Kelowna new downtown

[normaM]

dinner and a show? planning on feeding the ducks and watching the rat swim? j/k

[OhMyDarlin]

the fore sight of the original city fathers demonstrated they knew the future nice wide streets and parking
for their time.

The streets were built wide to prevent potential structure fires from jumping the road, as flames used to do when buildings were made primarily of wood. Street parking had nothing to do with the width of the streets.

omd

[kibbs]

the sidewalks close to curbs are bikeshares and legal to ride on watch out for opening car doors.more bike consideration is needed when they do the rest.

[JoePlanner]

You're not supposed to always directly benefit from your tax dollars. I live in Rutland, but it would be nice to have nice clean revamped Downtown core to go shopping or just bum around. I don't demand all my tax dollars to be spent in Rutland - that would be unworkable and kinda stupid.

You should stop getting bent out of shape over your tax dollars. You live in a city where many people's needs have to be addressed, and just because city doesn't dance around you and what you need, doesn't mean they waste money. It just means they're addressing someone else's needs sometimes - like people who live downtown. It's not all about you, you know.

You're one of the few people here that seems to get it. Some simply cannot fathom that other people exist in the world and that their preferences are often very different from their own. Furthermore, they're totally shocked when their own exact personal preferences are not fully followed to guide the municipal spending of a city of 117k people.

Take the most ornery person in this thread and multiply them by a thousand-fold - that's the schizophrenic level of b*tching and whining that the City has to deal with DAILY. It's a wonder things actually operate as well as they do without descending into total chaos.

They say the best way to express yourself is with your wallet, therefore I will not buy
a bloody thing downtown for a long time and maybe never. The parking is basically
gone, if I want to walk instead of parking I would go to the mall therefore I will go to
the mall.

What I'm trying to say is: don't pretend that these changes NOW have actually changed your spending habits. For that to be true, it would mean you regularly shopped there. And you sound a bit too "damngrumpy" for that to be true. If downtown looks sharper, and as a handy side-effect deters people such as yourself from moaning and whining down the sidewalks, frankly its a win-win. Obviously downtown will be enjoyed by other people, but you are missing out on some nice changes (not necessarily the street changes in particular, just incremental improvement over the past 10 years).

[60-YEARS-in-Ktown]

A lot of towns. A hundred yearsago, built very wide main streets, so that teamsters could turn around..

[FreeRights]

Anybody who doesn't think Bernard needed that upgrade is absolutely delusional.

And it actually looks great.

[grammafreddy]

Anybody who doesn't think Bernard needed that upgrade is absolutely delusional.

I don't think anyone here has said the upgrade wasn't needed - at least as far as the city's infrastructure upgrade (water, sewer, paving, etc) is concerned.

Am not so sure the land owners/merchants were all on board for the very expensive "decorations", though, or the loss of parking spots. Those big debt numbers are going to hit quite a few of them pretty hard in their pocketbooks. Some who were just barely hanging on before may not make it now.

[Cumungala]

Has anybody noticed the new light sabers at Bernard and Richter? The 5 or so poles that line each side of the entrance to Bernard at Richter light up at night and simultaneously change color every few seconds. Very cool. I hope they put them at every intersection.

[Bsuds]

Red, Yellow and Green maybe?

[SmokeOnTheWater]

Has anybody noticed the new light sabers at Bernard and Richter? The 5 or so poles that line each side of the entrance to Bernard at Richter light up at night and simultaneously change color every few seconds. Very cool. I hope they put them at every intersection.

I noticed them today ( daytime ) and was wondering what it was.

[grammafreddy]

Has anybody noticed the new light sabers at Bernard and Richter? The 5 or so poles that line each side of the entrance to Bernard at Richter light up at night and simultaneously change color every few seconds. Very cool. I hope they put them at every intersection.

Maybe those are the $14,000 "streetlights" ??? If so, there's about 22 of them all along Bernard. Are they $308,000 worth of cool?

One has to wonder if all the merchants downtown knew exactly what they were buying into - like these streetlights at those prices, etc. that will only have an impact after dark and when a lot of them will be closed.

Anyone have a video of these things?

[Ken7]

Has anybody noticed the new light sabers at Bernard and Richter? The 5 or so poles that line each side of the entrance to Bernard at Richter light up at night and simultaneously change color every few seconds. Very cool. I hope they put them at every intersection.

Cool, I'm not for spending money just to spend or say " I made improvement while Mayor", it was needed!!

I was thinking the other night, wonder if they considered putting in speakers... would have been nice and possibly would have changed the mood downtown with some.

Could also have generated some return, have local stations contract out to utilize the system monthy.

[sparky7691]

Am not so sure the land owners/merchants were all on board for the very expensive "decorations", though, or the loss of parking spots. Those big debt numbers are going to hit quite a few of them pretty hard in their pocketbooks. Some who were just barely hanging on before may not make it now.

What am I missing? Was the cost NOT out of the City budget. That means ALL Kelowna taxpayers shared in the cost of the upgrades, not just the neighbouring businesses.

Why will those "big debt numbers" hit the Bernard businesses? They are not solely responsible for the revitalization costs...

I could be wrong...and if I'm wrong, I'm sure grammaknowitall will tell me...

[sparky7691]

Could also have generated some return, have local stations contract out to utilize the system monthy.

But what if K96.3 won the bid? Doesn't Walter Gray own that station...or at least owned it until Dallas Gray took over...can you say conflict???

[grammafreddy]