What does DTK need?

[danbrotherston]

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.

This does not make any sense to me. Why do you care how people get there? If it's nice and sunny I can bike to DTK with my kids, if it's cold and raining I want to take the car - do you think businesses care how you came to their establishment? Does the CoK care?

Nobody is talking about how people get downtown!

This isn't complicated. When you visit fairway mall do you hang out in the parking lot or in the mall?

Traffic in downtown negatively affects the experience of being downtown. If you can't see that then I guess that explains why you're confused but most people don't like pollution, noise and the constant threat of bodily harm.