59 Carden St.

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.

Now *that's* competition

Posted by Magda
There are 2235 parking spots around downtown Guelph, on the street and in lots.

In comparison, in 2004 there were 2600 spots at Stone Road Mall, all in one block.

That's serious competition.

Where did Wilson Street parkade come from?

Posted by Magda
I'm researching an in-depth story about parking downtown (read more on Saturday), and part of what I'm hearing is surprise at how quickly the Wilson Street parkade was proposed and given initial approval. (Council on Tuesday approved the concept of the garage and put aside $400,000 to start planning for it.)

The first time the parkade was mentioned in the Mercury was in John Marsden's running column on March 4. Then, in the March 10 Merc, reporter Vik Kirsch talked to councillors about the need for the garage. The March 14 paper details how it passed through committee, and yesterday's paper how it passed through council. My head's spinning.

A library on Wyndham Street?

Posted by Magda
The city is talking about finding main-streetfront access for the future library/condo/parking complex to go on Baker Street. That means talking over property on Wyndham, Woolwich or Quebec, says David Corks, the city's downtown manager.

"A library has to have significant street frontage," he said. "That means the city has to negotiate with private property owners....

"To have the central library landlocked doesn't make sense. But (surrounding land) is all privately owned. What do you displace?"

In a previous incarnation of the plan, the old post office, now purchased by the county, would have served as street frontage for whatever is built behind.

I've been hearing rumours for months from Wyndham Street business owners worried they'll be displaced by the development. But there seems to be an obvious spot -- once Fresh Start and the food shelf move to Baker Street, that'll make three vacant storefronts in a row on upper Wyndham. Corks wouldn't say who the city's negotiating with, and it'll be a year before they expect to have signed a deal with a developer, so we won't know for a while.

Council passes Wilson Street garage

Posted by Magda
Council approved $400,000 for a plan toward a $16-million, roughly 500-spot parking garage on Wilson Street. The plan will go back to council for final approval. Read more in the paper tomorrow.

Who needs parking?

Posted by Magda
As the conversation about downtown parking heats up, I'm reminded of an interesting tidbit I found in the Mercury archives when I was writing about the history of the library.

When the existing library was built at Paisley and Norfolk, a parking lot was built just north of the building. That was temporary -- the space was actually in reserve for future expansions, since a library doesn't actually need a parking lot, councillors in the 1960s argued.

It's a bit of a contrast with the 150 spots David Corks, the downtown economic development manager, is recommending be kept in reserve for the future library on Baker Street.