WANTED: Fresh ideas to make Penticton even better

[bipdl]

OKAY! We'll try and keep this thread out of the Political arena.

NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR HATES (OR LOVES) ABOUT THE MAYOR, COUNSEL, CITY HALL OR ANYTHING ADMINISTRATIVE OR POLITICAL!!!!!!!

This is about sharing NEW thoughts and ideas, however whacky or outside the box, about what you think would make Penticton a better place to live, visit, start a business, enjoy..., whatever you've had in mind but was always afraid you'd get criticized for. (I'm asking the Moderators to please strictly enforce Commandments #1 and #9!)

Please post any ideas you have or had, including any idea you may have published or posted elsewhere. Let's see it again here as if it's the very first time.

REMEMBER, THIS IS ABOUT POSITIVISM, NOT ABOUT K'VETCHING!

[southy]

Downtown revitalization! Let's make it ... Main and Front ... the Centre of the City! More padestrian friendly, less vehicle traffic. A major clean-up ..it's old ... feels like it and looks like it. The summer market is great, let's expand it and turn every Saturday into a major Streetfest ... morning till night. Vendors, entertainment, theme Saturday's based on community events or conferences that might be happening each specific weekend, late night shopping ... people won't buy if businesses aren't open. Promote it valleywide ... brand it as British Columbia's largest outdoor market and streetfest. It's time we became more aggressive with our marketing. Also, with the right sponsorship dollars .. one major music act could be booked at the bandstand for July, August and September. I'm not talking local or regional entertainment, I mean major acts. Concert could start at 8pm with local/regional groups performing up to. Just a couple ideas and yes, it takes $$'s and people but first it takesthought.

[Tony]

I like it Southy. If Main Street was turned into a Gastown type area, with the street closed to vehicular traffic, except maybe a bus of some kind, then maybe the kitchy kind of businesses that make Front Street oddly successful would find their way into the downtown core, making it more unique to shop than the malls. Hours would have to be extended to make it worthwhile, maybe being open until 7 during the week and 9 on weekend.

Love the concert concept as well.

[3+141592]

OK, I'll chip in...

I'm in favor of making part of Main street pedestrian-only:
How about closing the "200 block" for June-August with concrete
planters at both ends? Encourage public congregation by installing seating, free
WiFi, lights, plenty of bike lock posts and designated show areas for public performers?
Follow up with a public consultation in the fall to see what could be improved on the
idea (+ remove the barricades for fall and winter).

On the wilder side: how about a ZIP line from the Munson mountain
lookout to the marina? As an added bonus, make it a rite of passage for
the next mayor and Council

Those might not be 100% fresh (or feasible!) but my $0.02

[stewie007]

Move the gyro bandshell or relocate it to the larger park by the lakeside resort. This thing is old and needs to go. Start holding more, better outdoor concerts in the new one. Where the old one was, build an outdoor (cooled) ice rink like kelowna has and give families and people a place to go for outdoor winter skating. Also can hold hockey drop in nites and occasional tournaments. Great way to promote penticton and attract people to the city with spending as a great spinoff. $2-5 dollar user fee to offset costs.

[Tero]

Downtown revitalization! Let's make it ... Main and Front ... the Centre of the City! More padestrian friendly, less vehicle traffic. A major clean-up ..it's old ... feels like it and looks like it. The summer market is great, let's expand it and turn every Saturday into a major Streetfest ... morning till night. Vendors, entertainment, theme Saturday's based on community events or conferences that might be happening each specific weekend, late night shopping ... people won't buy if businesses aren't open. Promote it valleywide ... brand it as British Columbia's largest outdoor market and streetfest. It's time we became more aggressive with our marketing. Also, with the right sponsorship dollars .. one major music act could be booked at the bandstand for July, August and September. I'm not talking local or regional entertainment, I mean major acts. Concert could start at 8pm with local/regional groups performing up to. Just a couple ideas and yes, it takes $$'s and people but first it takesthought.

