Comment 39580

By Glass Half Full (anonymous) | Posted April 08, 2010 at 07:11:03

I guess my point being that aside from the removal of the streetcar line, Westdale's core street/parking plan (that is, inside the spiderweb) is essentially the same as it was when first developed.

By my estimate there are about 200 available parking spots in the area enclosed by North and South Oval, extending to Sterling (that includes dedicated customer-only parking, of course), 40% of which are on the ovals and a quarter of which are inside the maligned circle. The cafe extensions would remove about 10% of total parking space or 40% of Westdale's core parking.

If those numbers seem outrageous, consider that within that area you'll find two banks, a credit union, a movie theatre, a drug store, a library and a Tim Hortons. How does this parking supply stack up against a three-block stretch of James North (Cannon to Barton, say), or a six-block stretch of Locke Locke (Hunter to Herkimer), without factoring in sidestreets or the lack of comparable amenities?

Maybe Westdale seems like it has parking for a reason. Maybe the BIA is gun-shy about appearing to make the area less accessible to outsiders, or tipping the balance to more student-centric. Or maybe the business model of some of the locals requires a degree of volume. (A buddy of mine tried to see Defendor at the Westdale on Sunday, but was told that the paying audience was too small... by showtime, he was half the audience.) Although Second Cup, Dragon's Court and Saigon Asian seem to make patios work. Who knows?

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