Mississauga's mayoral candidates detail their vision for Ridgeway Plaza

Build a four-story parking facility there. I don't want the city to be in the parking lot business. I'm not married to who's going to build the parking lot, but I think we need to remove the surface parking. Let's build a public square. Let's make public space. Let's make it walkable. Let's build a parkade. There's a large plot of land right behind Ridgeway Plaza. We need to buy it, expropriate it, do whatever is required, and build a four-story parking facility there with charges that people pay to park. The parking facility will pay for itself in three to four years. That is the most important thing we can do there. I have been to Ridgeway many times. I've met with some of the business owners. They have a business association there, and they're doing great work. They contribute to our economy here in Mississauga. But my concern is the residents who live around the plaza, and there has been some turmoil, late night, late night noise. This notion of building a new parking garage is an interesting one. However, the city isn't in the parking business. business. We don't buy land to build a parking lot, but there are people who do do that, and we should get them interested. I actually agree with Carolyn. I'm not married to who's going to build the parking lot, but I think we need to remove the surface parking. You remove the surface parking, you put fountains, you put chairs, you put benches, you turn that whole Ridgeway Plaza into this nice urban park around stores, and then you put the parking elsewhere. That's the secret sauce, I think. It gets the balance, keeping the vibrancy of Ridgeway Plaza, but reducing the nuisance value. I actually really like going to Ridgeway Mall. I mean, I don't, Ridgeway Plaza, I don't go, you know, three o'clock in the morning, but there's some really interesting things there. Now, I also empathize with the residents who live in the area and the business owners who struggled over the last several years as well. We need to find a solution that makes sense. What I think is really neat is that it has its own culture. It's created its own identity. I went the other day and just people from all over the world, it's one of the tourist attractions of our city now, people say, where do I go? Square One or Ridgeway? Those seem to be the options that they think about when they're coming here from overseas. That's a neat thing. We need to take advantage of that. Let's build a public square. Let's make public space. Let's make it walkable. Let's build a parkade.