area less desirable to prospective businesses, many of which began to look on suburban areas more favorably. During the 1970s, major retailers such as Gottschalks and JC Penney left Downtown for good, completing its transformation into the decaying art project it is today.
Reopening the mall to vehicle traffic will give greater exposure to properties situated within and make them more desirable to businesses, which need the kind of visibility and accessibility for customers that the mall largely lacks. The City estimates that the ground floor vacancy rate will fall to 9%, a dramatic reversal of the area’s current condition.
Optimism should be tempered with a more realistic view of current conditions in Fresno. Replacing a pedestrian mall with a road will not automatically increase the amount of business activity in the area. People will not live in or do business in a place that doesn’t offer them any advantages they can’t find in their current location.
A number of areas outside of the Fulton Corridor boast a quality of life that is equal to, if not higher than, that found downtown. If Fulton Street is to become the hub of activity that it once was, it must be attractive to newcomers who will provide the economic activity that the area lacks.
Low rents in comparison to other areas of Fresno, while bemoaned in the Fulton Corridor Specific Plan, might be the lure that draws enterprising individuals looking to start their own businesses, just as cheap land on Fresno’s outskirts drew new residents to the suburbs during the post-World War II era. Hopefully, these newcomers will be able to recreate the same kind of success.