What About Closing Off Hunter Street To Car Traffic In Summer?
/That is the hypothetical question we pose to you about the cafe district, as it's known.
Some have suggested it's the perfect street with all its diverse restaurants and cafes and bars and shops—and cultures—to shut down in the summer months, and only allow for pedestrian traffic.
Photo by Evan Holt
So imagine a space—perhaps with cobblestone?—where people could walk or bike the street between, say, Aylmer and George on Hunter, with much of that foot traffic trickling down to other streets downtown...
Older, much bigger cities all over the world—with more complicated transportation systems and structures and logistics—have done it for years. They have street performers and artists and vendors and other entertainment, and people—locals and tourists—sitting on packed patios checking out the action. With no cars.
Photo by Evan Holt
Like what about beta testing it one summer—even for a week or so—to see how things would go. After all, creative ingenuity and re-imagining cities and city space comes through experimentation.
Photo by Evan Holt
The Hootenanny on Hunter festival and Taste of Downtown on Charlotte and the recent Peterborough Pulse—when the streets are shut down for a day—prove that people like this... at least for a day.
But why not longer?
Photo by Evan Holt
