CoproliteJan 25, 2024
Back when the #yegdtmarket was on 104 street, I would get to it maybe once or twice per month during the six months per year when it would exist. Moving it to the old GWG building and running it Sundays as well as Saturdays meant that I was going pretty much every week year-round, and it became a core part of my grocery shopping.
Show threadCoproliteJan 25, 2024

Unfortunately, the new location isn't exactly a very friendly place to walk, and the whole strategy of offering suburbanites free parking to coax them to drive downtown just never panned out.

Sure, they drove and filled that parking lot, but it turns out that a block of parking isn't really a match for being on the literal doorsteps of thousands. And the old GWG building apparently became very costly to operate in the winter after our provincial government pooed the bed on utility regulation.

Show threadDarcy R 🇨🇦

@Coprolite Huh, so the ton of academic research I've read that found that accessibility is more than just free parking might apply to Edmonton. Somewhere in SoCal, Donald Shoup is yelling, "I told you so!"

Hope they can find near a park, near a Valley Line stop, and just off a bike lane. And not just off a bike lane so merchants can park in it to unload, like at the Old Strathcona one. And also not so they can close the bike lane periodically like OS or every week like the 124 St one.

Jan 25, 2024 at 4:38pmWeb
Show threadCoproliteJan 25, 2024

@geodarcy Probably would've worked better when Boyle Street looked more like this.

(And it did, since there was literally a market two blocks south at that point.)

Sadly, the neighbourhood didn't really benefit from the zeal to redevelop it during the 1960's-1980s, leading to the destruction and dispersal of Chinatown, and the elimination of business spaces for more sterile prestige projects.