More feet on street best core fix: poll
Beefed-up patrols top list of options
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/10/2010 (5750 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
ROUGHLY one-third of Winnipeggers believe the best way to improve downtown would be to add more police foot patrols, according to a poll conducted for the Free Press and CBC News.
Earlier this month, Leger Marketing asked 800 Winnipeggers to choose among four means of improving downtown Winnipeg.
Adding more foot patrols was the preferred choice for 36 per cent of the respondents, making it the top response among a menu of improvements that also included financial incentives for downtown housing, tax incentives for downtown businesses and a reduction in the number of downtown liquor vendors.
“Safety is still this perceived issue,” said Ross McGowan, president of downtown development agency CentreVenture.
McGowan said he is not surprised by the desire for more police downtown, but said he believes the city’s core is safer than many Winnipeggers believe.
“We have some problems on Portage Avenue. We sure don’t have them on Main Street anymore,” he said, referring to his agency’s efforts to revitalize the west side of the downtown artery, from the Union Bank Tower at William Avenue to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority office/parkade complex north of Logan Avenue.
Just under a quarter of respondents chose housing incentives as the best way to improve downtown, while slightly more than a fifth chose incentives for downtown businesses.
Reducing the number of liquor vendors — something CentreVenture and the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission are considering — was the top choice of 10 per cent of the sample.
None of the respondents said downtown doesn’t need to be improved.
The list of priorities sounds logical, said Stefano Grande, executive director of the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone.
“Dead on. Those are our top priorities. It’s consistent with the surveys we’ve done,” Grande said.
His organization supports a CentreVenture plan to designate an 11-block area around the MTS Centre as an entertainment district that will allow tax incentives to stimulate further development within the zone.
Both the city and province have agreed to the idea in principle.
bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca
THE QUESTION
“Which of the following measures would be the best way to improve the downtown core?”
THE RESULT
Increase number of police foot patrols: 36 per cent
Provide more tax and other financial incentives for housing to increase downtown’s population: 24 per cent
Provide incentives for downtown businesses: 21 per cent
Reduce the number of liquor vendors: 10 per cent
Downtown does not need improvement: Zero per cent