On The StreetSpecîal Report How would you change Page il downtown Whitby In the very near future, after a series of meetings, the Downtown Action Comm- i t tee w ilI i decide just how downtown Whitby can be given a facelift. This week vveasked people around Whitby just ex- actly what they would do to the downtown area if they were given complete freedom to do what they wanted. Tearing Down and staeting over Unfor tunately a lot of people fel t down- town was a loser and the only wa'y to fix it up would be to tear it down and start over a gain. But the biggest problem ci te d was the difficul ty shoppers had wi th pa rk ing. Most people said they would rather park in a large lot in a plazathantry toparallel park in a small downtovvn space IF they could find a space to park downtown without walking two or three blocks. For anybody who really wants to shop down town there are two fairly large parking lots both within two blocks of the downtown area. There is not, how- ever, the glamour and the newness of a modern shopping plaza to be found down- town. One person who felt the downtown area is a washout was Mrs D. Gordon - "I think they should tear down all the old stores and build new ones, it's no good to keep putting paint on the old b u i l d in gs. Parking downtown is also very bad. It's ridiculous to have to put money in a parking meter just to go into one store. As for the idea of restoring as many of the old buildings as would be feas- i bl y possible, Mrs Gordon said, "I think it's a good idea to restore the buildings and to tidy them up a bit. i tike to see old buildings, that's why we moved to Whitby because we liked the old buildings here. They looked a lot better then, now the old buildings are terrible, especially the backs of them." Restoration, a good idea Mrs W. Barton didn't like the idea of restoring the old buildings either. "I certainly wouldn't put the downtown area back to the old way, and I don't see how' they can do this with the new banks, Any- way the old buildings are fire hazards. I think the biggest headache is the pay p a r k i n g which drives business away from the down town area. " Mrs Barton went on to add, " I think the Town of Wh i tb y is spending to much, per iod! This may not be too bad for the young people but it's tough for the older peo- pIe who are living on fixed incomes."' Strictly a business area Mr. B. Gibbs fel t the down town area o f Wh i tb y should be a business area only, for just offices and doctors•and l awyer s. He e xpl ained,, "I woul d tr y to brighten up the town by painting the stores in gay colours but I believe that Whitby would be better as a business town. It is impossible to restore Whitby back to 1890 because of the presence of t h e n e w banks,. Another thing is that people don't want to pay to park just to go to the drugstore downtown so they go to the shopping centres. Whitby would be better just as a business ar ea for lawyers, doctors, dentists. I Mrs K. Flury felt there was not much interest in the downtown area. i I don't really know what can be done because there's no interest with the people as far as Whitby is concerned. The best ideawouldbe tomake the downtown area intoamall, but of course the main diff- icul ty would be the two highways cross- ing. But modern buildings are what most people seem to want and it's gone over wellI in,Oshawa so perhaps that's the best for Whitby! Parkidg lots On the other hand Mrs. M. Fletcher had no beefs about the downtown area as it was now and she said, " Except for the lack of parking, the downtown looks al- right, so why spend a lot of money try- ing to improve the stores. There's not too many places to shop as all the stores are closing down and with the lack of parking people go to Oshawa anyway. " Mrs. H. Elliot would like to see Whitby restored back to the 1890's era and explained. " People tend to shop w h e r e i t ' s modern al though putting Whitby back to the way it was in the 19th century would be a tourist attrac- tion because it's different. However, I think people would soon tire of it and revert back to shopping at the shopping centres, " Mrs. Elliot added, "A good idea would be to send a questionaire around so people could write their ideas down." Mrs. B. Davidson said " I think it would be smart if all the stores were put back to the way they were buti can't think of anything else that could be done. ." Mr. E. Bowman cited parking as a problem and stated, " The biggest pro- blem is parking - having to use meters. With the plazas, your parking is pro- vided and all the stores are within easy w a I k i n g distance. "He added, " The b u i Id i n g s downtown could definitely standmodernizing as it looks so dreary downtown." Mrs. B. Kozlenko agreed downtown area needed a good cleaning up and she said, . 1il think some of the stores could be brightened up, but there's a l~ot of empty stores downtown and there's not much that can be done about them. Buil- dings could be cleaned up and painted, may be put in some flower s. Mr s Kozlenko went on to say, " Dundas Street doesn't look to bad but Brock Street definitely needs renovating and painting. " Mail concept Some of the people questioned felt the roads shoul d be changed so the down- town area could be turned into a maIl, perhaps like the Sparks Street maIl in .~ Ottawa. One such person was Rob Nisbet who said, 't I would reroute traffic down to Rossland Road as this is where the new M un i c i p a l complexes are going to be located. Once I had rerouted traffic I would concentrate on one block north a n d o n e b Ilock south. Therefore you would have a mail, having the east and west as approaches and north and the south as the streets. As for restoration RobNisbet said, " I think it would cost alot ofmoney to facelift the town prior to 1890. I believe you should try to com- bine the old with the new. The idea of r e s t o r ing the four corners would not fit in with the modern aspect of Whitby." Road Changes Mrs. J. Taylor wanted roads changed as wel I and explained, "One thing I would like to see is a much better way of crossing the road. In my mind a big traffic circle in the middle of Dundas and Brock streets with flowers or some- thing in the centre would help people crossing the roads and would make the downtown area more attractive. " Words used to describe downtown Whitby were; shabby dul1, drab, untidy, unattractive and just plain, Il a mess." As for the solutions there could be many but that's up to the people who live in Whitby. It would seem after talking to the citizens that the majority just don't care too much about restoring the down-] town. The strongest idea seems to be, "tear down and rebuild. " Mrs. Elliot had what sounds like the best idea of all when she suggested the Town should send out a questionaire. It makessense! All the ideas in the world are useless if people won't accept them. A Questionaire could tell The Town Council exactly what the people of Whi- tby want for the downtown area. letters to the editor ib0x 206, w hitby P.O. Box #250, Ajax, Business Stimulators Ontario, Canada Public Relations Tailor Made Features L.J. 'Lou' Dickson n>]ELECTROHOME 2 YEAR WARRANTY ON PARTS & SERVICE ON ALL COLOR SETS AND STEREO 1 YEAR WARRANTY ON B&W Diunbartou Radio & TeitVSIO Ltd. 1327 Harwood Ave. N., Ajax. 942-5880 ROMPT, COURTEOUS T. V. SERVICE A~llTRZD DEPOT OR SERYICING MAGNAVOX- PIILIPS. ADMIRAL - RCA - ELECTROMoE colr . B a w SHOWROOM -152 SIMCOE S. IO OSHAWA 725 -1685 *HOLMESELECTRONICS