After years (decades?) of talk about how downtown would be a lot more inviting if Argyle Street was a pedestrian-only zone, in 2015 the city did something about it. The "Mingle on Argyle" pilot project brought a fresh coat of paint to the street, along with a refreshing take on the whole "streets are for cars" mindset by trying a shared street: a design concept where pedestrians are given priority over vehicles. The street became closed to car traffic on weekends while shop stalls, music and other activities were allowed to take over the space.
The project came with some controversy. The price tag of painting decorations on Argyle was an easy target, especially when many other roads were left without basic painted lines after the particularly long winter. But generally it was a success, and council is actively going through the process to choose a proposal for making a shared streetscape permanent, with an eye to expanding the idea onto other downtown streets. To make sure you remember what it was all about when it comes back to council in coming weeks, we made a video asking the project coordinators if they thought Mingle on Argyle was worth the effort.
