I've heard a couple of suggestions for "fixing" downtown Squamish: One is to get a bulldozer, start at the corner of Winnipeg Street and Cleveland Avenue and move south, or, alternately, strike a match at Victoria and Cleveland and hope the prevailing northerlies take the whole thing out.
Let's face it: The efforts thus far to breathe some life into downtown - densification and beautification - have largely failed. If Squamish's climate were any drier, tumbleweeds would blow down Cleveland every day after 7 p.m.
I believe that a vibrant and vigorous downtown is possible without taking the whole thing out and starting fresh. And I don't think that the waterfront will replace downtown or revive it.
So although no one has asked, I'm going to offer my simple three-step solution for revitalizing the downtown.
The first step is easy and requires some fairly minor changes: Make Cleveland a one-way, two-lane street running north to south with angle parking and sidewalk extensions that provide traffic calming and offer more space for pedestrian traffic. Then make Second Avenue one-way, south to north, serving to increase traffic along that street and improve street-front exposure for business. Loggers Lane could remain two-way for those who wish to use it.
The new, wider sidewalks should encourage more pedestrian traffic and the angle parking will allow for more parking.
The second step is to allow restaurants and cafés to move into the pedestrian areas with patios and (in the wet season) covered areas. This may encourage some entrepreneurs to open shop and perhaps even to stay open in the evening. As part of the "bring the sidewalks to life" campaign, maybe the district could encourage and license buskers to provide entertainment.
The final step is to build a real town centre. Cleveland and Winnipeg is the intersection that marks the heart of the community. Currently, two parking lots, a vacant lot, and a kids' toy store populate that corner. Apart from the retail business, this marks a pretty cold heart of town.
Is it possible for the municipality to make a deal to gain control over part of the parking lot adjacent to the clock and to build a town square/plaza there? Pavilion Park is great, but it doesn't really bring people into the heart of the town.
A bulldozer might be more dramatic, and a match more cathartic, but maybe the solution to downtown is simpler.
