A Proposal for Downtown

Map taken from the Downtown Association website.

I’ve been thinking about downtown St. Catharines a lot recently. It’s where I work, shop, eat, drink, and live. But one thing that really bothers me is all the traffic that splits through the center of the city, connecting the downtown to several main city streets: Geneva, Niagara, Queenston or Church. The problem is that St. Paul, King St., and Ontario St. are all one-way streets, so people are forced to use the main street to get up-town? At one point, the city discussed whether or not it would be a good idea to make these streets two-way instead, but then there was the issue of a potentially very dangerous five-way intersection at the end of St. Paul St. to consider.

A possible solution is to close the front part of St. Paul St. entirely and make it a pedestrian walkway where, in the summer, people could lounge, go to city-organized events and concerts, and socialize. This would not be so bad for traffic, after making these couple alterations:

1. Making Ontario and King St. two-way streets. This would involve widening King St., but there is enough space to do it.
2. Connecting Glenridge Ave. directly to Geneva St. This way, if someone is coming from the south, they can skip going through downtown and get directly to Geneva. Also, if someone is coming off the highway, they can go left or right – Glenridge or Geneva – North or South.

I can understand that one reason this might not look appealing to city developers is a lack of parking. During the week, the struggle for drivers to find a parking space is a daily occurrence in several downtown centers in Canadian cities, and usually the problem becomes significantly more difficult in bigger cities due to a shortage of usable space. Downtown St. Catharines has the space, but no one is using it yet. For example, behind St. Paul St. there is a space practically the size of a field that is only partially used for parking. To solve the parking issue, we must simply fill up the field and make the backside of St. Paul St. safer by maintaining it. If there were a major parking space available, it would surely be made of use on weekdays by citizens that work downtown, and on the weekends, by shoppers and late-night party-goers.

Pedestrian streets are not new; they are all over Europe and have proven success because they are much more enjoyable, away from the noisy traffic of the city. Because of the decreased traffic, the property value of store-top housing rises significantly. This enables building owners to maintain and fix-up the surrounding areas more.

Here are some other benefits and reasons why we should make St. Paul St. an exclusively pedestrian street:

1. City events, concerts, and outdoor theater. If a stage was built next to L3 on the corner of James and St. Paul St., this would promote consumer spending downtown.
2. Monuments and fountains. These are always city highlights, encouraging people to spend more time and money downtown.
3. No more traffic. This will make life better for those of us that like to sip a coffee or beer on the patios of our favorite watering holes.
4. St. Paul St. will be safer. An increased amount of people downtown will discourage crime.

Really, I see no reason why this shouldn’t happen. I plan on refining my “Utopian Map” and presenting it to the city to see what they have to say.