What a challenge! What an opportunity!

Plans are afoot to remake Charles Circle, the messy intersection of Cambridge Street, Charles Street and Storrow Drive. The first step in what will be a more than $20 million renovation is a design competition — figuring out how to fix the thing.

Challenges abound. Charles Circle is a forlorn place, dominated by a complex of roadways bringing cars in and out of the city. Overhead stretch a series of pedestrian walkways that take people to and from the Charles Street MBTA station. It is by current design a place where pedestrians and cars do not mix. People are up in the air, cars are down below. The consequences are not pretty. It's dirty, unkempt and barren. It functions as a barrier between the two sides of Cambridge Street.

People who care about cities have increasingly understood that successful urban environments should meet the needs of people, not cars. Good cities are walkable cities. When we create places that discourage pedestrians, or when we take those pedestrians and put them in bridges above an area, we are in effect abandoning a place. It was this observation that led so many urban advocates to oppose the proposed footbridge across Congress Street. That bridge, designed to take pedestrians from City Hall Plaza to Faneuil Hall, would have taken walkers off the street and put them in the air, effectively deadening the street life below.

Charles Circle is a good example of that bridge building mistake in action. It's major flaw is the footbridges overhead. It's not simply that bridges are bad. But pedestrian bridges offer an excuse to urban designers. By putting people in the air, they no longer have to worry about them on the street. The streetscape is then ceded to motor vehicles. Thus, Charles Circle is virtually impossible for a pedestrian to navigate. I recently tried to cross from one side to the other. It's intimidating and dangerous.

These observations aren't new. Indeed, they are so commonly shared that a pile of money is now available to correct what should be an alive and vital portal to the city.

The challenge ahead, however, is figuring out how to fix these problems. Charles Circle represents an unusual confluence of roadways, public transportation, surrounding businesses and pedestrians. How can these be made to mesh? That's the task of the design competition. I am just a simple (and often, simplistic) politician; it will take far smarter people than me to wade through the transportation and engineering issues of Charles Circle.

What I do know however, is this. The end result needs to be something that breathes life back into the street, that is friendly to pedestrians, invigorating to surrounding institutions and businesses and still accommodates the massive amounts of traffic that flow in and out of the area daily. That's tough to manage but worthwhile to attain. So, to those of you who take up the challenge and enter the design competition:  Good luck. We are waiting and hopeful.