Change the Street. Change the City. People’s Queen Street Camp 2015.

People’s Queen Street Camp – April 25^th 2015

• Description – Our key “charette” event was held at the Centre for Social Innovation Spadina. Form 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday April 25^th. We began the day with panelists Ken Greenberg,Matt Blackett and Ren Thomas. We followed this with an Individual Visioning exercise, a Dotmocracy Lunch, and an afternoon of “tactical urbanism” workshops focused on Streetcar Transit issues, Pedestrian issues, Cycling issues, and Arts & Culture on Queen Street.
• Attendance and Promotion – We promoted the event through our website, Facebook page and Eventbrite. A total of 163 people expressed interest in the event. 78 attended during the day. We were pleased to have Trinity – Spadina MP Adam Vaughan and Ward 20 City Councillor Joe Cressy participate in the event.

Key Outcomes –

• A commitment to work with the Queen West BIA toward the goal of Pedestrian Sundays (with streetcar service) on Queen from Simcoe to Bathurst in summer 2016.
• To leverage peoplesqueenstreet.org as an information hub to connect with BIAs, cultural and neighbourhood groups along the length of Queen.
• To expand our People’s Queen Street 100in1Day street-park-cultural interventions from The Beach to Parkdale. The first planned event of this type will take place at Queen & River on July 18^th and 19^thin cooperation with the Corktown Residents and Business Association during the Pan Am Games.
• To organize a bike mass ride at the end of May 2015 in collaboration with local community bike groups.
• To organize a pilot bike escort service on Monday morning rush hours through the summer and fall.
• To work with neighbourhood groups, individuals and BIAs to speak with Queen Street City Councillors and the TTC to promote tactical improvements to the streetcar service, such as advocated left-turn elimination, transit signal priority and piloting a right of way for the 501 in the core.
• A detailed report of the “Camp” is currently being finalized and will be published on-line and circulated to BIAs, Neighbourhood organizations, City Councilors, funders and supporters.