Workers are setting five metal pylons at the corner where the Broadway pedestrian mall meets Main Street. Two of them, the ones closest to Hotel Sequoia, will drop into the ground so a service truck can pass. The other three are set in concrete and won't move. Walking Redwood City saw the crew working at that corner in its Oct. 30 field report.

Those posts are the clearest sign yet of how downtown Redwood City changes. A street closes as a test, people get used to walking it, and the city makes it permanent. This November and December, that process overlaps with the busiest stretch of the downtown calendar. The circus, a museum opening, holiday shows and Hometown Holidays all arrive while parts of the street grid are still being rebuilt.

The city has made this decision before

The 2000 block of Broadway, between Jefferson Avenue and Main Street, started as a pandemic-era closure. The City Council approved closing it to vehicles permanently at its Jan. 8, 2024 meeting, as the Redwood City Pulse reported. Under the city's Broadway Pedestrian Mall project page, private vehicles are not allowed. Emergency, maintenance and a limited number of construction vehicles can still get in, and people on bicycles and scooters can still ride through. The City Council approved buying automatic bollards on Feb. 9, 2026. Installation was scheduled to start Oct. 5 at both ends of the mall, on Main Street and Jefferson Avenue, and the city plans to repave the roadway in early 2027.

Broadway isn't the first time. In an Oct. 9 Redwood City Pulse report, city communications consultant Jeanne Sullivan Billeci said earlier temporary closures had included segments of Theatre Way and Middlefield Road as well as the 2000 block of Broadway. In each case, the City Council ended up closing the blocks to cars.

The new hardware shows how each street was built. On Theatre Way, the pylons slide to the side to open a gap, because the Jefferson Avenue parking garage runs underneath that part of the street and there's no room to sink anything into the ground. Broadway has no garage below it, so its pylons can retract straight down.

The calendar arrives on top of the work

Downtown's late-fall events cluster around Courthouse Square and the library, which are the same blocks where crews are working.

The museum opening is a few steps from the new bollards. The History Museum's event page lists music on Courthouse Square at 10 a.m., remarks and a ribbon cutting at 10:30, then new exhibits, kids' crafts, performances and pop-up talks from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The main attraction is the new Taube Family Carriage House and Automobile Gallery. The San Mateo Daily Journal's calendar listing calls the celebration free. After that, regular admission is $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and students, and free for children 5 and under.

Hometown Holidays runs downtown from 10 a.m. to about 6 p.m. on Dec. 12, with holiday shopping, food, carnival rides, Santa, a parade and the traditional tree lighting. The city lists the schedule as tentative and subject to change.

The library lot belongs to the circus for most of November

The Zoppé family sets up its tent in the parking lot next to the downtown library at 1044 Middlefield Road. Walking Redwood City reported that the lot will be closed to parking for nearly all of November, which matters to anyone who usually parks there for the library.

Shows run most days, with weekend matinees. The first weekend is typical. Saturday, Nov. 7 has shows at noon, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 8 has shows at noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. The museum opening and two circus matinees fall on the same Saturday, a few blocks apart.

The city's circus FAQ covers ticketing and parking:

• Tickets are sold online through Afton up until showtime. All sales are final.
• The tent box office opens 45 minutes before the day's first show and takes cash and credit cards.
• Once a show sells out, no extra tickets are sold at the door.
• The city suggests parking in longer-term metered spaces, including the Box, Jefferson and Marshall garages.
• The Redwood City Caltrain station is downtown, and Millbrae connects BART riders to Caltrain.

Some streets are closing for good, and one has reopened while the city decides

The Broadway mall is one of several changes. On Sept. 1, the city permanently closed the block of Spring Street between Main and Walnut streets. The triangular parklet bounded by Spring, Marshall and Walnut went inside the construction fence as well. Both are becoming part of the site for 1900 Broadway, a planned seven-story office and retail building. Here's how drivers coming down the remaining piece of Spring Street from Broadway get through now:

1. At the dead end, turn right onto Walnut Street. Right-turn arrows and a stop sign are now in place. Walnut runs one way north between Broadway and Marshall, so a left turn isn't possible.
2. Stop at Marshall Street. Traffic on Marshall does not stop.
3. To get back to Broadway, use Maple or Chestnut.

Broadway is also being repaved outside the mall. The city's Broadway Pavement Overlay & Curb Ramp Project covers asphalt overlay, ADA curb ramps, bikeway and striping work, and pedestrian-crossing improvements, on a construction schedule of July through November 2026. Work has reached Broadway between Maple and Chestnut, between Winslow and Marshall near the Caltrain tracks, and between Birch and Duane. Broadway and Clinton is getting pedestrian-activated crosswalk lights on all four corners. Some steps in the paving process close the street completely, and a late-October paving pass between Maple and Chestnut ran behind schedule.

Southgate Street, south of downtown, shows the step before a closure becomes permanent. According to the Redwood City Pulse, the city took down the barricades on Wednesday, Oct. 7, after keeping the street closed for about 17 months as a pilot. The closure joined the two grassy islands of Lawrie Duncan Park on either side of Southgate between Brewster Avenue and Outer Circle. The neighborhood was divided over the pilot. The city scheduled a late-October community meeting and expects to decide by the end of 2026. If the block closes for good, permanent barricades, signs and striping will go in. The steps match Theatre Way, Middlefield and Broadway, and the city made all three of those closures permanent.

Where the new storefronts are

The new businesses near downtown have mostly opened on the edges. Passport Cafe & Bar soft-opened Oct. 2 at 2159 Roosevelt Ave., in Roosevelt Center. Redwood City Pulse reported that it serves breakfast and lunch daily from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and plans a dinner menu if it gets a full liquor license. On El Camino Real, Mr. Pan Bistro started serving Taiwanese lunch boxes, hot pots and milk tea at 711 El Camino Real on Sept. 17. It's open until 8:30 p.m. most nights and until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, according to the Pulse.

Sequoia Station, at El Camino Real and Jefferson, is filling its empty spaces. The Barnes & Noble there closed in September, and the space is leased to ROC Party, a party-supply store. A Sweetgreen is being fitted out next to Habit Burger and Grill. The former Pier 1 Imports building is leased to DaVita. Kura Revolving Sushi Bar plans to open in spring 2027 in the end of the former Old Navy space nearest the El Camino and Jefferson corner. Hunter Properties bought the center in December 2023.

One block in this story is already finished. Downtown CRU Wine Shop & Bar, in the Box building closest to the Caltrain station, has closed for good. Its packaged Italian specialty foods are still sold at Donato Enoteca on Middlefield, across from the main library. That corner of Middlefield is next to the circus tent this month.

If you own near the Broadway mall, the 1900 Broadway site or Lawrie Duncan Park, these street decisions affect how your block works and how buyers will see it. The Palermo Properties Team follows these city projects as part of pricing and positioning a home. Request a Strategic Market Plan, and we'll show how the changes near you fit into your home's marketing.