North Sioux City Downtown Case Study

Malfunctional is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of North Sioux City Downtown. The functions of a downtown are to be sociable, comfortable, and useful. North Sioux City has none of those aspects relating to their downtown. There are very few purposes to go downtown in North Sioux City, because the diversity of residents and businesses is low. The businesses there are either casinos, restaurants, or liquor store there are no shops, cafes, or other businesses besides one bank. All the businesses there are non-sociable businesses, by that I mean when people go to these places it is for one purpose and then people leave. For an area to be a good public space it needs at least ten activities to do and North Sioux City offers little in diversity. Not just in businesses, but diversity in age and gender as well. Downtown is a place to socialize with others and participate in the community it is hard to do that when very few options for being there exist. …show more content…
The above images show a dismal area that does not look very aesthetically pleasing. The vegetation is limited downtown creating nothing to look at. The car traffic is consistent and the speed limit is 30 mph, which is not conducive for pedestrians as well as having a wide street. It makes people feel uncomfortable walking down the sidewalks when two lanes of traffic are speeding past people. There are also no barriers between the sidewalk and the street allowing for cars to speed right past people. The sidewalks are inconsistent meaning that people can’t walk all the way down the downtown strip on a sidewalk people have to cut across parking lots and grass to walk the full length. This makes people not want to walk downtown because there are no connecting pathways to each