Ask the PAC: Why parts of downtown Petaluma have super-high sidewalks

Like most answers to Ask the PAC questions, we have to look to the past for clues.|

Ask the PAC

This weekly feature aims to get to the bottom of Petalumans’ burning questions and provide insight into vexing daily curiosities.

If you would like your question featured in Ask the PAC, simply email askpac@arguscourier.com

This week’s Ask the PAC was reminiscent of a favorite childhood book: “Where the Sidewalk Ends.”

We can’t promise the answer will be so poetic, but it could be nearly as satisfying - and likely just as nostalgic. Like most answers to Ask the PAC questions, we have to look to the past for clues.

Question: What is the reason for the high sidewalks with railings along 1st and 2nd avenues, in and near the Theater District. Flood protection? Prevent jaywalking? They make you walk in the street to find a place up when you park your car there.

Answer: Gina Benedetti-Petnic, Petaluma’s assistant director for the city’s Public Works and Utilities Department, quickly dispelled the notion that the high sidewalks were installed to curb jaywalking behavior. (Pun very much intended).

Instead, she called the feature a “prudent flood protection measure in the original warehouse district construction.”

As for why the raised feature still exists, Benedetti-Petnic said it’s likely due to historical and architectural considerations.

“Raised sidewalks in this area were historically used as the practical solution to accommodate pedestrian uses as well as providing dock height access for material loading from rail and cart in this once industrial area adjacent to the river,” she said in an email.

Benedetti-Petnic said the feature is an artifact of the old warehouse district near the river prior to redevelopment, and designers sought to retain the historic feature when the Theater District was planned. In some cases, such as the raised walk near Ayawaska, the original raised loading dock and sidewalks were retained.

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