Back to the Future— Carleton Place—- Project Tim Horton’s

Artwork of Town Hall in Carleton Place by Blaine Cornell

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS Linda’s Virtual Scrapbook ONLY. Please note these are my dreams for Carleton Place if she had the finances. A girl can dream cant she?:) 

As a child I used to have a scrapbook like most girls and pasted in pictures of what I liked. Times have changed and the internet consumes our lives, so now I have bookmarks. In fact I have pages of notes, ideas and thoughts about my town. Like some dream of their new home, I dream of a perfect Carleton Place. A Carleton Place where business thrives and tourist flock.

“What do you do for fun around here?”

When visitors come to your town, replies to this question can make or break their impression of your community. If you want visitors to come back again — and say nice things about your town to others who might come, too — you need to have some good answers available.

Personally, I believe that the tourism industry is a good market to tap for business because your customers are people with money to spend. Anybody that thinks back, if they’ve gone on a trip and had a great experience and found it memorable — their feeling about that place stays with them for a long time. Like The Sims game once in awhile I will post my hopes and dreams for my town. Some could work, some are out of the question– I know the realities.

Just like the scrapbook you once had a lot of things are not feasible. But, it does not cost anything to think about things. To the future of Carleton Place.

                                                                  Carleton Place–The Town Square

Location: Old Tim Horton’s.

HIstorical Significance- After checking with Jennifer Fenwick Irwin from the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum she said: “Landsdowne Street used to cut through that particular piece of land meeting Lake Ave. When they rerouted the streets after building the Carleton Place Mews they created that property There was a gas station where Tims was – Armour’s Gulf station I believe. He might have sold cars there too.”

Why?– Begin by making your downtown a destination– That corner once was a gathering place for the town when it was Tim Horton’s. That is what it should return to. Bring in a few moblie food trucks to the empty Mews dollar store parking lot on a Friday night. Off the Grid does this in Civic Centre Thursday lunch times in San Francisco. Berkeley on a weeknight when the areas were dead. Brought in people from all over the area. If your mews parking lot is empty- use it- charge fees. It works. Make the town square a destination as an entrance to Bridge Street.

Winter—Giant Christmas Tree for Christmas Season — Ice Sculptures for Mid Winter. Place blocks of ice there- Plenty of log carvers in this area would love to do something like this.

Update– Steve VanViet questioned permits for food trucks or hurting local food establishments. Who is to say they could not be local restaurants having food of some sort like they do in Wine’d Around Town? A Taste of the Town night?

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one