59 Carden St.

A vibrant downtown?

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Posted by Magda
For the second time I've barely noticed a storefront closing before a new business opens in the same space. This time it was Necessities on Quebec Street, which as I understand remained as the outlet for IF.. after that store moved to the square, before closing last week or so. The Little Fifth, which was in an impossibly tiny space across the road, is moving into the vacant space. A couple of weeks ago and a few doors down, a knitting store opened in the space of a gift shop that had just closed.

While that's all going on, though, the Daydream Nation space on Macdonell has been vacant for months, and of course retailers are seeming hesitant about the north end of Wyndham, where storefronts may or may not be torn down to make room for the new library.

In any case it seems Quebec Street at least is a desirable location.

Gummer update

Posted by Magda
The latest I've heard from Skyline is that work is slowing down until tenants come forward. There still seems to be an unresolved inconsistency between that and letters subcontractors have read to me which say the project is not going ahead at this time. I'm working on resolving that. Read more in the paper tomorrow. (Photo by Ryan Pfeiffer, taken from the crane on the Gummer site)

• Building slowdown, Nov. 18
• Gummer tenants, Nov. 18

Free parking continues, for now

Posted by Magda
The pilot project offering free parking downtown, originally intended to expire last month, is continuing for probably another month, said David Corks, the city's downtown manager. He's preparing a report for council about the costs of continuing the project, and looking at ways to recover some of those costs. He said, though, that the city has limited ability to recover the money.

(Photo by Shannon Conley for the Mercury)

Note to private sector: step up

Posted by Magda
The city is talking about making the downtown a so-called community improvement area. That would give the city more sway over the downtown, permitting them for instance to offer incentives and tax breaks for development.

But the ultimate goal is to encourage the private sector to invest in downtown, too, said David Corks, the city's downtown manager.

The Gummer building is a poster-child for this, with public money supplementing private investment. I wonder what's coming next.

Is downtown a bad word?

Posted by Magda
Ken Hammill is wondering whether "downtown" is a bad word. He suggests instead that the area be called "the city's core."

I ran into him at a public open house regarding encouraging investment in the downtown. But that kind of things isn't just about downtown, Hammill said. It's about improving the heart of the city, something he says everyone will benefit from.

It'll be interesting to see how this council continues to deal with issues of the downtown as other things like the south-end recreation centre and York lands come knocking.

How full are the lots?

Posted by Magda
Some new data on how full the downtown lots and parkades are, by percentage:

Baker Street lot capacity 246	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Jan.	Feb.
2006-2007	84	88	86	71	72	75
2007-2008	75	77	78	78	75	78

West parkade capacity 532	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Jan.	Feb.
2006-2007	69	68	68	74	74	73
2007-2008	69	73	77	79	72	79

East parkade capacity 351	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Jan.	Feb.
2006-2007	71	74	75	64	77	78
2007-2008	76	76	75	78	73	80

Macdonell Street lot capacity 60	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Jan.	Feb.
2006-2007	73	76	73	65	63	72
2007-2008	76	78	79	79	81	81

Wilson Street lot capacity 81	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Jan.	Feb.
2006-2007	62	70	72	60	67	69
2007-2008	75	73	70	69	66	70

Hard to tell who to blame

Posted by Magda
Taxpayers should keep paying the roughly $174,000 it costs a year for policing and clean-up in the downtown resulting from what city staff call "nightlife activity." (Of that, $125,000 is for policing and $49,000 is for city staff.)

Staff also suggest the city continue efforts to reduce the source of the problems. The staff report says the number of problems has shrunk in the last two years because most first-year students are underage, the university developed a code of conduct for students, bars are doing a better job of checking customers' ages and charging minimum drink prices, and police, bus and taxi services have improved.

Imposing penalties would have negative economic impact, the report says, and "a cost recovery program" (having bars pitch in) would bring bad publicity to downtown.

Staff say they'd look into ways of recovering the costs if instructed to do so, but warn it's hard to tell which bars and restaurants are contributing to the problem.

What you thought of downtown Guelph

Posted by Magda

The city commissioned a survey about free downtown parking. The results shine an interesting light both on parking, and on how people use the downtown.

Just under half -- 47% -- of people said they work, live or participate in entertainment downtown. Of those who don't, a fifth -- 11% of those interviewed -- said they haven't been downtown in the last year.

More than a third of people said free parking has resulted in them coming downtown more often, and 88 per cent said they want free parking to be permanent.

It's all out of a sample of 400 people.

Read more in the paper... er.... maybe on Saturday.

A year later...

Posted by Magda
Sunday will mark a year since the devastating Douglas Street fire, which destroyed the better part of three historic buildings -- the only original buildings left on St. George's square -- and put people out of their homes, businesses out of their offices and closed the street for eight months.

A lot has happened since then. Skyline, the owner of the Gummer building, acquired neighbouring damaged buildings and designed a cohesive office building, incorporating what remains of the old buildings and offering about twice the office space, with commercial on the ground floor. They applied for and received money from the city to help the redevelopment, and construction is well on its way. Now, they're renting out units, and I hear demand is high, though I've yet to talk to the folks at Skyline.

But what's it been like for the people whose livelihoods are on the line? I'm chatting with a bunch of them, and we'll have an anniversary story in tomorrow's paper, and clips of them, speaking in their own voices about what's happened since then, on our website on the weekend.

In the spirit of April Fools...

Posted by Magda
In 2005, the city gave up the chance to buy the old post office on Wyndham Street to house the new main library. Soon after, Wellington County bought the building, now home to its social services division.

Last week, it turned out the city is trying to get main-street frontage for the new library, now planned for Baker Street, by buying up property on Wyndham just north of the old post office. In light of that, and with a nod to April Fools, I hope they’'ll consider my suggestion.

Instead of buying up the Family Thrift Store or Wyndham Arts --– kicking out an established city business and the corresponding upper-floor apartments is a messy job --– they should simply buy the old post office. At least that expropriation would mean investing taxpayer dollars into another municipality, rather than a private businessman. And it would put an end to those smug reminders that council missed out on a great opportunity by not buying the building.

Heck, if the post office really can’t hold the weight of all those books, as some have suggested, they could tear it down and build anew.

Happy April Fools.