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Hill has made a rough plan of what his ideal downtown Waterloo would be. King street traffic will be blocked from William Street to Bridgeport Road, and rerouted along Regina and Caroline Streets. He would then like to see King Street ripped up, and in its place grass, trees and park benches â€" a pedestrian walkway. A retailâ€"commercial strip would be built along King Street where the Waterloo Town Square parking lot is, making the street "a real downtown, rather than just a mall". And a parking garage could be built behind the Bank of Montreal to take care of the mall‘s displaced parking. Residences above the retail business would bring _ between 500 and 1,000 to the downtown area, Hill says. ‘The problem is that we have no balance between commercial, remationfl. and residential area," Hill says. "What I see happening in Waterloo is that the whole downtown core has moved to As a member of the Waterloo Business Improvement Association‘s strategic planning committee, Hill hopes to help breathe new life into downtown Waterloo. And he‘s not without a plan. _ _ "We want to help change the development of the whole city itself, because unfortunately this is a city without a heart â€" the heart is downtown, and it‘s dying." al es St. Jacobs, Elmira, Elora," Hill says. "People don‘t come here to shop in Waterloo, they just drive through on their way to St. Jacobs." There is nothing to draw people to the downtown area, and without people other businesses will fail, Hill says. And so he‘s declared war on the City of Waterloo. ""The downtown core is dying. Since I‘ve located here, there‘s got to be about 30 businesses that have closed," Hill says. The hotel has closed, Mothers has closed, they tore down the City Hotel and all the business down there, Schendels has moved â€" there‘s a huge amount of dead space in the neighborhood. PAGE 28 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1990 Business Week Hill‘s working to breathe life into ‘dying‘ core But there is no Waterloo hotel â€" and there is no downtown traffic, Hill says. Chronicle Staff Steve Hill thinks downtown Waterloo is dying, and as a businessâ€" man in the area he‘s more than a little concerned. The owner of Gler‘s (a.k.a. Glerascious Hornblower‘s) opened his King Street business six months ago, hoping to catch overflow business from the Waterloo hotel. He wanted to draw on downtown y to St. Jacobs." _ Steve Hill, owner of Gler‘s restaurant in Waterloo, says business will only improve in the (Continued on page 29) downtown area when it has something to offer visitors and shoppers. Deborsh Crandall photo mc sinys school a new car wmugtflnm'tbo for cruizin‘. The 1990 Toyâ€" oh.duuudbyr:’flm Motors, was mmumw moruo.(leofl) e manager Wm mmflnw students Csilla s Kathy McGrath and the school‘s technical departâ€" ment head Dan Kroetsch. Your Chronicle Remember! RECYCLE