The following article appeared in the August 23 edition of the Guelph Mercury.
(I was interviewed by the Mercury for this piece, providing background and context for the pilot project. This item has been discussed at the Nightlife Task Force for a number of months. Not sure why my perspective was excluded. ian)
If there’s a way to effectively move people away from the downtown after the bars close for the night, let’s do it, says Erin White.
The general manager of McCabe’s Irish pub and grill, at the corner of Wyndham and Macdonell streets, has been working in the downtown bar scene for the past six years and has seen some interesting things after leaving work in the wee hours of the morning. Fights, damage done to cars and businesses – she said she’s even seen someone go through a storefront window.
To help address the ruckus downtown that seems to return every September with the start of a new school year, the city’s plans to close sections of Wyndham and Macdonell to vehicular traffic and have taxi cabs line up to shuttle people home at the end of the night.
“You see people on the street throughout the year, but come September, it’s a whole other story,” White said. For the first few weekends when the university students return, she said the downtown is flooded with more than twice the normal amount of people, hanging out after bars close. She said one night after her shift was done, she found a drunk person curled up in the back seat of her car, having a nap.
Beginning on Aug. 30, the city will be starting a five-week pilot project that will see Macdonell Street closed between Wilson Street and the West Parkade, and Wyndham Street closed between Carden and Cork streets between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. on Thursday through Saturday nights.
Spearheaded by the police, the project aims to move people out from the downtown safely by implementing taxi stands at the corner of Cork and Wyndham and on Fountain Street, across from the police station. These cabs will be the only vehicles on the street at this time. Wheelchair-accessible portable washrooms will also be introduced, placed beside Sun Sun restaurant in the Macdonell Street parking lot.
Councillor Bob Bell said he first heard about the pilot project when he read the story in Wednesday’s Mercury. He said he was surprised the project never came up in earlier discussions.
Bell said he understands how the police would want a safer environment for the late-night drinkers, but he said the community shouldn’t be paying for it.
The city is putting forward $10,000 for this project, which will be coming out of the fund for downtown beautification projects. The Downtown Guelph Business Association will also be chipping in to cover the cost of private security guards to wait by the taxi stands.
“The city funds the downtown board through taxpayer money,” Bell said, adding it has always been his impression that the board is heavily influenced by the bar owners.
“So rather than the bar owners paying the bill, the downtown board is paying the bill. In other words, the community is paying the bill,” he said.
“We need to be covering the costs associated with the late-night bars, from the late-night bars.”
(The DGBA is 100% funded by Downtown merchants. No taxpayer money is involved.
Councillor Bell sat on the DGBA from 2006-2010. ian)
Coun. Cam Guthrie said he also heard about the pilot project for the first time through the media. He said over the years, the city has used a number of tools to help move people out from downtown safely and effectively after the bars close – “this is maybe a new tool that might work.”
He said he’s not bothered that council wasn’t officially notified of the project because it’s not something that needs their approval. Because this is a project led by police, addressing safety concerns of residents, “this is something that council should try to get out of the way of, and let them do their jobs.”
Pierre Lachapelle, owner of Pierre’s Poutine on Macdonell, said the project might actually hurt his business. He said people often come into his business to call a cab, and then order a poutine while they wait for it to arrive. With taxi cabs lined up and ready to take the crowds home after they exit the bar, he said people will no longer spill out of the bar and into his shop.
But Tracey Nichol and Julia Cecchetto, third-year students headed back to the University of Guelph in September, said the pilot project is not likely to remove the crowds from downtown any faster than normal. With two years experience of partying out downtown each year at the start of school, the students said people enjoy hanging out on the streets after the bars close.
“A lot of people linger around,” Cecchetto said. “I don’t know how much of a difference it will make. People will still hang out.”
“It’s not so much that people can’t get home,” Nichol said. “It’s they don’t want to leave yet.”