What does DTK need?

[tomh009]

Businesses certainly do care. Perhaps you don't remember the uproar about the loss of parking uptown on King St due to LRT construction. Many of of the mindset that people will ONLY come if we go out of the way to make parking easy. but their thinking is stuck in the 1960s. Ideally we do want businesses to become mode agnostic. In practice eliminating parking makes all modes shorter. Many people forget that each mode of transportation does end with walking. Fewer cars parked the less distance one has to walk.

How are those businesses doing these days? I did hear there was quite the vacancy rate in DTK - businesses want people to visit irrespective of how they arrive, and it's obvious that as time goes on their grievances were on point

I also disagree that we (taxpayers) should subsidize private businesses downtown or anywhere for that matter

There has been no exodus of retail or restaurants from downtown Kitchener since the LRT construction. There is empty retail space, but the vast majority of that is new construction. (And there is a lot of office space vacancy, but that has nothing to do with the LRT or parking.)

Free parking is also a form of subsidy...