General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[danbrotherston]

Anyone interested in less cars downtown (and more space for pedestrians and bikes) should make sure the BIA and its members are firmly on their radar. I have multiple insights into the DTK BIA, and what many of them push for is no different than what you hear from other BIAs in other cities that oppose basically everything this forum stands for.

It really makes you wonder who is really pulling the strings? Do the minority of angry drivers really have that much influence?

dtkvictim is completely right here. It's not angry car drivers, it's the existing business owners in DTK that most fiercely oppose these sorts of changes.

Small business owners are largely a very conservative bunch. Their entire wealth if often tied up in the business, and any change represents risk. Right now things work for them, they make money. A car free King St? Maybe it would bring more people and make them more money, but it also might make their business less successful, and no one wants to risk their entire wealth.

Honestly, many of the businesses aren't poised to take advantage of increasing foot traffic. It would likely increase rents, which would mean the businesses would need to do more volume. For a lot of DTK restaurants that might work, they're good desirable places and can hire more staff, but there's also DTK retailers that I'd probably describe as hanging on out of pure stubbornness. More foot traffic won't change that their products aren't that desirable, and the increase in rents will push them out of business. They're not wrong that a busier DTK is bad for them. I don't think they should get to hold the downtown core of the city hostage to their own demands, but the city is obviously loathe to do anything that the BIA doesn't support.

Fair point...

It was business owners who killed the Ontario section of the Downtown Grid, something that NIMBYs on the other side of King couldn't achieve.