Don’t forget destination stores

Re: “Joe Beef’s co-owner slams Notre-dame St. W. changes as ‘authoritarian’ ” (Montreal Gazette, July 31)

I welcomed the article on David Mcmillan’s opposition to the temporary reconfiguration of Notre-dame St. W.

As noted in the article, an increase in pedestrian traffic does not always result in more customers — especially for businesses like Joe Beef and mine. We need to draw on a wider market.

The Gazette has reported a number of times that closing a street has resulted in an increase of people to the street. That’s good for dépanneurs, local bars and cafés, but not so good for destination stores.

For this city to be a tourist destination, we need our unique bars, restaurants and retail stores on streets like St-laurent.

Chuck Breger, owner, Jet-setter, Montreal