“You know it does feel a little bit like Frogger when you’re crossing Dewdney Avenue at the moment,” Leasa Gibbons, the executive director of Regina’s Warehouse District (RWD) offered.
The bridging point between the railyard, free parking, and the row of businesses that symbolizes the beginning of the Warehouse District, Dewdney Avenue is subject to a sizable amount of foot-traffic.
But at the moment, there isn’t a designated area to cross the street.
“The challenge in that is that the bylaw requires a sidewalk on the other side, and as you’ve seen there’s not a sidewalk on the south side of Dewdeny Ave.,” she continued.
Instead, there lies the roughened shape of trodden path. Brown grass slicing through gardens and greenery.
“We know that there is a desire for folks to have a sidewalk on this side. They’ve voted with their feet essentially,” Gibbons said.
“I think I first started suggesting to the city about four years ago that a single sidewalk, a single crosswalk, would be nice. They do keep saying it’s their plan, I’d like to see some action,” Rebellion Brewing President Mark Heise added.
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“We hear it all the time from people that requesting whether it’s better parking, better ability to get here by bike or by foot, you know whatever the case may be,” he added.
On this particular day, Rebellion was the gathering for “Food Truck Chewsday”, a Warehouse District initiative to drive foot traffic to the area.
“Anything that we can do to help out is fantastic. The pop-ups help bring this conversation, and then we can have another conversation with City Hall,” Gibbons said.
RWD said they would love to see a pilot project that created a crossing for pedestrians, preferably this year.
“We understand that budget is tight, and we definitely want to make this a priority for spring 2019 if we can’t do it this year,” Gibbons noted.
The city’s Railyard Renewal Project, part of the Regina Revitalization Initiative, will transform the 17.5 acres into mixed-use space with townhouses and apartments for 2000 people.
The project is expected to take over a decade, and shovels won’t hit the dirt until the early 2020’s, something that will eventually benefit the area, but doesn’t solve the immediate issue.
“We just feel that in a downtown location it needs to be accessible, needs to be walkable, and it’s just really lacking right now,” Heise continued.
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