Ouellette Avenue 1970

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• We have to forget about the car all together. I refuse to believe that a reasonably sized shopping centre downtown wouldn't work because there's nowhere free to park. We need to stop catering to motorists, and get on with our lives. The world doesn't revolve around the automobile anymore.

  Darren's right, we don't really need more bars, but we definitely do need more businesses. So what type of businesses would prosper downtown? What businesses have done well so far? Places like Milk, Phog, Coffee Exchange; these are all excellent examples of locally owned establishments with highly dedicated patrons. What's their secret, I wonder?

  Would high end clothing/shoe shops work (I'm thinking of Queen Street in Toronto)? Or should it be a bit more accessible, with toy stores, a grocery store, maybe a second hand shop or two, etc. (more like Bloor and Bathurst, in Toronto)? Or a mixed bag of all types? Anyways... it can't ALL be bars. Just because they make lots of money, doesn't mean they make a suitable, sustainable downtown. We need someone on council who will understand this, and will strive to make the necessary changes.

  Nominations for councilors begin January 4th... there is a light at the end of this tunnel!

  End rant (which was motivational in nature, of course).

• i agree with most of the statements here..

  i hear people tossing out ideas such as light rails lines, pedestrian malls, even the new mini downtown market etc. All the ideas have merit.. but nothing can replace the effect of a constant flow of residents living and working within the downtown core.. the unfortunate thing is without good retail, the people wont come, and without people, the retail wont come..

  how do we jump start the process?

• Windsor could not attract large retail chains in the past, after the Woolworths, Kresge,Zellers and Smiths left other chains probabley could not or would not open
  because of Devonshire Mall.
  Ottawa street has had its ups and downs but still manages to exist, remember it had three
  chain grocery stores and a department store (Grays), and Teppermans. This are long gone
  but still the street atracts shoppers. Is it the parking lots?

• why can we no longer attract large retail into core areas..

  my view.. its the lack of affluent residents in the core areas (downtown, ottawa, etc). as buildings aged their value dropped and attracted lower income residents. this drove most of the middle class out of the core and into the burbs (they could now for the first time because of the automobile and cheep credit after WWII)

  at first people would drive into the core to do their shopping and goto work, eventually the retail and offices followed the residents out of the core.

  but this will keep happening, as the "first ring suburbs" age the same thing will happen and people will move out even further.

  why this trend has happened only recently? ... the automobile, credit

  thats just my theory...

• About the dates: The city experimented with a pilot project, pedestrian mall the first year which looks like the 1970 sandbox picture above. There was a bigger and better equipped mall the following year.
  Looking after the downtown was a big issue for the politicians of the time. Because part of the council was elected at large, City Council had three members who were downtown merchants. A couple of others worked in the downtown area. That’s half the votes on council.
  The mall presented problems. The bulk of the traffic from the tunnel exited Park Street to Ouellette which became a traffic jam when the way north was blocked by the mall.
  Merchants refused to give up street parking which would have added open lanes for the southbound traffic on Ouellette to exit the city.
  The city’s transit design which threads almsot all the bus routes into the downtown hub added to the gridlock on Ouellette.
  The east-west streets remained open which put distracted pedestrians at risk of being hit when walking through the mall.

• I think the cycle will continue, like shane said, but instead of the first ring of suburbanites moving further out, I'm hoping the general shift in attitude towards the environment will result in more people moving back downtown.

  I know this isn't likely, but in a perfect world the people making the decisions will see the merit of sustainable, smaller communities full of mixed use buildings geared towards walkers and bikers, and make it happen. Poof! Just like that. LOL

• i don't think we should be looking for one big store to solve the woes of downtown. perhaps downtown needs put the focus on attracting independent, local retailers. someone mentioned queen street in toronto. the great thing about queen street (for me anyway) is that there are tons of independent retailers on that strip. now i know you can't compare queen street with oulette but perhaps we be the "mallternative"..a phrase tecumseh has coined for their downtown. bring in indie shops, retail, grocers, galleries. make it truly unique. we can't compete with the mall(s)..that's quite obvious. and getting an anchor chain store to open up is proving next to impossible. so let's look inwards. we've always looked for that one big thing that is going to save this city (casino, chrysler building, arena, canal) and it's never worked. we need to stop looking for the golden ticket that's going to save all our problems.

  rant complete :)

• I wholeheartedly agree! How do you think the city can attract more small businesses downtown?

  Lower rent, for starters... I wonder how that could be possible?

• i'm not sure what the solution is but i know that working together as a collective is a good start. part of the hindrance for downtown and the city in general is this idea that looking out for yourself is best. it's a weird phenomena in this city where we are afraid, as business owners, etc to work together and help each other out. we are afraid to sing our own praises and of those that are doing some really great things in this city. there are tons of people in the downtown area, small business owners, residents and advocates that should be brought together to work on how to push downtown forward. put aside politics and pettiness and let's get this thing moving! those that don't live downtown and often wonder why a downtown is even important to them, need to rethink that notion. a downtown in any city is a representation of the city as a whole. when you visit another city, i'm pretty sure you dont' head to the suburbs to get a feel for what that city has to offer. if we can fix our downtown, perhaps the rest of the city will follow suit.

• There was a pedestrian mall on Ouellette Avenue back in the 70's? What happened to it because I remember the city closed off Ouellette between Riverside Drive and Park Street to cars back in the early 80's and the downtown merchants went nuts.