City staff are adding two weekends dedicated to recreation and cultural activities this summer.
They are calling the event Ontario Street: A Vibrant Spaces Project, and the selected weekends start on July 12 and August 9.
The location for the two events will be Confederation Park directly across the street from city hall.
Recreation Programs Manager Jacclyn Grimmon says the first of the two weekends will be dedicated to recreation activities.
“Yoga classes that people can come and participate in, there’s a drum circle, there’s a number of different musical performances that are going on,” Grimmon said, describing some of the activities.
On both those event weekends, Ontario Street will be closed in front of city hall.
The project hits on a couple of council’s stated goals, like fostering healthy citizens and creating vibrant spaces.
It’s also hoped that closing Ontario Street will allow people to enjoy the municipality’s waterfront and move further into the downtown core without having to deal with traffic.
Arts and Sector Manager Danika Lochhead says it could improve tourists experiences while in the limestone city.
“People staying downtown and going to local businesses,” Lochead said. “That’s something we anticipate this project will do, as well.”
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Sean Cooney travelled from Ottawa to visit family in Kingston and says closing the one block of Ontario Street is a good idea.
“You’ve got city transit, you can take it to and from to the event and I support that, because the less traffic on the roads the better it is for people to walk around,” Cooney said.
The two weekends, if successful, could possibly lead to looking at the idea of making the road closure permanent says Lochhead.
“In a future state, does it look like this street closure could become a more permanent thing?” Lochead said.
“I think we’re open to exploring that.”
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