I co-own a bicycle store in downtown Guelph and have been attending meetings hosted by Lorenz Calcagno concerning impediments to traffic, and customers, in our downtown core. I have been very interested in the ideas that he has proposed and I have been hoping that as a community (downtown business owners) we would have the opportunity to present this issue to the CDES and eventually to City Council.
I have just heard from Lorenz that this issue is going to Council tonight. I have also learned that Operations put together a report concerning this issue even though they have never attended the meetings concerning this issue.
Having read this report, they have conducted informal research at a time when traffic to downtown Guelph was essentially severed with lower Wyndham impassable and critical parts of Woolwich completely shut down. Although this is beyond the point of this email, do you not see the timing of their research as completely irrelevant to this debate? If traffic cannot, and is not flowing through downtown, then one can safely assume that there will be no wait times for vehicles at the St. Georges square intersection. Anecdotally I have witnessed a huge drop in traffic as a result of this wholly necessary construction and to base proposals on information gathered at this period and time is completely ludicrous. But I digress.The main point I would like to make is would you not agree that, as a community, the downtown business owners have a right to due process in a matter that we feel strongly affects our livelihood? Would it not also make sense for this decision, decisions that are of economic and environmental importance be made with input from groups other than just Operations? And furthermore to base this decision on more than two days of questionable data?
I am not demanding that the proposed changes be steam rolled through or that the proposed changes are the solution to all of our problems. What I am requesting is that these proposals are given the time and respect they deserve and the community is allowed due process in this matter. I am quite disturbed that a matter of this much importance has been put forward with notification on a Friday for a meeting that is taking place on a Monday.
As a last point. We are located at 135 Wyndham St. and gaze across the street at the shuttered, boarded and spray painted buildings that welcome potential customers to downtown Guelph. On a daily basis I get the pleasure of watching drug deals in the alley way from Baker St. parking lot. I also get to witness women (and men and children) scurrying down the alleyway trying to get to Hush or Diana’s and looking as if their lives are going to end. Add on the two broken windows and one stolen bicycle (from the window) that we have received this year. It all points towards a simple fact.
Our downtown is failing. As I have stepped around the discarded take out, politely refused the pan handlers and walked over the remains of a nights debauchery I have watched it fall apart for the last 7 years that I have worked here. The initial proposals that are being put forth are not expensive, they are not earth shattering but they have the potential to reverse some of the negative trends that I get to see on a daily basis. These proposals deserve their due process and we, as business owners, deserve to put forth our thoughts to the appropriate committees in a fashion that other matters of significant importance are allowed.
Please, take the time to consider this and allow us the chance we deserve. TP