A Cambridge city councillor’s idea to close part of Main Street in downtown Cambridge for a pedestrian-only area has been supported, in theory, by his colleagues.
Coun. Adam Cooper brought forward a motion to Tuesday’s council meeting asking for a staff report to look into the feasibility of keeping Main Street between Ainslie Street and Water Street closed year-round.
Currently, that section of Main Street closes for the summer months to encourage people to go to the area for outdoor dining, live entertainment and special events. This year, the road’s closure started May 17 and will run to October 14.
“We’ve got the bridge, we’ve got the river, we’ve got the architecture, the cultural heritage, we’ve got the people. And all we need now is the will,” Cooper told his fellow council members during the meeting.
“I believe that we can do it. I can picture the winter markets, Christmas festivals, children playing,” he added. “I’m hoping that in the future, we look back on this as a turning point in our downtown revitalization, turning point for the tourism.”
LISTENÂ |Â Cambridge councillor wants to keep Galt’s Main Street closed to traffic:
Coun. Scott Hamilton said he thought it was a “great idea” and it’s worth the city’s time to study it. Having lived previously near pedestrian-only areas in Montreal and Ottawa, Hamilton said he saw what bustling areas they can be.
But, he said, there are also concerns about whether there are enough people in Cambridge to support creating this kind of space.
“When staff comes back with a report, I’d love to see that correlation between population density, walkability, and business to see whether or not we’re at that number of people living in a core area to be able to sustain the blocking of the street, let’s say in the winter months, and if we didn’t, what would the special measures be that we would have to bring in to pull people in,” he said.
Need to look at impact on businesses: Coun. Roberts
Coun. Nicholas Ermeta says he regularly goes to the Collingwood and The Town of the Blue Mountains area in the winter, even though he doesn’t ski, because of the fun vibe the pedestrian areas have.
“I go there just to walk around in the winter and they have things going on all the time,” he said.
“They have like enclosed shelters where you can order drinks and they have fires as you walk through the villages, like campfires that by standing close to it, you feel the heat, you don’t even know if it’s winter sometimes.”
Coun. Sheri Roberts says she’s attended a number of events on Main Street and it was nice to see people in the community enjoying the space.
“It was really nice to see people just coming together and enjoying each other’s company and the vibrancy is really exciting,” she said.
Roberts added in speaking to business owners, they also love when there are special events in the area bringing people downtown.
“When there are events, they are seeing an increase in business, but sometimes they struggle when there isn’t events,” she said.
She said she hopes the staff report will look at possible programming ideas to make sure people visit the area even when there aren’t special events and in the colder months.
Cambridge city councillors voted unanimously in favour of asking staff to report back to council as part of the 2025 budget deliberations.