Downtown Crossing status is defended

Promising to increase enforcement, fix signs, and review traffic patterns, officials remained committed last night to keeping the neighborhood as a pedestrian mall, saying it is the best strategy to cater to residents while providing a steady stream of foot traffic for businesses.

"Downtown Crossing is a very special place, and it needs to be treated as such," said Thomas J. Tinlin, the city's transportation commissioner. "We have a special place, and it's up to us to make sure it works for you, for the thousands of people who come through each day."

Tinlin spoke last night before a gathering of dozens of the neighborhood's residents, business owners, and vendors who are strategizing ways to revive the district - once the core of city life, but now threatened by vacant storefronts and stalled development.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority, working with neighborhood groups such as the Downtown Crossing Partnership, is looking at a range of neighborhood issues, and one that is regularly debated is whether to keep the neighborhood as a pedestrian mall, a planning strategy enacted in the 1970s as a way to control what one consultant called a "zoo" of cars mixing with pedestrians.

More than 230,000 people walk through each day, according to city numbers.

While many at last night's meeting, held at the Old South Meeting House, supported the pedestrian zone, some wondered wither it could be lifted for all traffic at night. Currently, no cars can enter the zone, centering on Washington Street at the intersection of Winter and Summer streets, between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., except for emergencies. Only commercial vehicles may enter after 6 p.m.

Randi Lathrop, the Redevelopment Authority's director of community planning, said last night that projects that are planned will help boost activity to provide better foot traffic in the evening.

Milton Valencia can be reached at mvalencia@globe.com.