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a deteriorating downtown, the entire city will pay the price,” says Alex Hryciw, chair of the Downtown Recovery Coalition. “The downtown says a lot about your city and, right now, Edmonton’s downtown says that we have lost a bit of our direction and it just needs a little help to find its way back to greatness.”

The DRC was established in 2016, at which time it was called the Downtown Vibrancy Task Force and advocated for things such as integrating the new arena downtown, identifying friction points with businesses, improving wayfinding, www.rapidconcrete.ca

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FAX: 780-452-5993 sales@rapidconcrete.ca and developing bike lanes. When the Task Force disbanded once its goals were met, the DRC officially formed with a new mission to foster greater economic growth and vitality downtown as Edmonton recovers from the impacts of the pandemic.

“Edmonton’s downtown has gone through several transformational changes over the last decade. We’ve seen our new arena built and are now seeing the final pieces come into place around the ICE District. We are seeing a lot more investment come into the downtown because of it,” says Hryciw. “But it’s been a couple of long, hard years since COVID-19 drained the life out of our downtown, just like it did for many cities across Canada. While we’re still struggling with recovery – slowly but surely – we are getting back to where we want to be.”

The DRC is led by a 30-member volunteer steering committee which contributes to the funding of the DRC in regard to its advocacy work. It includes a diverse range of downtown Edmonton stakeholders representing a cross-section of the downtown community, including community groups, non-profit, and business leaders who have a passion for downtown. The steering committee also includes REACH Edmonton, a community-based coordinating council that is building a safer Edmonton through community collaboration and innovative crime prevention solutions that make a difference.

The Three Pillars

The DRC is focused on three main pillars that – when brought together –support their overall mission of creating a more vibrant and welcoming downtown: Safety and Security; Cleanliness and Infrastructure; and Transformational Projects.

Coming out of the pandemic, it has been tough convincing people to come back downtown. Part of the reason for this is a growing perception among students, workers, and visitors that the downtown’s LRT system is increasingly unsafe, especially during the colder months when Edmonton’s vulnerable populations begin to seek shelter at the city’s LRT stations. Large groups also tend to block the stairways while engaging in anti-social behaviours such as smoking, open illicit drug use, and verbal harassment and intimidation.

“One of the biggest goals has been to improve security along Edmonton’s transit system by increasing visible law enforcement and securing LRT entrances,” says Hryciw. “We know that we can’t arrest our way through this challenge, but we do believe that even just the presence of law enforcement allows the perception of safety to increase and allow people to feel safer accessing transit. We have also advocated for a zero-tolerance policy for illicit drug use in transit stations, as well as on transit, which became a bylaw earlier this spring.”

Cities across North America tend to struggle serving each corner of their community equally, and Edmonton is no exception. Much of the physical infrastructure of downtown Edmonton is currently in disrepair, and it is not uncommon to see crumbling curbs, unfilled holes, damaged trees, and sidewalks littered with trash. The DRC is committed to ensuring that these sidewalks and roads are clean and in good repair and that planters, benches, trees, garbage cans and other small pieces of public infrastructure are regularly maintained so that, on the whole, the appearance of Edmonton’s downtown is clean and welcoming.

“The City needs to do better creating and maintaining the infrastructure that makes our downtown the sort of place you’d like to spend time,” says Hryciw. “As such, we are working closely with the City and continuously advocating for a greater priority placed on repairing and improving our aging downtown infrastructure.”

The Road Ahead

Some of the longer-term goals the DRC is looking to accomplish are related to such things as improving crisis diversion and Edmonton Police Service response times, as well as doing what it can to ensure the various social agencies that support people in crisis have the staff and resources they need to respond in a timely manner when called upon. The DRC also advocates for more long-term recovery spaces for people struggling with addictions and homelessness as a way to provide all Edmontonians with an opportunity to live with dignity and a roof over their heads.

“We want to make sure there is enough capacity within both the justice and health system so we can break the endless cycle of vulnerable people going through the system and ending up back on the streets,” says Hryciw.

The response to the work being done in Edmonton by the DRC has been tremendously positive, and there is growing interest from the community about how to better support the coalition’s efforts. The organization’s monthly community coffee events have been well attended by community members seeking information about how to help, and a recent community-led Corporate Clean Up Challenge presented by the DRC saw approximately 800 people sign up to remove trash from the city’s downtown.

“We’ve been able to activate a grassroots community movement in terms of downtown recovery and the community clean up was a really good example of the eagerness we see from Edmontonians to get involved. It shows that our community is willing to work hard to make the downtown a little bit brighter,” says Hryciw. “We’ve got all the pieces set and, if we can collectively and collaboratively move them forward, we’ll see our downtown come back to life and feeling more vibrant overall in the next few years.” u

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