Call for input to make East Hastings the city’s most walkable street
Posted June 24, 2017 3:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Strathcona Business Improvement Association wants your input as it tries to make a strip of East Hastings the city’s most walkable street by 2021.
The campaign kicks off today at the annual Strathcona Block Party.
The Association’s executive director Joji Kumagai admits from Victoria Drive to east of Main Street, East Hastings it’s not the most walkable area at the moment.
“The street right now is quite a throughfare and there are a lot of commuters coming from further east and making their way downtown. And then obviously in the evening the opposite with a lot of people from downtown heading eastward.”
The goal is to change all that by 2021. Kumagai points to the ecclectic businesses and programs for new benches and public art.
“Walkability will really support that. Our members will be happy that we can help them and support more street traffic and improvement.”
“(Our goal of 2021 is) ambitious but it does give us a very fine focus on where we want to go from here. So we’re going to be ambitious and keep our fingers crossed.”
The plan includes a number of different pieces.
‘Our urban tree nursery program has been going on for a number of years now. Last year we installed three community-designed, customized benches. Our transportation advocacy plan, we’re just about to launch and we just completed a public art strategy. So there’s different initiatives underway.”
The Association will keep running open houses to gather input on weekends.
