Car-free Sundays coming June 19

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King Street at College Street, looking west: this section of road would closed to vehicles on car-free Sundays. Photo: OpenFile Waterloo Region.
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Parts of King Street in Kitchener and Waterloo will be closed for a series of car-free Sundays.

Reported by Ryan Métivier
Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Opened by Ryan Métivier
Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Kitchener agrees to only one car-free Sunday

Ryan Métivier

Reported on Monday, June 13, 2011

A little over a month ago, the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo were planning "Square 2 Square." The event was to take place over four Sundays and would see parts of King Street closed to cars in order to animate the streets and attract citizens to the downtown cores.

Coun. Dan Glenn-Graham of Kitchener and Coun. Melissa Durrell of Waterloo have been the primary organizers of the event, but when Glenn-Graham presented to Kitchener council on May 30, the city decided to take a step back.

While Waterloo will be participating in all four events, with the first taking place on Father’s Day on June 19, Kitchener will only be participating in the second of the events on July 17.

“I don’t think the reason was the cost,” said Glenn-Graham. “The staff said they were ready to go and I said we were ready to go. But there was some sense that the rest of council thought we were pushing it a bit too hard for June. I thought it was very doable, but the collective wisdom of council thought differently and I respect that.”

Kitchener Coun. Kelly Galloway, one of the council members to vote against holding the Square 2 Square event, was concerned about costs, which had reached an estimated $11,500 per event for the city of Kitchener.

“One of the main reasons why I opposed it was that it wasn’t taken in priority with the rest of the city’s budget,” she said. “One of the things I suggested at the committee meeting was that this kind of thing should come back and compete with all the priorities in the city. Whether that be arts or festival funding, or staff members for the transportation demand management strategy.”

While in favour of the “car-free” concept, Galloway noted that the city has cut $20,000 from its special events budget and will not be hiring staff for the cycling master plan and transportation demand management plan, which evaluates transportation-related issues in the city.

“We voted against that as a collective and now it was going to cost almost the same to run four events that took 16 hours of the year when that staff person could have tried to get people out of cars and into cycling 365 days a year,” said Galloway.

Galloway also noted that downtown Kitchener's Ribfest and Craft Beer Show, meant to bring citizens to the downtown core, is on the same weekend a Square 2 Square day is scheduled.

“We’re already going to have a huge amount of people that we have advertised and invested in bringing downtown and I don’t think we are going to get the bang for our dollar. I don’t think it’s going to bring that many more people to our downtown that weren’t already going to be coming,” said Galloway.

Glenn-Graham is hopeful that the July 17 Square 2 Square car-free event could still lead to further participation for the city.

“I’m extremely optimistic. I think that this thing is going to be a great event and there will be a lot of support for it,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of sponsorship money coming into it and I think for the people who come out to it, it will be extremely exciting.”

Glenn-Graham said he wants to get the cost of the event down to $1,500 per event in order to ask as little of the tax payer as possible. He also added that an adjustment has been made to the original plan that now allows traffic to travel on roads that intersect with King Street in downtown Kitchener.

“We want to make sure that the people that live in the apartment buildings and certainly the businesses like Central Fresh Market, the funeral home and of course emergency services and the hospital would be able to make their way across,” said Glenn-Graham. “We’re having police at some of these intersections just to make sure it’s done properly.”

Council is set to hold a special session after the event in July, when they will review Square 2 Square and decide if participation in the August and September events is warranted.

It is being called "Square 2 Square," and it will mean that King Street in Kitchener and Waterloo will be off limits to vehicular traffic for a few hours on Sunday, June 19. Instead, between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., the main thoroughfare will be a space for pedestrians to take to the street.

The car-free event, a joint pilot project between the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, will be held over a series of Sundays following the initial Father's Day date: July 17, August 14 and September 18. The event's website, square2square.ca, will eventually be live.

The venture between the two cities has set a goal of attracting thousands of people to the downtown core areas, from civic square to civic square. Young Street to Victoria Street will be closed in Kitchener and Union Street to Erb Street will be closed in Waterloo. In between, from Victoria to Union, three lanes will remain open, with only one lane closed southbound. Similar car-free events have taken place in hundreds of cities around the world, including Toronto and London, Ont.

“When I first heard about this idea I was completely inspired because the idea of it is taking a road that is only meant for cars and giving it back to the community. I love that idea,” said Waterloo Coun. Melissa Durrell. "Taking something that’s already there and making it into an open space for community is cheap, it’s community driven and it promotes a healthy community.”

City organizers want to animate the streets, which they hope will be filled not only with citizens from Kitchener, Waterloo and surrounding areas but also with musicians and artists, as well as with games and activities for people to play. A giant scrabble board will be set up at John and King streets, and local businesses are being asked to get involved by having sidewalk sales.

Though several businesses have already signed up to participate, some have expressed concerns.

“I don’t think the event is a bad idea, but closing King Street is. I think everybody is still accustomed to driving everywhere and it deters people from coming down if there’s congestion in the streets,” said Kris Deyarmond, owner of O.W. Sports in Uptown Waterloo. “Every time they close King Street, regardless what it’s for, it’s dead as far as people shopping, so this will definitely be bad for business.”

Astrid Kropp, owner of kid kouture on King Street in Waterloo had similar concerns.

“The reality is when they do these festivals…they’re not bringing the people downtown who are going to patronize the businesses. I’m not open on Sundays so for me it doesn’t really matter. Sundays are actually better for me as a business than having it done on a Saturday. From a community perspective, since I do live within walking distance of the downtown area, I think it’s a great idea though. I think you need to try ideas and see what works. It takes a lot to stick your neck out there and give something a go,” Kropp said.

Cambridge resident Andrea Gribbon sees many benefits to an event like this.

“It promotes community and keeps a small town feel. It will get citizens downtown and gives people a reason to come downtown besides just for shopping,” she said.

Organizers do however face challenges other than business cooperation, such as funding and the fact that an emergency route for Grand River Hospital is located between Victoria Street and Union Street where traffic will be reduced to three lanes instead of four.

“Maintaining three lanes of vehicle access will definitely take our needs into account and we think that will work out quite well,” said Mark Karjaluoto, director of communications at Grand River Hospital.

With their volume typically down on Sundays, Karjaluoto sees no concerns for the hospital. “Nothing could be improved from our perspective. If they’re maintaining the access, which to my understanding they are, then that addresses what we need. We know that events like these can be quite important for community building and we’re happy to support them as best we can.”

Kitchener Coun. Daniel Glenn-Graham sees the event, which has a Facebook page, as an opportunity to create more friendships between Waterloo and Kitchener.

“We want to build social ties. We cooperate on a lot of practical levels, but this a chance to do something socially that we haven’t done in the past,” he said.

Event organizers will be hitting the streets to get as many businesses involved as possible and to organize labour and signage, as well as inviting artists and musicians. Obtaining sponsorship is also in the plans to offset some of the $8,000 Glenn-Graham estimates it will cost for each of the cities.

“We want to mitigate the cost with sponsorship. I present to council on May 30 and want to have a plan on how we will pay for this and how we are getting sponsorships,” he said.