Pedestrian Streets in Downtown

[11thIndian]

Hey All. First message but I have been reading the forums for 6 months. I'm thrilled at the direction the city seems to be taking. There LOTS of work to do, but there definitely seems to be an air of optimism now that wasn't there when I moved back to Hamilton from TO 3 years ago.

Onto the point at hand.

I was in LA two weeks ago and made it down to the Century City outdoor walking mall in Los Angeles. It reminded me of similar closed off streets in Ottawa and Miami, filled with shopping, restaurants and bars. It occurred to me their might be several opportunities to recreate this in Hamilton, as a more attractive shopping option to the flailing Jackson Square. Imagine closing off King William between John and James, leveling and cobble-stoning the street, making lots of space for walking and big patios. King William isn't a high traffic street anymore, so loosing it to pedestrian traffic wouldn't be a huge issue.

Of course, all this assumes a demand for downtown hamilton retail space. I'd still love to see what happened to Queen Street West in TO happen to King Street, with the larger retailers having big "presence" stores here. But there is definitely a different feel to a street without traffic.

Has there ever been any thoughts along this line?