Picture this: strolling from Mississauga’s city hall to the Living Arts Centre (LAC), munching street food amid a lively crowd. Mayor Carolyn Parrish does, and she’s pushing to ditch two of Princess Royal Drive’s four lanes for a pedestrian strip bursting with vendors and warm-weather fun. “Barely any cars use it,” she told INsauga.com, nodding to Sparks Street’s pedestrian vibe in Ottawa as her muse.
Half a block over, she’s eyeing Community Common Park—lose the little hill, add a stage, and boom: small festivals for 1,500 or soccer for kids. “It’s ready-made with facilities,” she said. This is her antidote to a “languishing” downtown that’s been “boring” too long. She’s also banking on a hotel-convention hub at the LAC, extra auditorium seats, a 7,500-seat soccer stadium, and a downtown school to flip the script on a core dwarfed by highrises but starved for spark. Step one: make it a place people want to be.