Blocking off that section of downtown I think would help rejuvinate it in a way. I love on the few occasions that its closed (buskers) because it just makes it a much nicer place to be. Less noise, less stink, and less worried about being clipped by one of our cities wonderful taxi cabs.

Downtown is hardly a one stop shop, usually when I do any shopping down there Im visiting multiple stores, walking the stretch anyway. In the summer Kingston has enough pedestian traffic to make it work. Maybe it should be a seasonnal closure. And if the street was open to pedestrian, one might actually notcie and increase in pedestrian traffic, since walking is the only option.

I think its a great idea, people are far too lazy and rely on their vehicles too much. It might even helop some of the struggling boutiques downtown because walk in traffic could account for an increase in business. It far easier to catch someones eye and bring them inside when they are just walking by, as opposed to in their car where they would have to find parking.

Because once it’s not a main thoroughfare anymore, Downtown Kingston will be dead as nails and that’s just fine by me, not to mention it’s a well-deserved outcome for the jerks down there.

Screw us once, shame on us. Screw us twice, or in this case repeatedly, well then it’s over, baby. Just die already, and stop sucking the life out of the whole rest of Kingston. You know, all the folks beyond the 5 or so families that own this shameful downtown.

People are slowly but certainly wisening-up to the free-gig the downtown has been creating for itself since amalgamation. It’s inevitable. Face it: the party’s over for downtown. Gimme that third bridge.

I think a section of street blocked off downtown would add to the warm feeling Kingston already has. I don’t think we should block off as much as Harvey is suggesting. There’s not much up near Division that I would be interested in walking to, I say stick to the areas with little shops and galleries and of course, this would only happen after rush hour. I think it would be more reasonable to block off a smaller section like they do for Buskers (so Bagot to Ontario – not including Ontario).

@RicoJ: Suburbinites who hate downtown can jump on the 401 and go around. Last I checked, Queen, Brock and Johnson all run parallel to Princess, giving us other options when necessary. If you really feel that downtown is such an awful pit, you aren’t looking hard enough. There are some wonderful gems – unique stores, galleries and restaurants alike – that make our city a place that people love to visit.

- Development of a new downtown identity (i.e. obviously the downtown is faltering with the advent of the big bad box store and cookie-cutter BS on Gardiner & Midland St’s. This would give it some life – and a different one than having to compete with the small-business destroyers out in the west end.)

- Promote greener forms of transportation to and from the d/t.

- Without better maintenance and upkeep, and injected life into the d/t, tourism will decline. No one comes here to shop at the big boxes – they’ve got those exact stores in their own towns, and they look and smell exactly the same.

- Change to a pedestrian area would shift the nature of the shops no doubt, but I think this would be for the better. The only path forward for the d/t core is to offer the specialty boutiques, the cafes and patio restaurants… i.e. the type of place you’d like to stroll to find neat different things.

Can you tell I’m not a fan of the big box?

Anyway, I’m not an expert and in reality I have no idea if it would work – there are obviously a lot of problems with the concept.

However, I have visited a number of City’s that have such a pedestrian focal point and in my experiences, they were busy. Not quite applicable to Canada, but: San Jose Costa Rica (Avenida Central) has one, Wellington NZ (Manner St) has one and so does Perth, Australia. They were ALL prosperous and busy when I was there, which was many occasions over longer stays.

Does anyone know of any such things in Canada?

ryant67: Your last sentence. I agree, but it is a lack of access points for CARS that is the problem. If the City truly wants to become “Canada’s Most Sustainable City”, then it needs to actually get on with it and promote sustainability through urban design & retrofit. Right now it is failing in that the downtown is proving to be unsustainable in its current form.

As it is, the primary problem for people visiting the downtown area is a lack of access points. Blocking off the primary one wouldn’t help at all.

Then again, I wonder how our local businesses would react. Would they like it or not? Maybe A&P might disapprove. Then again, I can see some of the restaurants and cafes take over part of the street for more patio space :)