{"id":39921,"date":"2016-06-29T09:05:58","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T13:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=39921"},"modified":"2016-06-29T09:05:58","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T13:05:58","slug":"vibrant-green-spaces-needed-in-downtown-st-catharines-brock-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/06\/vibrant-green-spaces-needed-in-downtown-st-catharines-brock-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Vibrant green spaces needed in downtown St. Catharines: Brock research"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of St. Catharines is off to a good start with recent downtown revitalization efforts, but more needs to be done to attract residents and enable those who work downtown to relax, according to new Brock University research.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Brock\u2019s Niagara Community Observatory<\/span><\/a> released the report Downtown Revitalization in St. Catharines: Building the Vibrant Public Space<\/i>, which includes the results of data collected by Professor of Geography Michael Ripmeester through polling 300 city residents on what they thought of recent downtown redevelopment efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

These include the construction of the 5,000-seat Meridian Centre, the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre and Brock\u2019s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About 80 per cent of those surveyed believe the Performing Arts Centre, the Meridian Centre and the Walker school are beneficial to the downtown.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, only 7.63 per cent of survey respondents reported attending live arts events and 6.5 per cent live sporting events on a regular basis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of those who held positive views of St. Catharines\u2019 recent development projects, \u201c95 per cent also noted that other things would be more likely to bring them downtown,\u201d says the report.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey suggested that the downtown needs more welcoming spots in which to stroll, sit or commune with other downtown visitors,\u201d says Ripmeester.<\/span><\/p>\n

Survey respondents offered a number of ideas of how to make the downtown core greener and more relaxing and interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems clear that participants believe that the presence of individuals, families and seniors doing everyday social activities could provide the vibrancy that would attract them to downtown,\u201d Ripmeester says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to see places where people are comfortable and engaged in pleasurable, low-cost or free leisure activities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The report concludes with a list of six recommendations for the downtown core, including:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0<\/span>Install more benches for \u201cpeople watching\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0<\/span>Invest in a water feature in the city hall\/market square area that could be a skating rink in the winter<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0<\/span>Add landscaping, artwork and creative lighting<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0<\/span>Arrange for free family outdoor entertainment during the spring and summer<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0<\/span>Convert James St. between Church and King streets as a pedestrian walkway<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Downtown

Downtown St. Catharines<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City of St. Catharines is off to a good start with recent downtown revitalization efforts, but more needs to be done to attract residents and enable those who work downtown to relax, according to new Brock University research. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":39929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,4052,1,5],"tags":[341,4263,4264,434],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39932,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39921\/revisions\/39932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}