Some of the ideas that came out of the meeting were the same things downtown residents and workers have been clamoring for for quite some time: a grocery store in the core, for example. I know one of those would make my life easier.
I also heard a lot of calls for a pedestrian-only strip on Dundas, which I'm not so sure about. I'm all for making downtown more pedestrian-friendly, but businesses depend on lots of traffic (foot and vehicle) going by, so I'm not sure cutting down on certain kinds would be wise. I think slowing down traffic through the core while giving priority to transit might work better. People would be more inclined to take a bus downtown and stroll around if driving was still possible but a bit frustrating.
Some exciting new ideas came out of the evening as well. Someone suggested a ferris wheel at the Forks of the Thames. A bit much like the other London perhaps, but just think of the view you would have from it. I'd also like to see one evening a week, a Thursday or Friday, when all the downtown businesses agreed to be open late. There's not much open past six at the moment. If people knew that all the shops were open a certain night, they'd be more inclined to come down to shop after work or after dinner.
I'm both interested and nervous to see what the planners and council take out of the brainstorming session. It was a bit hard to tell what the consensus was, since all the groups read their ideas off giant chart paper, skipping ideas that had already been floated. use of some tech, a real-time sense of which ideas excited people the most would have been cool. A Wordle, perhaps.
According to the timeline city workers handed out, the process will also include laying out framework and guidelines for urban design and the hiring of a consultant to study a possible downtown heritage conservation district. I'll be following the process all the way through, attending the three more public meetings that are planned.
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