City wants to know how Kingstonians would like to revamp the gateway to downtown

One of the busiest intersections in Kingston will soon be seeing a facelift.

The city wants to beautify the intersection at Princess and Division streets because officials say it currently doesn’t present a nice introduction to the city’s downtown.

Earlier this year, city councillors voted in favour to put funding towards sprucing up the intersection.

The area is congested and has been going through a lot of reconstruction that is expected to be completed by the end of this year.  The city wants the community’s input in how they should revamp the gateway to downtown.

Global News spoke with Colin Wiginton, the cultural director with the City of Kingston.

“It’s a great opportunity to really talk about not just art and public art but also how we can think differently about our streets and how they are designed,” said Wiginton.

The city set up a booth at the Princess Street Promenade Saturday afternoon so they could chat with Kingstonians and hear what they have to say.  Wiginton found a lot of diversity in the city’s suggestions.

“People immediately think let’s get some green space going and I love that idea. There’s also been a lot of discussion about seeing Indigenous culture represented. I find that really fascinating. Of course, people always love the idea of incorporating some sort of interactive or playful element,” says Wiginton.

This is just one of many community engagement sessions that the city has planned.  There will be more opportunities in the near future for residents to provide suggestions, which will then be discussed and presented to the city staff as recommendations in 2019.