The 16th Street Mall could get a new name this year as part of a rebranding campaign.
One reason is that so many tourists are flummoxed by what “mall” actually means. Another is that the mall’s reputation has suffered over crime, vacant buildings and more.
Last week, some of the city’s more famous denizens weighed in with their ideas, which spanned from author Kali Fajardo-Anstine suggesting Diamondback Valley to former Mayor Wellington Webb asking to keep things the same.
In response, Denverite readers came up with their own ideas for names. Some were serious, others were snarky.
The most popular suggestions:
Perhaps the most common suggestion we heard was the “16th Street Promenade” — you know, a place where people walk.
Others proposed a twist that could be more distinctive: “Mile High Promenade,”
We also heard:
- The 16th Street Mile
- The Colo Walk on 16th
- The Centennial Mile on 16th
- The Denver Stroll
- The Denver Lane
- Denver Boulevard
One reader named Ignacio wants to call it the “Jason Mall.” Maybe after Jason’s Deli? Or Jason Street? Or some Friday the 13th reference?
Fellow reader Becky took a punny swing at the state of the street: “The 16th Street Meh.”
“Why not get someone to pay naming rights for the 16th Street Mall?” asked Sally. “That’s just full of opportunities!”
A simple change:
Renee told us she could live with the 16th Street Promenade, but she wants to keep “16th Street” in whatever new name is chosen.
“For those of us directionally challenged, it’s helpful to know where we are,” she said. “But yeah. Mall is outdated.”
Some have suggested that the city might simply change the name to “16th Street.” Another reader, Eli, liked that idea. He argues that adding a word like “Mall” or “Promenade” creates an expectation that only certain special streets can be for pedestrians. Instead, the name “16th Street” would chip away at the idea that “streets” must always serve cars and drivers.
“Simply calling it 16th Street would help disseminate the idea that streets can be open to people, and that future pedestrianizing projects … are not complete transformations,” wrote Eli Derrington.
Keith has ideas:
“Absolutely under no circumstances whatsoever should we give it an honorific name,” wrote another reader, Keith. “No matter whether it was Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Florence Nightingale or Jesus himself, the result would, by its very nature, be exclusionary and therefore controversial. Just don’t do it.”
Also, avoid intentionally misspelled words and vowels in the wrong place — nothing like Lyft or Spyker, he said.
“Puleeze, no baby-talk gibberish,” he added. “(Think Hulu, Zulilly, Chimpmail, or even Google.)”
Chamberlain implored city brass not to turn the renaming over to school kids, pointing to a bridge over the Yampa River, in Steamboat Springs, called “The James Brown Soul Center of the Universe Bridge.”
“On further reflection,” Chamberlain wrote, “I might have a couple of ideas for 16th Street’s new name. Perhaps it could be the Eternity Esplanade, reflecting the geological epoch required for its reconstruction. Or how about the Promenade of Death for all those 16th Street businesses that went under during the rebuild?”
Keeping it the same:
The current name is not too long or too short and rolls nicely off the tongue, reader Maggie told us.
“Why change the name?” she added. “Colorado natives know it as the 16th Street Mall.”
Mark Barnhouse, who wrote the only book about 16th Street, said renaming the street is misguided.
“All of the suggestions for renaming the 16th Street Mall are bad ones, no different from DEN for DIA or any of the corporate-sponsored renamings of what everyone (that I know, anyway) still calls Mile High Stadium,” he wrote.
If people don’t understand various definitions of a “mall,” that’s on them, he added.
“It’s basically impossible to get people to accept a name change, especially one that has been in use since the late 1970s,” he wrote.
And Barnhouse doesn’t believe rebranding is how the Downtown Denver Partnership should address the perception of crime.
“I don’t care how many expensive consultants DDP uses, anyone who says a rebranding will bring people back down is just taking easy money from gullible people,” Barnhouse wrote. “What will bring people downtown is going back to basics: reduce crime, get the randomly shouting, off-their-meds people off of the mall, and find a way to subsidize rents so that restaurants and shops can afford to stay open.”
What do you want to happen next with the Mall and other Denver streets? Let us know.
