(Eaton) Lofts at 276

[panamaniac]

Condos, hipster grocery stores and cafes aren't enough to make the atmosphere of downtown Kitchener any more lively or unique than it is. The problem is that what currently exists downtown almost exclusively caters to the 9 to 5 crowd and there are very, very, very few reasons for "normal" people (aka anyone not living down there) to go downtown for anything, let alone outside of business hours. There's an art gallery, boring museum and a vaguely niche theatre that make it unique, but that's about it. Everything else downtown exists much more plentifully and conveniently (i.e. business hours) in the rest of the city. Until there are enough interesting shops and...well, basically anything to do downtown, it's always going to have this weird vibe made up of people getting lunch then disappearing and various riff raff roaming the streets asking for spare change or cigarettes. 620'000+ people living here and the main urban district doesn't even have a grocery store...

I think ac3r was commenting on the population of WR as a whole.

Anyways, pre-pandemic there was definitely a big 9-5 population that is now missing

Well, there was a clothing store and a shoe store downtown for many years, but they closed a few years ago. If you look at historical pictures, the downtown was the main shopping district. Then they built the suburban malls, which hollowed out the downtowns of many small cities. It will take a few years for retailers to discover how to serve the new residents that will be filling the new buildings downtown.

Yeah, it used to be a popular place. There was a good video clip posted on Reddit a couple weeks ago filmed around the 1950 or 1960s if I remember correctly. There were people everywhere. It was fascinating to see. In fact, King Street was pedestrianized in this video clip so there were people walking down the streets, sitting around chatting and going in and out of shops. But then yes, as you said, suburban malls and changes in urban planning really altered things.

....

I'll try to find the video clip I'm talking about, it was interesting to see. Edit: Found it! It was definitely the main shopping district in the city back then: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mf4eoibcrz2p65...r.mp4?dl=0

Those among us of (ahem) a certain age will recall a time when DTK was not only popular, but popular with all classes of people.  Until well into the 1960s, people “dressed” to go downtown.