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Pressures of Prosperity Saddle Downtown Calgary Safety and Cleanliness Become City Priorities
September, 2008
By Barbara Carss
Vigilance and regular upkeep are key elements of the City of Calgary's efforts to improve safety and boost the dynamism of its downtown. In 2006, the City launched the Clean to the Core initiative - framed as a three-year program to tackle safety, cleanliness and graffiti issues and draw more investors, residents and visitors to the city centre.
In this third year of the program's initial mandate, there are now 25 additional by-law officers patrolling the core, a dedicated budget for graffiti abatement on public and private property, and a coordinated team of police, emergency services and other key City departments responding collaboratively to safety and security issues. The City Centre
Implementation Office, which was established in August 2007 to carry out the directions of the Calgary's new downtown plan, administers the program and works with business and community groups on complementary initiatives.
"One of the biggest elements of making people feel safe is having a lot of people around and lots of activities," says Dave Breckon, Director of Calgary's City Centre Implementation Office. "We're trying to get that vitality, trying to get more density and more housing in the downtown, and that's really happening now in Calgary. It's kind of like an upward spiral."
The new downtown plan that Calgary Council adopted in May 2007 sets out a broad vision for a possible doubling of the current residential base over the next 30 years and a potential 50% increase in the downtown labour force - from 120,000 to 180,000 workers - by 2025. Already, 9,000 units of housing are under construction or in the planning stages within the downtown and expected to translate into a significant population jump from the approximately 30,000 existing residents. Completion of new office towers in the 2007- 2009 period will add another 3.6 million square feet of office space in the downtown area, while a further 4 million square feet is in the planning and design stage.
SECURITY CONCERNS
Rapid growth has also created some negative fallout, however. Economic boom times have attracted a broad cross-section of a society and concerns have emerged in recent years about increased litter, vandalism and crime, and neglected pockets becoming magnets for unwanted activity.
"Clean to the Core was really instigated by a number of special interests, including ourselves, who said: Enough is enough," observes Bill Partridge, Executive Vice President of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Calgary. BOMA Calgary members have expressed particular concerns about graffiti, crime and how public access via the Plus 15 walkway network potentially exposes their properties to vandalism and their tenants and staff to intimidation.
Controlling aberrant behaviour has been problematic for property managers because the elevated bridges that connect dozens of downtown buildings at the second-storey level are public property, while pedestrian routes through the private buildings are provided in a public easement agreement that gives the public the right to pass through. Building management had the authority to eject interlopers from their own properties, but it was unclear if they could prevent them from loitering in adjoining public spaces.
A recent legal interpretation from the Calgary City Solicitor has clarified that building managers can police the public spaces providing direct access to their properties. Last year the City also established a consistent schedule of operation for the Plus 15 system.
Buildings connected to downtown hotels, conference facilities and performance venues remain open until 11:30 p.m., but access to all others is shut down at 6 p.m., thus reducing the opportunity for incidents in less travelled areas. "The basic premise of security is to secure the perimeter," Partridge notes.
Elsewhere, the eyes-on-the-street approach is a driving philosophy for enhancing security and safety. Extra by-law enforcement officers are meant to free up the police to deal with more serious matters.
STREETSCAPE IMPROVEMENTS
By-law officers are also the lead players in the graffiti management and abatement program, although they have prominent champion in Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier. "The Mayor really just hates graffiti and sees it as a mark on the city," Breckon says. "He wanted to make sure it was removed quickly before it accumulated and became a bigger problem."
City regulations require Calgarians to report graffiti on private and public property. Once reported, private property owners then have 13 days to remove it, after which they could be fined up to $150 if they fail to clean their properties.
The Clean to the Core initiative includes a budget for graffiti abatement, set at $45,000 for 2008. A team of three students removed nearly 6,000 tags and posters this summer.
An associated program provides City resources for cleaning graffiti on private property in cases where owners report they are unable to do so. The Property Services division has also adopted graffiti-resistant coatings for some of the most vulnerable targets, such as transit signal boxes, and is working with the private sector, including BOMA Calgary, to test other anti-graffiti finishes and products.
Meanwhile, the coordinated efforts of police/protection services, planning, works, recreation and community services in the newly formed Centre City Safety Impact Team brings together problem solvers with differing perspectives and resources. "There is a lot of intelligence they can get from each other and there are a lot more eyes looking at what's out there and where the problems are," Breckon says.
Small businesses and merchants are involved through business revitalization zones (BRZ) in the city centre. The Calgary Downtown Association, which represents more than 3,500 businesses within a 120-block area, has been one of the biggest supporters of programs to clean up and rejuvenate downtown streetscapes. It is now working with the City on a recycling pilot project and has just completed the first project in a hoarding beautification program.
"Hoarding is so ugly and we have so much construction downtown that we needed something that would make it a little more attractive," explains Janet Jessiman, the Calgary Downtown Association's Operations Manager, who is also responsible for programming on two popular pedestrian routes - Stephen Avenue Walk and Barclay Mall.
Anthem Properties Group's Waterfront project (featured in Canadian Property Management, November 2007) is the first development to unveil hoarding that also serves as artwork. A local artist created the design in consultation with the developer and the Downtown Calgary Association. The developer, and all subsequent participating developers, will also receive a rebate on City hoarding fees.
"Everybody is working together and it works well because the City has the program to support it," Jessiman says. Other developers, such as the TORODE Group, are making significant investments in public art, street furnishings and other amenities.
"When you get a lot of density, your streetscapes have to be better and have to work better as public space," Breckon asserts. "We're working with a lot with developers. The Downtown Plan is trying to outline what we'd like from them, but there is also a lot of voluntary contribution. They are always willing to make things better."
MIXED REVIEWS
In turn, large and small companies expect a safe and clean environment in which to conduct business. Thus far, perceptions are somewhat mixed.
Downtown merchants have seen a drop in criminal activity. "It has gotten so much better. The by-law officers are able to take away some of the small tasks from the Calgary Police," Jessiman says. "There are still suspicious people who come down here, but they don't loiter as much. There is such a good police presence in the downtown core that all it takes is a phone call from me, or from anyone."
In contrast, many building owners and managers in the neighbouring beltline area, just south of the CPR tracks and the downtown core, report an influx of intimidating loiterers.
"They picked up a problem and moved it somewhere else and they are not policing these areas where the problems have been shifted to, to the same degree," Partridge maintains. "BOMA Calgary is collecting insight from people on their impressions of their personal safety when they are in the downtown or any other employment area, and we are using that information in our advocacy."
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