Comment 72894

By seancb (registered) - website | Posted January 10, 2012 at 08:19:27 in reply to Comment 72883

Comfortable streets (whether one way or two) may not draw a lot of people in who currently use them as through streets - but they makes the places much more comfortable for people to walk along, meaning local residents will spend more time on the commercial streets. The positive feedback of this is that more people will move to these areas and they'll just get better. Look at Locke businesses and then consider the neighbouring areas - including property values. The same thing is happening around James North. It takes time, and it's not all about "two way streets" but a comfortable street has to be the first move otherwise it never happens.

Bottom line, it's not about street direction it's about making the streets comfortable for people so that they'll want to live on/near them - and the drive-thru outsiders are not the target market (well until they see how great the streets have become and choose to move in closer :-)

We are going to have to increase density here somehow, otherwise we will never be able to afford our infrastructure upkeep. The roads and sewers (and everything else) aren't magically going to stop needing work, they aren't going to get any younger, and the work isn't going to get any cheaper. The only way to keep our taxes in check is to attract more residents so that the costs can be better shared.

More residents downtown means more businesses which translates to fewer vacant building tax breaks, more taxes coming in, more money being spent, etc....

Those who hold so tightly to the concept of driving through the city at maximum efficiency seem to not understand that this privilege is directly linked to our rising taxes and cost of living in this city. It's simply unsustainable.

I vote down for offensiveness and up for humour. I cast no votes based on my level of agreement.

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