(Washington Post) — For 50 years, Southwest Washington was divided in half by a mall and office complex that withered with age. Like the freeway that isolates the neighborhood from downtown, Waterside Mall left its community without a center.
Today the mall is gone, two gleaming glass office towers with a splashy ground-floor Safewaysupermarket have risen in its place and the road that was mothballed to build it is back after a half-century, with wide sidewalks for pedestrians. Fourth Street may be a stretch of asphalt over two city blocks, but its reappearance in a neighborhood plagued by a generation of poor urban design is an important milestone in its revival.