Remember when part of Westminster Street in downtown Providence was closed to cars and made into a "pedestrian mall"? The street was lined with department stores. At the time, cities were trying to have their big department stores and retail spaces compete with the rise of suburban malls.

By 1981, the appetite to keep the street closed to cars was quickly waning, as indoor malls in Warwick brought a new kind of retail environment.

On Nov. 30, 1989, Westminster Street had reopened to vehicle traffic and parking, under then-Mayor Joseph Paolino Jr.

"It was the biggest boondoggle ever done in the 1960s," Paolino said.

Paolino said he remembered being in the bulldozer.

The upper floors of buildings on Westminster Street languished as offices because workers couldn't park on the stre

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