Comment 54258

By Robert D (anonymous) | Posted January 02, 2011 at 14:50:06

The "new" Wal-mart and big box centre on Upper James and Fennell is also woefully pedestrian unfriendly. You have a former mall, which serves as a nexus of bus stops, has apartments across the street, residential housing all around, and of course they decided not to take into consideration pedestrians when designing the new layout.

For this reason there is no sidewalk access to Wal-Mart itself, or half the other buildings for that matter. Neither are there safe "crossing" areas for pedestrians navigating their way through this big box site. I know people have already been hit by cars at this location (I saw an injured woman and her lawyer taking pictures of the area when it was still under construction). Apparently now that they have received so many complaints they are "looking into making the area more pedestrian friendly."

I put the blame squarely on the city. Who was it at the city who thought that such a pedestrian-unfriendly plan would be a "good idea?" Why didn't they require Smart Centres to design the area in a manner that one can actually navigate around it from store to store without getting run over, or without having to get back in your car?

Then again, when you look at the Fennell Avenue West, above, you realize that the developers themselves are only following the example set by the city.

I know that both Mohawk and the health centre across the street are in the midst of construction. There are always hopes and rumours but nothing concrete, regarding Auchmar. Hopefully while the construction is happening, and whenever they figure out what to do with Auchmar, they city can put in some proper sidewalks at the same time.

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