07-05-2017, 04:06 PM
Interesting quote in an article I came across from March. By the Uptown Waterloo BIA's accounting, only two businesses out of 450 closed as a result of ION construction. I'm not sure which two businesses they're referring to or whether I would attribute their closure to construction, but it's nice to see an official source paint a different picture from the "dozens" of small businesses bankruptcies everyone seems to believe ION caused.
http://www.lfpress.com/2017/03/09/waterl...ansit-plan
http://www.lfpress.com/2017/03/09/waterl...ansit-plan
Quote:Years of painful roadwork are just about done in Waterloo Region — it built light-rail rapid transit, construction of which is far more disruptive than London’s bus-only plans — and many early fears appear to have been unfounded.
“Was there fear and frustration? There was when construction started (in 2014),” said Patti Brooks, executive director of the 450-member Uptown Waterloo Business Improvement Area. “One hundred per cent of the kudos go to our businesses for doing what they needed to do.”
In the end, she says, “We only had two businesses that closed due to construction.”