Water Street pedestrian zone will be back in 2025, on weekends

Article content

Kim Briscoe said her retail business went down 32 per cent when the city of Vancouver shut three blocks of Water Street in Gastown to vehicles this summer.

But when the Water Street pedestrian zone pilot project ended and traffic returned Sept. 5, business went right back to normal.

“They reopened it on a Thursday,” said Briscoe, who has run Kimprints frame shop for four decades on the main floor of the Hotel Europe. “The Saturday I had record day. I had a record day here.”

Article content

But others liked the pedestrian zone pilot. So on Oct. 24, city council voted to bring it back for the summer of 2025, with one major change — Water Street will close to traffic on weekends only.

Jackie Haliburton of Angel clothing at 2 Powell Street is relieved, somewhat.

“As long as they do (special) events, put some energy into the weekends and have special things going on, it might be OK,” said Haliburton, whose business was down 20 per cent last summer.

“It’s much better than the alternative,” she said, of having the street closed to traffic for three months. “That would be so scary if they did that again.”

Support for the pedestrian zone varied depending on the type of business and where the businesses were located.

In a survey, the city found food and beverage businesses like bars “are more supportive of the pilot returning,” at 63 per cent. This is nine per cent higher than retailers, where 54 per cent want the experiment to continue.

Forty-five per cent of food and beverage businesses reported increases in revenue, compared to 39 per cent for retailers.

The city found there was “a strong split between those who support (the pedestrian zone) and those who don’t.”

Article content

Article content

“Some destination businesses (e.g., high-end retailers, fine dining, specific services) that rely on customers who seek out their unique product offerings or experiences did not feel they benefited from increased pedestrian volumes during the pilot,” according to a news release from the city.

“These businesses also serve clientele that rely more on vehicle access and, as a result, these businesses were more impacted by the loss of on-street parking and traffic circulation changes.”

Briscoe’s frame shop was one of the “destination” businesses.

“My type of business, people can’t walk out with framed hockey jerseys and walk two blocks to try and find parking,” she said. “Parking was an issue. A big issue.”

What really seemed to tick her customers off was when the city ticketed and towed vehicles in her block on Powell Street, which was closed to parking but wasn’t clearly marked.

“Towed, that’s $300 to $400, right there,” she said.

But the city survey found that many people liked the pedestrian zone.

Lee Haber lives near Gastown and found Water Street busy when he went there.

Article content

Haber thinks the pain some retailers had may have been because of four months of construction that happened before the pedestrian pilot began.

He would like to the pedestrian zone expanded, getting rid of a “car light” zone with some traffic on Water Street to make it fully pedestrian.

“Then you can do some of the really cool stuff that’s being done in other cities,” he said.

“In Montreal, for example when they pedestrianize they don’t just don’t put up barriers and call it a day, they set up stuff like minigolf courses, they put up playgrounds, places where children can draw and paint. There’s all kinds of stuff to animate the space.”

jmackie@postmedia.com

Article content