I love this idea, but I'd like to see it happen on Lakeshore. Close one entire lane to traffic (the one closest to the lake as well as all of the parking spots) and open it as a huge market/farmers market/buskers/entertainment/fair/carnival... the ideas are endless. From the Lakeside right down to the SS Sicamous. And yes, in this vision of mine parking would be an issue, but whatever - there's a big parkade down at the hotel and lots by Loco Landing... that and people are already oveweight. Let's promote more walking and bike riding. we could have students earning summer $$ by running rickshaw service to get people and there belongings up and down the street and to the beach. Who said zipline? How about a zipline right down Okanagan avenue... a la Freemont Street. Have a few classy areas for wine tasting located on the street. promote local. Look at the success of the Ironman Street Dance the past several years... what's to stop us from having THAT every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night all summer long?

Also, I think we need more affordable places for families to stay. More affordable hotels or camping spots. My starter 2 cents. I could go on and on.

[Static]

Hold Peachfest on the long weekend and let the youth and young adults return for a party weekend. It is the these tourists that will most likely return as adults with their kids and so on. As soon as the town started to clamp down on the young people coming, the city started to go downhill. This can be confirmed by local business people.

[Graphite]

Fireworks.

Parades.

In that order.

[Graphite]

Drive ins. Unique events.

[nepal]

Here is a far-out idea: As part of the idea to make Main a pedestrian street, create a small landscaped creek in the middle of the first five blocks. Source the water with a pipe over from Penticton Creek and drain by pipe to lake at Lakeshore Dr. Our Main St. makes this uniquely possible, due the slope and proximity to a free water source. Add some contours, little waterfalls, small bridges, sizeable rocks, trees etc... For example, have a look at Sandbridge Community man-made creek, at South Main St. (pipe creek under cross streets)

[bipdl]

I AM REALLY BLOWN AWAY BY SOME OF THE UTTERLY FANTASTIC IDEAS POSTED SO FAR !!!!

It's enough to get even me excited about the possibilities, and I'm pretty damned jaded and cynical.

Keep 'em coming!

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A BAD IDEA!

Spocky, where are you? C'mon Drip_Torch, you know you waaanna! GF, are you there? KL3-Something, how about adding something about what could positively affect what your colleagues do?

Hey, we might be on to something here! If this keeps going, I might even have to run for council. (Don't worry, just kidding! I'm not that masochistic.)

Seriously though, this is a wonderful distillation of some do-able concepts which true leaders could rightly justify getting behind.

"Please sir, I want more."

[Tony]

There are some really nice ideas. Love the creek concept. My question is - how do these get communicated to Council? Not being a negative guy, just curious.

[fluffy]

I too, think that a "greening" of the downtown area into more of a cultural/social area holds the key to the future of Penticton, it's also a model that has worked well in other areas. We've got some great features with the creek and walking paths and the park areas around city hall and the court house, but there are many areas that are still in flux, with older properties in need of upgrading or re-purposing. This is hinged on the economy more than anything else. The convenience of mall shopping is impossible to compete with from a commercial perspective, it would be silly to think that the big box approach could work in the downtown core, but if you look at a lot of the "pocket neighbourhoods" in larger cities where smaller scale operations cater to those in the immediate area you can see the potential for success. The proverbial corner grocery, coffee shops and restaurants, with enough "boutiquey" type destination specialty stores to draw people in from outside the neighbourhood. There is a growing concentration of residential properties in the downtown core, and sooner or later the population density will reach a point where these sort of businesses will look more and more attractive to enterprenuers. There is a good start already with the existing businesses

[French Castanut]

I would create a green belt along the channel by planting big trees all the way from Okanagan to Skaha Lake, to embellish it and hide the nothingness behind it while riding the 97.

Maybe maple tree could you imagine the colors at fall... or trees that blossom at spring time.

[Static]

Attracting jobs to the area would be nice as well. This would increase the population and tax base allowing for beautification projects such as the creek on Main Street (which would be awesome).

I think closing Main Street to traffic other than a free bus is a great idea. I think it would have much opposition from the seniors community though.