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# Missing doors curb a street’s appeal
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/missing-doors-curb-a-streets-appeal-editor/
- Published: 2007-10-12T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T03:19:01.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Paul Bergman Santa Monica*

The article “Staying with the flow” (Oct. 9) described citizens’ ideas about a new Land Use and Circulation Element. My land use proposal is that our Santa Monica city planners require commercial buildings to put their main entrances along streets, rather than parking lots.

Stores with Maginot Line-like walls along sidewalks destroy any sense of vibrant street life and tell pedestrians to take their business elsewhere. For example, compare the curb appeal and vibrancy created by the Whole Foods on Wilshire Boulevard at 23rd Street with the dingy and desultory sidewalks in front of the Rite- Aid and Vons stores on Wilshire at 14th; both of these stores have their main entrances facing a parking lot, rather than the street.

We need both carrots and sticks if we are to entice people out of their cars, and commercial builders can do their part to encourage walking by creating attractive street entrances.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 12, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/101207.pdf?ref=smdp.com)