Downtown St. Catharines, Ontario

Downtown St. Catharines
Neighbourhood
Downtown core, seen from Westchester Crescent
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
City	St. Catharines

The downtown core of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada is defined by the city as the area between Highway 406 on the west and south, Geneva Street on the east until it reaches St. Paul Street then Niagara Street north until it meets Welland Avenue.

It an historical area of the city, as well as a significant cultural and entertainment destination, playing host to several bars and restaurants along St. Paul and James Streets, and the popular Niagara Grape & Wine Festival and Grand Parade in September. Various retail and commercial businesses, are found throughout the core, as well as government, financial and law offices. Since 2015, the neighbourhood is home to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, a campus of Brock University.

Intersecting Native American trails, at the confluence of Dick's Creek and 12 Mile Creek, laid the foundation of the downtown streets as they appear today. Among them remains the largest and most historically significant of the city, St. Paul Street. Construction of the first and second Welland Canals behind St. Paul Street quickly elevated the area into a prosperous hub for commerce and industry in the Niagara Region.

Like many downtowns in North America, the area experienced significant decline as shopping malls and power centres in the suburbs took over as major shopping destinations. Citizens of St. Catharines often complained of the lack of parking and inconveniences associated with one-way streets in the core. Today, the downtown is experiencing a modest turnaround thanks to public and private investment in the areas surrounding St. Paul and James Streets, as well as the former Lower Level Parking Lot.

On April 3, 2006, St. Catharines City Council voted in favour of returning two-way traffic to the downtown core, at an anticipated cost of $2 million. At the time, two-way traffic was promoted as one way of making the downtown streets safer, slowing down traffic and boosting business. By October 2009, most of the conversion work was completed. The addition of two-way traffic, especially to St. Paul Street, played a role in the Ontario Wine Council's decision to modify the Niagara Wine Route to pass through downtown St. Catharines in 2014.