Pedestrians will take over downtown St. Catharines this afternoon as summer street closures return.
Councillor Mat Siscoe explains things are changing a bit based on feedback from last year.
"We have a larger area this year - it's actually going from, with a small gap by the parking garage, St. Paul from Ontario almost all the way down to Geneva. So the businesses down at the Geneva end of St. Paul are also getting into the swing of things and I know they have done a lot of work beautifying, putting up lights and planters and all the rest of it. So it's going to be a larger area but for a shorter time Fridays and Saturday to start."
He says if business owners express interest, they could consider expanding the closures to include Sunday in the future.
James Street will also be closed from St. Paul to King.
Drivers will still be able to access the downtown parking garages using Carlisle and Academy.
However, the closures will only be in place from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays instead of all weekend.
Siscoe says he would also like to hear from the public about potentially continuing the closures after the pandemic ends. "We have the capacity, we have the space. I think St. Paul is almost perfectly suited to it because, I think we should all be honest with ourselves, St. Paul was never intended to be a high traffic car area."