'The downtown represents the spirit of the city': Local groups calling for downtown revitalization with major catalyst projects
Three downtown business organizations are advocating for the City of Regina to locate a new multi-purpose events centre and central library branch in the downtown core.
Regina's Downtown Business Improvement District (BID), Warehouse District, and Chamber of Commerce brought in an expert from New York as part of a speaker series. The Transform Downtown luncheons are aimed at transforming the city’s core.
“The downtown represents to the rest of the world the spirit of the overall city and indeed of a province,” said former International Downtown Association chair Tim Tompkins. “It is the economic driver. It’s where the tax base is and it can help support and pay for the services that the entire city needs.”
As the former president of the Times Square Alliance in New York City, Tompkins was a part of the revitalization Times Square has undergone in the last 20 years.
In his presentation Friday, he said thriving culture, art, and economy is what will bring people to the city centre.
“Half of it is simply celebrating what you’ve got,” said Tompkins. “This is a place that has great bones, great history and an enthusiastic set of people, entrepreneurs and creators that want to make things happen.”
To do this, the business districts are calling for at least two of the five proposed major catalyst projects to be located downtown.
“If not now, when?” asked Judith Veresuk, Downtown BID executive director. “With the interest of the library and an arena, all of those coming together in the last year makes downtown the place to be.”
“Fundamentally, we need people downtown whether they’re coming to visit from outside the city, from inside the city in the suburbs or live downtown” said Mayor Sandra Masters. “People are life.”
Masters said smaller cultural and artistic projects are easier to execute in the short term, but long term, the city needs the larger projects to keep visitors and residents coming back.
“Hopefully their experience on the smaller, more personal level is positive and it creates a habit of coming into our downtown.”
The city said it is continuing to look for ways to invest into downtown, looking at other centres for inspiration.
“The things people interact with are similar around the world,” said Masters. “Some of the things that draw people in a focused way are real opportunities for us.”
“The momentum that we all saw during the world juniors in Halifax and Moncton, that have downtown arenas, those things are achievable here,” said Veresuk. “The vibrancy in the downtown is something we can replicate.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.