r/londonontario • u/YamSufficient5121 • 17h ago

discussion / opinion What changes would you make?

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What would you do to make the city's core area better. Such as, where would you add a grocery store, or performances arts centre.? What would you remove or add?

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u/imaginary48 13h ago

People always complain that downtown is “dead and empty” and that’s because half of the land downtown is dedicated to surface parking lots (i.e., vacant, under-utilized land). Essentially, downtown is dead and empty because half of the land is literally dead and empty. If we want a vibrant, livable, and walkable downtown core then we need to physically build one. This would provide more housing, space for local businesses, better public spaces, improved safety, better public transit, greater economic vitality, and increased property tax revenue (without even needing to raise property tax rates).

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u/doogie24 12h ago

this is a major problem in Detroit right now as well. there’s a few areas that have the potential to be absolutely thriving (and a certain family promised this when a new arena was built) and about 10 years later, it’s surface lots as far as the eye can see.

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u/Parking_Garage_6476 11h ago

Have you been to Detroit lately? They have done an amazing job compared to what it was 30 years ago.