Growing Rift Between Downtown Niagara Falls Businesses and BIA

Tuesday, 4 May 2021 05:49

By Tami Jeanneret

Change.org petition started to stop street closures

Several business owners have come out against a plan by the BIA to shut the street down Monday to Friday evenings and then all day Saturday and Sunday to allow for extended patios and other events.

A petition on change.org reads "We, the businesses and concerned Niagara residents, do not want anymore street closures on Queen Street in Niagara Falls for the remainder of 2021. Our BIA board has doubled their budget this year with plans to close the street 7 days a week. We pay their budget with our taxes. We are all trying to come out of a very challenging year caused by the global pandemic. After having to deal with more than a year of lockdowns, we need as much traffic as possible passing our buildings in order to survive. The street closures hurt the businesses rather than help them. The City has also closed the Park Street parking lot permanently so we will require more parking on the street. This is not the time for us to have to deal with more street closures."

Disgruntled business owners have also started a Facebook group called "Time to take back Queen Street".

Growing Rift Between Downtown Niagara Falls Businesses and BIA

Share

More from Local News