Hello Council

What if the small retail and other businesses inside that almost empty and irrelevant mall were incentivized to move to downtown locations? Fill up empty storefronts with the promise of 6 months free rent or some other hard-to-refuse offer. Downtown could use the boost and the mall is all but dead anyway.

Food Basics, Leons, Giant Tiger, Good Life all stay put. Seek a contractor/developer to convert the remainder of the mall into adult and senior condos. The halls are still available for indoor walking, the residents would have walkable services (groceries, gym etc) and an under used building gets repurposed without destroying parkland. Reduce the pavement size, add clusters of trees to provide much-needed shade.

While we are filling up retail and restaurant space downtown, why not look into making the section of 2nd Ave East between 10th and 9th a pedestrian-only street. Restaurants could have larger outdoor spaces for tables along this section and the entire shopping experience would be enhanced and humanized. This would be very easy to "test" before making it permanent.

Thank you for considering my suggestions.

Micheline N Mann
Owen Sound