Pity poor Pratt Street.

It is a big street but little loved, one that manages to be pedestrian, as in undistinguished, and yet not pedestrian-friendly, as in eminently stroll-able. No lyricists have been moved to immortalize it, as they have "State Street, that great street," or "the avenue, Fifth Avenue."

So I had one question yesterday when the city unveiled a huge, $100 million redevelopment plan to freshen up and enliven the street: Is $100 million enough?

No, seriously, Pratt in its current incarnation isn't all that bad. It's just neutral - the equivalent of flyover country. The revamping, if it is to succeed, needs to bring a there there.

But what is that elusive "there," what is it that will transform Pratt from serviceable crosstown street to great urban boulevard?

At first glance, there's much to like in the proposal, which The Baltimore Sun's architecture critic, Edward Gunts, previewed on the paper's front page yesterday, in advance of Mayor Sheila Dixon's formal announcement of it during the annual meeting of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.

The first - and maybe second through fifth - good thing: the Constellation stays in the picture!

That was my first reaction to the rendering of the new and improved Pratt Street, which showed the stalwart sloop in its familiar Inner Harbor berth. In a rendering last year by those in charge of envisioning the street of the future, the Constellation had been erased from the picture, apparently because it blocked a broader view of the water. That test balloon mercifully sank in the intervening year.

I also like the reconfiguration of the intersections where Light and Calvert streets cross Pratt. Currently, northbound Light Street traffic is shifted over to Calvert; the plan would restore a grid pattern. That frees up a mostly useless triangle formed by the three streets, which for now mainly serves as a pedestrian holding pen for people trying to cross from one side of Pratt to the other.

From the rendering, it looks like the triangle, plus the traffic lanes of Light Street as it curves toward Calvert and Pratt, will be turned into a tree-shaded park called McKeldin Plaza. That would be a nice oasis in the heart of downtown and would continue a positive trend at Harborplace that started when West Shore Park opened (between the Science Center and the Visitors Center) and provided that rare commodity: a place to sit and otherwise hang out at the harbor that didn't involve buying a restaurant meal.

And, presumably, there wouldn't be any of those ticky-tacky souvenir kiosks allowed into the new park, as they have been on the Harborplace promenades.

That's always been the push-pull of Harborplace: It's largely for the tourists, but people like me who live in nearby neighborhoods take a proprietary interest in it and wish it offered more for us.

It's the same thing with Pratt Street and its proposed revamping. Will it be for the out-of-towners or for those who live in what is fast becoming a more residential area, drivers or walkers, conventioneers or Monday-to-Friday office workers?

It's a lot to ask of one street, but given its location, Pratt serves many masters.

The redevelopment plan calls for more retail on Pratt, which presumably we'll need if the economy ever turns around. But as someone who now mostly shops online, I'm not even sure what sort of retail works on a Pratt-type street. The components that make for a great downtown street have changed - gone are the days of the grand department stores, and the big-box rather than big-city stores like Best Buy that have taken their place, at least on Pratt Street, don't offer the same kind of pleasures.

Mostly, I guess, the perfect Pratt Street simply would be interesting, the kind of street that you can stroll and find shops and cafes that you wouldn't find out in the 'burbs - which, in a sort of circular logic, have recently tried to capture an urban sensibility with faux downtowns like The Avenue at White Marsh.

If nothing else, the plan does give a mostly neglected street some much needed attention. On its most important stretch, the one adjacent to the harbor, both sides of Pratt seem to turn their backs on it, with the Harborplace pavilions on the south facing the waterfront and, on the north, buildings that are set at quite a distance from the street.

The plan fixes that, calling for a reconfiguration that would fill in some of that frontage with restaurants, shops and such.

So who knows, maybe some day, we'll be singing under our collective breath, "On Pratt Street, that phat street ..."