Old Strathcona's Challenge

Pages 1 | 2 | 3

The Old Strathcona market became a fixture, drawing buyers from beyond the immediate community. The Princess theatre, a repertory film house, showed not only international hits, but Canadian flicks rarely shown elsewhere. Sidewalk cafes appeared after the OSF won a hard-fought battle with city council. Recognizing the potential of the area, designers and artists rented the small store fronts, attracting customers from all over the city.

The big, bad bars were replaced by smaller, more upscale drinking establishments. The City of Edmonton, after 12 years of providing most of the funding for the area's redevelopment, began to reap its reward. Business was booming, rents were rising, and property and business taxes were keeping pace. Millions of dollars in taxes per year fed the city.

"I was so proud of Old Strathcona. You could go down in the morning and see seniors meeting for tea. Then the suits would arrive from downtown for lunch. The same guys would be back in the evenings with their wives. It was the only place where a parent and child could run into each other on the street, out in the same area yet enjoying their own things," says Wilf Brooks, owner of United Cycle and other Strathcona properties.

Fast forward again, to 2001. On Whyte Ave, as the day wanes, the high-school set strolls the sidewalks. Strathcona is an inexpensive place to hang and tread the boards of music and coffee shops. Towards evening on an average weekend, teenagers pack the walks. The 30-somethings are not in evidence, neither are those who frequented the market and spent the day window shopping. On busy nights, when the bars close at 2 a.m., they spew out up to 10,000 patrons.

Whyte Ave has become the strip. This is not quite what volunteers on the community associations had in mind when they laboured over their community revitalization and redevelopment plans.

Canada Day 2001, Strathcona put on its famous annual Silly Summer Parade, featuring local businesses. The festive atmosphere brought 10,000 people to the avenue to enjoy the event, says Berghofer. In the small hours of the following morning, nearly the same number of people again descended on the avenue. Only this time it was a drunken mob, vandalizing property and assaulting police officers who intervened. The story goes that the rabble-rousers drinking at a beer tent across the river made Strathcona their destination when the tent closed. The riot shattered the image Strathcona supporters had nurtured for so long. "It took us 27 years to build our reputation; it took those morons two hours to trash it," Judy Berghofer alleges.

Though certainly the most newsworthy, it was not the first unpleasant incident Strathcona had experienced. Regular crowds, panhandling, rough-housing, and aggressive behaviour had already begun to tarnish Strathcona's image. The Canada Day events cost merchants in repairs and insurance and underscored the dilemma now facing the community: Strathcona simply does not have tools to deal with crowds and massive influxes of party-goers now regularly attracted to the area.

Community leaders agree that if Strathcona is to remain an attractive place to live and work, the area has to be recognized as a unique community, and the city must provide funding and services to address its specific needs. "We need management," Lowe emphasizes. "The use of the area has increased substantially, but there has always been a reluctance by the city to put more funds in."

In Duggan's opinion, the city's responsibilities are clear. "You can't put in enhanced infrastructure and only provide the same level of maintenance you provide to all other areas of the city. You can’t create an area with pedestrian volumes so great it is truly no longer a convenience to residents of the immediate neighbourhoods but rather a recreation and entertainment area for the entire region" When it comes to this, the area needs more policing and city services to maintain people's safety and comfort. Duggan knows from his early days in Strathcona that allowing graffiti, garbage, and disrepair to go unattended will attract people who are attracted to disorder.

Michael Phair, city councillor, has noted the concerns expressed by his Strathcona constituents. "Residents close to Whyte Ave say that in the last four or five years things have gotten difficult. They are concerned about their safety and general disturbance, and parking."

Some object to the influx of teens, citing their drunk and aggressive behaviour that dissuades many from visiting the area after dark. There's also the fear that more businesses catering to the younger age group will open, squeezing out merchants carrying merchandise for a different set of tastes.

But Phair thinks Strathcona "is a good place for kids to hang out. There are a number of things suitable for young people that they find interesting—clothing and record stores, coffee shops, bead stores. Most are enjoying themselves for very little money" Murray suggests that the different daytime and night time uses reflect the variety of people in the area having a good time. "Young people have to be accommodated, and we have to do whatever we can to manage their behaviour so that people and property are not at risk."

Pages 1 | 2 | 3

[Top] [Back] [Previous] [Next]