Editor: I am an avid supporter and reader of The Voice. It’s so important and vital to have a local paper in this community targeting what is happening in and around this region.
As we all know, the topic of what’s happening to the Downtown Chatham Centre is a continuous one filled with lots of rumours, suggestions, speculations and controversies.
The latest idea about an idea of having city hall and the library move into the DCC may appear as a great one, but in my opinion it will not address the root cause – the decline of our downtown people traffic.
I believe this move will only exacerbate the empty core scenario.
Even if this deal goes through, again after much debate and research and discussions, city hall moving into the old Sears would not solve, in my opinion, the issue of building traffic in our centre thus helping the struggling small businesses there.
Perhaps those people that are being paid huge consulting fees to figure it all out should look at what is the biggest challenge to our downtown. It’s not the buildings, it’s the people traffic flow. Getting people to come to the core is the issue.
Employees of the current city hall would be moved into their new fancier offices, but the surrounding businesses would not benefit any more since the number of people working at city hall would remain the same as usual.
No greater numbers would be generated; just same old, same old, except on new premises.
The consultants should look at ideas that will not disrupt the current downtown any more than needed, but instead enhance it.
We need another Wheels or a centre of learning that will bring more people to our core.
Regina Stockus
Chatham
Huntington type place in downtown Detroit would be the best type of business for drawing people to downtown. If one was serious there should be a hockey rink along with it to draw in a OHL Teams. Then a draw to being all kind of business for downtown. Anything else is only a band aid for a dead 20 year existence. Look at any thriving downtown they all have one or the other.
With the state of the downtown core, I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to go there. Drug addicts openly injecting across from the Chatham Police station, even the Tim Hortons is force to close early because of the homeless army. Seedy and suspicious people in the core, especially the Spankys / RBC / pawnshop intersection.