The City of Calgary is hosting a series of open houses this week to discuss the redesign of Stephen Avenue.
The pedestrian walkway runs along 8 Avenue Southwest between 4 Street Southwest and 1 Street Southeast and features stores, restaurants, cafés, bars and pubs.
The city announced in April that the iconic pedestrian mall would be revamped and now it’s looking for public input.
The open houses will all be held at the project storefront located at 120 8 Avenue S.W. on:
- Wednesday, Dec. 4 from 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.
- Thursday, Dec. 5 from 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.
- Friday, Dec. 6 from 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.
The City of Calgary says the open houses will let officials share what they’ve learned so far and get insight from stakeholders.
If you can’t make it in person, you can visit the city’s public engagement webpage to learn more about the work it’s done and to provide feedback from Dec. 4 – 20.
Wednesday’s open house
At Wednesday’s open house, Pete Logan said the area needs to be more accessible for people.
“You need more trees, more places to sit down, more street festivals. Make it more people-friendly down here,” he said.
Open house attendee Brock Parks said the area shouldn’t flip-flop between being a driving destination and a pedestrian area.
“I think it’s got to be somewhere that people feel comfortable being all times of the year,” he said.
Some attendees like Margaret Ellis want to see vacant retail and business spaces filled.
“I’d like to see some businesses come back in any of these empty places,” she said.
Small business owners — like Ameen Pabani, who owns the Canadian Impressions souvenir shop on Stephen Avenue — still don’t know what their property taxes are.
“They have to come to their senses, especially the city. They have to understand the property taxes have to be different,” he said.
“If they don’t change it, the street businesses are going to die.”
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