My only hope now is that the execution and quality of the re-facing of the street is timely and well done. Who knows, maybe we will all look back in a year and say “this looks a lot better”… only time will tell.

‘Tis folly to cry for spilt milk. – Unknown

This is just the first step in redoing those blocks. I choose not to form my opinion or express my pleasure or indignation until I see the final result.

When experience is not retained… infancy is perpetual.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. – Santayana

I’m sure they’ll make the street all pretty-like again… with thanks to the taxpayers. I can see where some of the businesses would be happy about it for sure… Thanks for the sewer overflow!

If my memory serves me well, there was some public dissatisfaction in the early 1980s over the creation of the transit mall, and then the merchants got upset because they thought the presence of all those “bus people” was driving away customers. When the bus transfer area moved to Baker Street and Superior Street, and the bus people were gone, some business owners realized that what little business they had was from them.

It’s the same way they took down St. Pauls Cathedral. In the middle of the night, on a weekend. Before anyone knew what was going on, the demo had already begun. However, I do see the flipside. Delivery trucks need to get down there, in order to have buisness, or bigger buisnesses. The reason there isn’t more shops, is becuase it’s horribly expensive to have one down there. I’d just like to know how they re-used all the wood they cut down? Oh, right… mulch! Too many companies in this town make way too much money through destruction. A farce indeed!

I couldn’t help but see the irony – business owners that favor wider sidewalks to on-street parking / loading.