Mixed feelings. Better to have sidewalks than not have them, but we can hardly say that a sidewalk between high-speed stroad and a mega-sized parking lot makes things walkable. In the long run, we need about 8 more One Southdale Places so that we can sufficiently block Southdale from pedestrian exposure...Speaking of walkablity around Southdale, the Mall owner has been installing a lot of sidewalks. Plus with the sidewalks some new crossings are installed. Can't walk around the mega block entirely yet but great strides have happened from the disaster it was up until a year ago.
http://geo.lib.umn.edu/hennepin_county/ ... -1-150.jpg -- to look at aerial photos from the time of Southdale's construction, it's really amazing to see how the form completely changes at Xerxes Avenue. Although sidewalks are largely absent from RIchfield as well, you can see how starkly the form changes. York, 66th, and France are all rural expressways around Southdale Center, and what's now Centennial Lakes, etc is just a gravel pit. Explains a lot how we happened to get these massive stroads with sidewalks on only one side (and barely on that side).