Kensington Market has long held the reputation of being a place where you can find anything. But from now until the end of September, there’s one thing you won’t find on Sundays: cars.

The market area has long held car-free festival days on the last Sunday of the month from May to October. Now, newly installed gates will prevent vehicles from entering the area between noon and 6 p.m. every Sunday.

The gates, which function as planters during the rest of the week, were installed on Thursday, a joint effort funded by the city and the Kensington Market Business Improvement Area. When shut, they close off Kensington St., along with sections of Augusta Ave., Baldwin St. and St. Andrew St., allowing for cars to exit the area, but not enter.

The new road closures are intended to lure shoppers with a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere, according to Yvonne Bambrick of the BIA.

“It’s really to encourage shopping and supporting local, independent businesses,” she said, noting most of their shoppers aren’t drivers to begin with.

“The number of pedestrians far, far, far outweighs the number of cars coming through.”

However, business owners in the area had mixed reactions. Abi Roach, owner of Funky Junk vintage store, Roach-O-Rama and the Hot Box Café, all on blocked-off streets, said she liked the idea of encouraging shoppers to come to the area. Her vintage store sells a lot of furniture, though, and she worried that having to park further away might hurt sales.

“Bigger, bulkier items don’t sell. People don’t want to carry them to their car and typically those are the items that bring in more money,” she said, adding cheaper parking rates on Sundays might help.

Jack Sunbulian owns Ariz Impressions, a gift shop on Kensington St. He said it’s too early to tell whether Market Sundays will help or hinder business, but noted he doubts it will draw as many patrons as the popular festival days.

On Baldwin St., Dags restaurant owner, Diane Filippeos, said she thinks Market Sundays are a good idea that should be extended year round.

“It will make us different from other shopping centres,” she said. “Kensington is unique, so we should be unique in the way we do things.”

On Sunday, the inaugural Market Sunday, drizzling rain kept many visitors away early in the afternoon, but those who braved the weather were pleased about the closures.

“I think it’s really great, especially on a day like today when it’s pouring rain. It’s difficult sometimes to manoeuvre with an umbrella and now we’ve got more space,” Frank Guerreiro said.

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Rob Laughlin said he didn’t realize the road would be blocked off until he arrived, but thinks the concept will attract shoppers once word spreads.

“It made us stay around a little bit longer.”