Street Life
For more than twenty years, State Street has been the almost-auto-free avenue that connects the UW with the rest of Madison. From latte-hopping to Halloween parties to parades, it's the focus of the University's social scene.
Now it's also the focus of a new documentary. In Streets without Cars, Brewer Stouffer and Troy Lanier MA'01 show how State Street became one of the few successes in the movement to create urban pedestrian malls.
"More than two hundred American cities experimented with designating pedestrian malls in the sixties and seventies," says Stouffer, a technical writer at UW-Madison. "But today, only a handful remain. Most became victims to suburban shopping malls."
Now it's also the focus of a new documentary. In Streets without Cars, Brewer Stouffer and Troy Lanier MA'01 show how State Street became one of the few successes in the movement to create urban pedestrian malls.
"More than two hundred American cities experimented with designating pedestrian malls in the sixties and seventies," says Stouffer, a technical writer at UW-Madison. "But today, only a handful remain. Most became victims to suburban shopping malls."
Streets without Cars appeared at State Street's Orpheum Theatre in April and May, and in July, it will be shown on Wisconsin Public Television. Stouffer and Lanier plan to enter a variety of film festivals, where they hope the film will find a receptive audience.
"It's ironic," says Stouffer. "On some level, we're actually competing with suburbia in the same way that pedestrian malls had to. Just as they competed with suburban shopping malls, we're trying to win an audience against Spiderman and Star Wars, the stars of suburban cineplexes."
"It's ironic," says Stouffer. "On some level, we're actually competing with suburbia in the same way that pedestrian malls had to. Just as they competed with suburban shopping malls, we're trying to win an audience against Spiderman and Star Wars, the stars of suburban cineplexes."
