Lindsay downtown: Hallmark beautiful, too bad about the cars

By Lindsay Advocate

Would a central boulevard of trees and benches have been better?

The letter to the editor in the February edition of the Advocate by Wayne Medford, outlining a visionary plan for getting rid of parked cars in Lindsay’s downtown was inspiring. Medford suggested to “go with one lane of traffic in each direction. Add a central boulevard of trees and benches. Widen the sidewalks and plant many trees.” 

I have lived in Minden since 1968 and Lindsay has always been a ‘destination’ for many locals of this area.

Interestingly, when I was in Lindsay recently, I commented that Lindsay downtown buildings have an inviting ‘Hallmark’ appeal, but too bad, so sad about the state of the sidewalk snow removal. (Minden is exemplary with regard to downtown snow removal.) 

I followed this with my major complaint for years, with cars blindly backing out of angle parking which makes it undesirable for us to even drive down Kent Street, let alone park. Lindsay does have a great collection of parking lots nearby that help. Getting rid of the parking on Kent Street would be amazing and visionary.

Wayne Medford’s plan was inspiring. Lindsay is special in different ways than Port Perry, Bobcaygeon, or Fenelon Falls. We like them all but have often avoided downtown Lindsay because the parked cars make the entire downtown feel ‘user unfriendly.’  

Bernie Davis, Minden

 

8 Comments

  1. CJ Hannah says:

    Get rid of the cars and parking?? That just seems like Lindsay is a post card, not a lived in town…why can’t this town grow? And I don’t mean more houses. What is the hold up that stops this place from growing? There’s a jail which brings issues, why not bring in more businesses to bring more jobs and not worry about Kent Street parking….

  2. Brian says:

    Waste of space. Hard pass

    • Stacey says:

      The parking is genius all cities should have it structured that way.
      That was the first thing I observed when I went to Lindsay the first time was how the parking was structured and how wide the lanes are. Dont change anything just clean it up. Great functioning design as is.

  3. Lenore Noel says:

    I definitely don’t agree Not everyone can walk around the block to get to the parking lot there a lot of seniors who have a hard time making it from their car towards the business they want to enter and this would cause a lot of hardship. Also with the present-day crime I wouldn’t want to walk too far and get mugged I’ve been there and it wasn’t very nice I complete Jaw was shattered 40 years ago when I went to drop the daily deposit in the Dropbox after work and the other probably would be making Kent st. One lane in each direction would block traffic and cause more accidents. Also with all the drug activity and crime there are a lot more things we can improve upon.

  4. Daiva says:

    I use the downtown regularly because of the parking. One can usually find a spot and it is so easy to drive in and back out of a spot, especially with a backup camera these days. Quite often the back lots are full, but you can usually find a spot on Kent Street. It might look nicer without the parking, but I fear that that would be a downfall for the local business. With the parking the stores are so accessible and I also like that it’s a very unique aspect of our downtown.

  5. Anonymous says:

    This town is crap enough as it is, let alone take away the parking. They won’t give us a Walmart cause if their precious downtown core but want to add like 100,000 more homes or something. Their logic makes no sense. I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve seen it get nothing but worse.

  6. Shannon Auprey says:

    I have a feeling this is satire in time for April 1. Because, how could you waste ink to write in about something so unimportant when:

    1. Roads suck (including main arteries like Angeline, Kent, Victoria)
    2. Roads suck (two main streets that let in drivers from Toronto and PTBO through Lindsay st and Angeline, both are welcome with bad roads)
    3. Roads suck (use of low quality-cheap road builders whose patchwork is shoddy)

    Speaking of “Hallmark” appeal, ever seen what the roads look like? They look well done. Anyway, people have been sending letters to the Ontario ombudsman to complain about how CKL doesn’t do zilch about Lindsay roads. More the merrier!

  7. Brian Smith says:

    Ya, not a fan of eliminating the parking on Kent.
    I will agree, though, that the city or someone (hello, BIA) needs to do a better job of clearing the snow at the curb, so people can get from their cars to the sidewalk without walking down the street to an intersection. That’s dangerous. Especially for the disabled and seniors among us.

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