Good Morning All,
At our AGM this past October the Board announced that our Summer Thrill of the Grill event had celebrated its 10th anniversary and its final year. It was determined that it was time to move on to other types of events for our BIA. Consumers are always looking for something new and we wanted to end our summer Thrill on a high note.
As you all know, we are well into the Danforth Avenue Study process, which is looking at many different components that will positively impact the Danforth area from Broadview to Victoria Park. There has been a great deal of discussion about bike lane pilots. At the AGM we presented the event concept for this summer: Thrill of Summer Travels. At the time we told members who were present that we would be submitting an Innovation Grant application to the City’s BIA Office and the plan was to create a bi-directional centre of the road bike lane in our section of Danforth for one weekend. Unfortunately the City’s Transportation Department felt that such a concept, if well received by the public, would be next to impossible to create on a long-term basis. So, working with Transportation Services, we revised our grant application to include 3 concepts that would form A Complete Street Exhibition: Thrill of Summer Travels. We are pleased to announce that the revised application has been approved and the grant has been awarded.
Full information on this exhibition is attached. In summary, we will host the exhibition on the first weekend of Summer: Saturday, June 20 and Sunday, June 21, 2020. The 3 concepts that will be highlighted are curbside bike lanes (east and west from Broadview to Chester); mid-street crossings; and sidewalk level loading areas designed for people and deliveries. The Thrill of Summer Travels will set up a realistic plan for all modes of travel - by foot, by car and by bike. We're doing this for just the one weekend in order for you to see an actual set-up and comment on what you like and don't like. We also want to hear from consumers - again, what they like and don't like. We anticipate that this exhibition will garner a fair amount of attention from consumers and the media.
We will also secure a sidewalk sale permit so that you can sell or sample in front of your business throughout the weekend; and, organize to have some street musicians playing in different spots of our BIA.
We will provide further details as we progress with the plans.
Thanks,
Susan & the BIA Board of Directors