Granville Street merchants grappling with losses due to the June 15 riot can look forward to lots of weekend foot traffic on Granville Street all summer long, thanks to an initiative the City of Vancouver is calling Viva Vancouver.
The program is essentially a summer-long series of festivals that will involve the city closing Granville Street between Smithe and Hastings streets to cars each weekend starting June 25.
The program is in partnership with the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and TransLink.
Some of the highlights on June 25 will be skateboarding demonstrations and competitions.
The next day, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., that car-free stretch of Granville Street will play host to Latincouver – a celebration of Latin culture featuring food kiosks, soccer, music, dancing, games and other activities.
TransLink spokesman Drew Snider told Business in Vancouver that bus service on Friday nights has been rerouted to Seymour and Howe streets for months. Keeping the buses on those streets all weekend long will make things simpler for bus users, he said.
On weekdays, however, the buses will return to Granville Street.
“[Viva Vancouver] will probably be a business attractor. I’m pretty sure what the downtown business improvement people would want is more people in that area,” Snider said.
“We’ll still be bringing people to the area. They will just be one block away and they’ll have a big party to go to.”
Glen Korstrom
Twitter: GlenKorstrom