Lessons learned from a quick fix that backfired

Well, that didn’t go as expected.

Peterborough city council thought it was throwing an emergency lifeline to downtown by closing George Street over the weekend.

Downtown business owners threw it back, along with some choice and unpleasant words.

Another lesson from the “new normal”: Quick responses to an unfamiliar threat can backfire.

Actually, that’s not a new lesson. More like something politicians and city hall administrators already knew, but didn’t to take into account.

It’s hard to blame them for acting on good intentions. And in the end the damage was brief and unsubstantial. The barriers came down just as quickly Saturday as they had gone up Friday night.

The pressure to act quickly was self-imposed, but came in part because the provincial government had announced with just a few days notice that restaurants and bars could begin patio service last Friday.

The city had a good plan ready. It involved opening sidewalks for patio and retail space, turning on-street parking lanes into sidewalks and keeping one lane of traffic open for vehicles.

Successfully pulling that together would take time. Instead, council in a quickie meeting Thursday evening approved a plan to close downtown sections of George Street for the weekend.

The idea of facilitating pandemic recovery by creating space in retail zones for more shoppers and fewer cars isn’t new. And it isn’t wrong.

People would, in theory, be less leery about venturing out when they don’t have to be shoulder to shoulder in a crowd. Restaurants and bars would, in theory, welcome more space to set up tables and seat customers. Retailers whose small stores can only fit one or two customers under social distancing could double up their customer base outside.

All that will likely come about once the city gets the design right. It is now consulting with businesses and Peterborough’s medical officer of health to work on making it happen.

Unfortunately, simply closing George Street was a disaster in the eyes of many restaurant owners.

Those who have managed to stay open have been surviving on takeout orders. With no parking in front of their establishments, and no street access to get to a parking space if one was available, patrons simply stayed away.

And with almost no notice that the city’s main downtown thoroughfare would become a pedestrian mall, even the potentially curious didn’t show up. What to learn from the experience?

In theory, that the provincial government could help smooth the way forward by giving more notice when Stage 3 reopening measures are to be adopted. But, in fact, short notice wasn’t the problem in this case. The city didn’t have to react quickly since neither business owners nor the general public were demanding a quick attempted fix.

The lesson, rather, is to slow down on the implementation side.

Another lesson: Getting it right in terms of restarting the economy requires both solid planning to implement reopening steps and effective public education to convince consumers the “new” service that is returning is safe. The more public contact allowed, the greater the need for reassurance.

The slow return to normal will happen, with hiccups. One challenge will be ensuring the hiccups aren’t self-induced and outcomes are closer to what is expected.