What does DTK need?

[bravado]

Ac3r, along with most people miss the point here. The bike lane highways that they and others rant about don’t exist to make downtown better. No Dutch city has such a thing. They exist to make it more possible to exist alongside cars. The only thing we need to do is get rid of the cars. But we lack the will and courage to do so, so instead we need bike lanes. And further we will never have a truly great livable downtown. But focusing on whining about bike lanes, people miss the damn point.

You're missing the point - it's not about how you get there, it's WHY you want to go there in the first place

No place can be good if people can't get there in the first place, and a place that allows lots of people to drive there quickly and easily isn't a place people want to be (see: walmart parking lots). There's a reason why people want to go see the old city in philadelphia, or italian villages, or the narrow vibrant streets of tokyo - and nobody ever wants to go to the exotic Home Depot or the culturally significant new Chick-Fil-A across town. There are Real places and there are auto-centric places, and they are diametrically opposed to each other.

Downtown Kitchener is stuck between trying to make a real place, but also compromising and making it a driving-friendly place. Worst of both worlds. The tragic part is that it used to be a real place. before the parking lots. We've just culturally forgotten.