Lin Bennett lives in Kingston and works at the Agnes Etherington Art Center.

The late, great city planner Jane Jacobs once said that the key to real city success was “new ideas in old buildings” – and the mix of Kingston’s natural limestone settings with a particularly vibrant arts community makes for an ever-changing  downtown scene that’s worth visiting regularly. Whether you’re more of a traditionalist or a “mover and shaker” – you’ll find at least 20 venues worth exploring, in just ten (or fewer) blocks!

(Note: the following route for visual arts fans is also featured twice a year for the city’s “Art After Dark” nights –when free munchies accompany your stroll.)

by Melanie Dugan

Coming up two years ago (September 2008), my partner, Don, and I got rid of our
car. As with most forward-thinking moves in our household, Don was the driving force
behind this decision (he maintains he was the undriving force). He’ d read that the biggest
single way to cut your carbon emissions was to get rid of your car so after yet another
consultation with our (great, honest) mechanic, and anticipating a $3,000 bill merely
to bring our not-very-old car up to speed, we decided to try doing without a vehicle
altogether. We sold it for scrap, and took the leap into car-lessness.

Then we waited for things to change, because surely things would change
dramatically once we were without a car.

And we waited.

And we waited.

Kate Archibald-Cross is a full-time parent and part-time writer and editor in downtown Kingston.  Read more about her family's No Impact Week experiment in the October 2009 archives at http://kateandmatt.wordpress.com/

I have always been a downtown girl – growing up, Kingston’s centre was my orbit. My
first jobs were only a few blocks from my front door, and I spent many hours walking
the “strip,” frequenting the (few) establishments who would serve one coffee and eight
waters to a group of sullen teens, figuring out the best roof-hopping routes, and chalking
earnest messages of peace and revolution on the sidewalks. Downtown was, literally,
my life.

by Brenda South

When I hear that “It’s impossible to find parking downtown Kingston”, I have an irrepressible urge to giggle!  Really?  No parking in downtown Kingston?

Here are some downtown parking facts:

Rose DeShaw was for years a national columnist for the Anglican Journal & The International Mystery Review, She is frequently anthologized and she lives & works downtown.  Follow her blog: http://rosedeshaw.com/category/blog/

You might call golden-eyed Angus the therapy dog for all downtown. This well-brushed collie-husky mix lives in the back office of Cunningham and Poupore, the menswear shop just off Wellington on Brock. Going back and forth several times a day, Angus never leaves a single blonde hair behind on the dark suits that line both sides of their stylish displays.

Last Saturday June 26, DARN! hosted its first "swarming" at Vandervoort's.  The goal was to call upon Kingston residents to exercise our collective consumer power in support of a local downtown business.  Despite the challenging weather conditions, spirits were high during the constant downpour and the masses turned out! 

Kingston writer Jamie Swift has lived in the downtown core for 20 years.

On June 19, just as we launched this website, DARN! set up an information table at the Skeleton Park Music Festival.  Some 75 local residents completed DARN!’s survey (look at “Complete Our Survey” on the homepage and fill it in if you haven’t already done so), part of which canvassed opinion about what people are looking for in downtown shopping.  So far the things most frequently mentioned in Question Two (items that I’d like to buy downtown but aren’t available) are “socks and underwear” and “S&R.”  We know that the latter is no longer available and it seems that many of us headed to S&R for socks and underwear.

Why should you support Kingston’s downtown?  Haven’t malls, big box stores and discount centres replaced downtown?

DARN! says NO!  Our downtown is far more than a shopping centre.