‘Open Streets’ Wraps Up First Year

The Open Streets program launched this summer in Saint John has been a huge success, according to the growth manager for the city.

David Dobbelsteyn said they wanted to drive more people to local businesses feeling the impacts of COVID-19 while giving residents the chance to get out safely.

“This is an innovative pilot program to test out the pedestrianization of some of our streets in the city,” said Dobbelsteyn in an interview Saturday.

On select Saturdays during the summer, a different set of streets were closed to vehicles, allowing businesses and restaurants to expand onto the sidewalks and streets.

Hundreds of people converged on Germain Street, Canterbury Street and Grannan Street in the uptown on Saturday for the final Open Streets day of 2020.

Dobbelsteyn said more than 10,000 people took part throughout the summer and the feedback received by city staff has been generally positive.

“For the most part from pedestrians, the general feedback is they really like the concept and the idea. They like the animation that we’ve had on the streets,” said Dobbelsteyn.

“The general feedback from businesses that we’ve heard has been positive. We’ve had some businesses tells us that Open Street days are the ones where they’ve been the busiest in the last eight months and then others who have said they haven’t done quite as well.”

Dobbelsteyn said the idea of pedestrianized streets is something that has been on the city’s radar for some time, even before COVID-19 came along.

Earlier this year, the city streamlined its process for street closures for things like special events and parades, he said.

“That was certainly on our work plan to finish, but certainly COVID expedited that,” said Dobbelsteyn.

Now that the first year of Open Streets is over, Dobbelsteyn said city staff will be doing a review to find out which streets are best for pedestrianization going forward.

“Obviously there is a demand for pedestrianization. What that looks like we don’t know, so we’ll be looking to refine the concept. We also want to find out what the [return-on-investment] is for local business, make sure that it is helping and not hindering,” he said.

Dobbelsteyn expects residents will see more street closures in the future from event organizers and even the city.