Downtown Plaza's future should involve housing, housing, housing

When it comes to retail shopping malls, a new mantra should be: “Don’t build it. They won’t come.”

This most definitely applies to downtown Sacramento. Malls across America are dying, but the Westfield Downtown Plaza has been 6-feet under for more than a decade. The area’s mall rats want to be in Roseville; let’s not pretend we have the cheese to entice them downtown.

So, what should JMA Ventures and Sacramento’s city and business leaders focus on? How about housing, housing and more housing?

When it comes to urban living, though, JMA’s portfolio sort of lacks; it mostly consists of ski-resort-type residences. But hey, this is a step up over Westfield. Let’s be optimistic.

SN&R envisions a Downtown Plaza of retail shopping and office spaces mixed with apartments and affordable housing. We want to see life after hours and on weekends along J, K, and L streets between Third and Seventh. And we urge JMA to free the mall, open it up to the surrounding central-city milieu and Old Sacramento.

JMA recently said it doesn’t have a long-term plan for revitalizing the mall. Let’s hope that whatever it ultimately decides involves moving more Sacramentans in.