Government Street will be closed to vehicles for a few days this fall and winter rather than for one day next month, Victoria councillors have decided.
Three city councillors had proposed that — as a pilot project — Government Street between Humboldt and Yates streets be closed to vehicle traffic Sunday, Aug. 16 from noon to 5 p.m.
The hope was to draw local people to that street, profile the businesses through sidewalk sales and to turn the street into “a truly people place.”
But after hearing from a number of stakeholders, councillors decided Thursday that a better test of the idea would be to hold a series of Government Street pedestrian-only Saturdays or Sundays in the shoulder season months of October, November, possibly December, and January and February.
Aug. 16 was originally selected because there are no cruise ships in port that day.
“We received, basically, some negative feedback from the Government Street merchants who basically said that summer takes care of itself and they thought it was too short of a timeline to turn around this year,” said Coun. Jeremy Loveday, one of the proponents of the idea.
“So we decided to give it a try in the off-season and try to help build the year-round economy on Government Street ending on Valentine’s Day with a LoveGov event.”
Not everyone felt that Government Street needs help from city hall. Coun. Pam Madoff said Government’s mix of pedestrian and vehicle traffic is successful. The two issues with Government, she said, are that the tourist-oriented retail stores don’t appeal to locals and that large highway coach-style buses are permitted on the street.
