[ardecila]

The food co-op is still questionable. They have a design, but finding the funds to actually build is a huge challenge.

Claiborne will never be anything like Magazine Street. It's such a wide street that it can really only work with tall, dense development along it. This probably needs to be in the 8-15 story range. Otherwise, the street will just feel like a barren no-mans-land (as it does today). It will only get worse if/when the traffic from I-10 moves to ground level.

Claiborne can really only work as a linear park - turn the neutral ground into soccer fields, tennis courts, and public pools. Then put in some traffic-calming features (make stoplights more frequent, have the curbs bump out into the parking lane at crossings, make the crossings bumpy and bright-colored, etc).

If a light-rail line gets built, you'd probably have to accommodate both in the neutral ground.

Even if the redevelopment of Claiborne were to exceed everyone's wildest imaginations, it STILL won't be a comfortable pedestrian shopping street. It will always be a major traffic artery, and that will ALWAYS repel pedestrians.