A walk down Whyte Avenue shows a lot of empty storefronts.
Cheryl Villetard wants to see more people, which means more shopping for businesses that would fill those now-empty stores. And she wants to do it by having a pedestrian-friendly one-street over.
“We see it close quite frequently along 83 Ave. here for festivals. So around 30 days a year already it’s closed, and so it’s a really easy way to implement giving back more spaces to the people,” said Villetard.
The idea has support from some businesses.
“I think it’s a really strong move, I think we had the opportunity during the pandemic to experiment, and we found that when these parking spaces were removed, we actually had an increase in business,” said Mark Wilson, the co-owner of Vivid Print.
A local business association and the organisation Path for People are pushing the city council to focus on improvements of infrastructure, sidewalks, and even parking.
“Within three kilometres around our area, there are 80,000 residents and that’s just gonna grow. So our current infrastructure is not gonna survive that growth,” said Cherie Klassen the executive director of Old Strathcona Business Association.
The last revitalization of Whyte Ave. was in the 1980s. The business association is questioning the city council about the lack of attention.
“For a district that is vibrant as our main street in the entire city that brings in hundreds of thousands of millions of tourists every year. Why is it that we don’t have the proper mechanism for revitalization before 40 years?”
The strategy was supposed to be presented at the Council’s Urban Planning Committee on September 17 but was later moved to October 8.