The City of Peterborough has cancelled the weekend closure of George Street between McDonnel and King streets in downtown Peterborough.
The street was immediately reopened to vehicles mid-day on Saturday afternoon (June 13) and will remain open for the remainder of the weekend.
The city had closed the section of George Street at 3 p.m. on Friday (June 12) in an attempt to provide additional space for pedestrians to maintain social distancing.
City council made the decision to close the street the previous day, in response the Ontario government’s announcement that restaurants, bars, cafes could reopen their patios on Friday and the expectation that restaurants on George Street would be opening pop-up patios through a fast-track process.
However, partly because of the cool weather on Friday, there were few pop-up patios. Restaurants on George Street that don’t have patios suffered from the lack of accessibility to their businesses, as did retailers who lost business from customers with cars.
Terry Guiel, executive director of the Peterborough Downtown Business Area (DBIA), told the Peterborough Examiner on Friday that the closure was a “debacle” and that he was “was on damage control with angry shop owners.”
“Based on feedback after the first day, the city is reopening the road to vehicles,” says the city’s manager of communication services Brendan Wedley in a media release. “The city apologizes for the confusion.”
The city still plans to make longer-term changes to public space in the downtown area over the next couple of weeks to provide additional space for pedestrians by changing vehicle traffic lanes and on-street parking.
