News   Apr 03, 2020
 7.2K     3 
News   Apr 02, 2020
 7.4K     0 
News   Apr 02, 2020
 2.5K     0 

Downtown

Sort of. I don't like to be negative, but two problems here - one is the word "temporary" and the other is it doesn't seem to provide day time space.

I think one of the big problems is the homeless are forced out during they day, so they end up wondering around then.
Yup, if we had the proper amount of day service spaces and PERMANENT year-round shelter spaces, things would look much better. However, that's on the Province to fix.
 
Yup, if we had the proper amount of day service spaces and PERMANENT year-round shelter spaces, things would look much better. However, that's on the Province to fix.

Yup, the province has been so negligent when it comes to Edmonton.

As Sohi has noted, and it would be nice if the media reported on this everytime it publishes a story on homelessness and downtown issues, Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.

Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.

Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.
 
Yup, the province has been so negligent when it comes to Edmonton.

As Sohi has noted, and it would be nice if the media reported on this everytime it publishes a story on homelessness and downtown issues, Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.

Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.

Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.
The UCP government doesn’t care about Edmonton. Just like the PCs before them they never have and never will. If they get elected again I can’t imagine what their negligence to Edmonton will do.
 
Yup, the province has been so negligent when it comes to Edmonton.

As Sohi has noted, and it would be nice if the media reported on this everytime it publishes a story on homelessness and downtown issues, Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.

Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.

Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.
Meanwhile, Calgary has approx 2/3 of the homeless population of Edmonton.
 
Yup, the province has been so negligent when it comes to Edmonton.

As Sohi has noted, and it would be nice if the media reported on this everytime it publishes a story on homelessness and downtown issues, Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.

Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.

Edmonton has 1/3 of permanently funded 24/7 shelters compared to Calgary.
I think you've got it. Every time the mayor speaks about provincial funding, this should be the very first thing or one of the first things he says and it should be repeated several times in his remarks.

You have to repeat a message again and again for it to get through.
 
I suppose I should be optimistic that this is getting more attention, but it has been a problem for several years.

Social disorder and safety are one part of the problem, but another is what compelling reason is there to come downtown to shop now?

At this point downtown retail is hollowed out, decimated and barely provides anything beyond the basic services for all the people living nearby who generally have to drive to power centres or suburban malls for most purchases.

This decline started well before safety concerns became a big issue. Sport Chek was not one of the first tenants to leave City Centre. It has been happening for the last five years.

I think focusing on safety and social disorder alone may distract from other problems that our civic and business leaders also need to address. The social disorder and safety problems just became more apparent after a lot of other Edmontonians gave up on or abandoned our downtown.
 
WEM and Kingsway are the main culprits in my mind, as is the essential stagnation of the core for 30yrs.

Sure we doubled or tripled the residential population from 4000-8000-12000+, but those numbers are still 100-200% too low to really self-support anything.

Pair that with a Downtown worker population that has been eroded, a very small 20-40 crowd who want to shop, drink, play and the relative ease of which to get to the burbs, malls and power centres and you have a bit of a perfect storm.

Thank god for student growth, but disposable incomes are low and demographics far more likely to shop online.

Time to reinvent what a Downtown retail experience is or could be.

Put an urban IKEA there, perhaps a Canadian Tire and drag Simons from the NE and things begin to shift, but those are unlikely and aspirational given that retail traditionally follows significant growth/density.
 
WEM and Kingsway are the main culprits in my mind, as is the essential stagnation of the core for 30yrs.

Sure we doubled or tripled the residential population from 4000-8000-12000+, but those numbers are still 100-200% too low to really self-support anything.

Pair that with a Downtown worker population that has been eroded, a very small 20-40 crowd who want to shop, drink, play and the relative ease of which to get to the burbs, malls and power centres and you have a bit of a perfect storm.

Thank god for student growth, but disposable incomes are low and demographics far more likely to shop online.

Time to reinvent what a Downtown retail experience is or could be.

Put an urban IKEA there, perhaps a Canadian Tire and drag Simons from the NE and things begin to shift, but those are unlikely and aspirational given that retail traditionally follows significant growth/density.
I wouldn't put too much of the blame on these two malls, after they have been around for over 40 years and weren't something recently added. As recently as 2014 or 2015 City Centre was doing ok.

I think one of the problems is the previous owner of City Centre owned both Kingsway and City Centre. It decided to focus on the former and neglect the latter.

I think another part of the problem is the owners of downtown commercial properties have been content to let them sit too long rather than be more aggressive to get tenants and fill the spaces. A lots of these are large companies headquartered far away, so I suppose the problem is out of sight out of mind for them and probably barely dents their bottom line, but it is very negative for our city and downtown.

I think IKEA is a unicorn idea. Maybe it would happen, but I think the better idea is to try get pop up stores and small local businesses to fill the spaces at rates they can afford.
 
Could this be a precedent?
Yes, there are problems, but I don't think the exaggeration such as in this letter is at all helpful. Our downtown core is not "overrun" with squatters’ shelters. There are none in any of the areas I regularly go to, and I go to a lot of areas downtown often.

I think maybe this sort of exaggeration is a result of frustration or to serve an agenda, but I think it only makes things worse to give people who don't visit downtown regularly an impression that is not accurate and makes them more hesitant to do so.

I recall around a couple of years ago there was a large homeless camp near Rossdale Road in the River Valley. However, the city did eventually close it and the area has been fenced off and unoccupied since then.
 

Back
Top