Day 2 | Local Government Approaches to Downtown Recovery

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From Canadian Urban Institute: You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://canurb.org/citytalk

Canadian Urban Institute:COMING UP:   Local Government Approaches to Downtown Recovery (12:30 – 1:15pm ET) with Tobias Novogrodsky, Director, Business Growth Services Economic Development & Culture, City of Toronto; Christopher Glaisek, Chief Planning and Design Officer, Waterfront Toronto; Josh Neubauer, Principal, Urban Strategies; Puneeta McBryan, Executive Director, Edmonton Downtown Business Association; Thom Mahler, Director, Downtown Strategy, City of Calgary; Tom Girvan, Manager, Strategic Investment, City of Edmonton and Sadhu Johnston, former City Manager, City of Vancouver This Summit would have not been possible without the incredible support of our partners and sponsors. Please visit www.canurb.org/citysummit for the full list of sponsors. 00:54:02 Mark van Elsberg: And as automobile drivers don’t pay their fair share to maintain roads, we need the same for all modes.  And should be considered the same as pavement, funded the same way. 00:54:17 Annie MacInnis: Hello from Kensington Calgary. Forgot to sign in but listening avidly! 00:54:55 Lisa Chong: hello Annie! Joining from Calgary also 00:56:46 Maria Bravo: Bonjour from Montréal! 00:56:59 Canadian Urban Institute: Sadhu was the City Manager at the City of Vancouver between 2016 and 2021. During his tenure, he supported Council in making Vancouver an even more vibrant and sustainable community. In his role, Sadhu has helped to solve a long-standing challenge with the purchase of the Arbutus Greenway, thereby creating an 11 km greenway across the city. He has received support from Council to replace the aged viaducts accessing Downtown with a road network and revitalized neighborhood. Prior to serving in this role, Sadhu served for seven years as the deputy city manager, where he helped to oversee the development and implementation of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan, which builds off of Vancouver’s successes in building a green city. Vancouver’s greenhouse gas emissions are currently 6% below 1990 levels despite a growth in population of 30% and an increase in jobs of over 20%. 00:57:16 Canadian Urban Institute: Josh Neubauer is an urban planner with experience with complex planning and infrastructure projects in Canada, the US, and in the UK. Development strategies and master planning are a core part of Josh’s work. He is currently the project manager for the master planning and municipal approvals for the Stelco employment site in Hamilton, Ontario, and is the project manager on major projects in the GTA including the 2280 Dundas West mixed use development in Toronto and several policy and development approvals for Oxford Properties’ lands in Downtown Mississauga. 00:57:20 Cherie Klassen: Edmonton BIAs represent! Yay Puneeta! 00:57:31 Canadian Urban Institute: Thom Mahler is the Manager of Urban Initiatives with the City of Calgary where he is responsible for leading teams and projects in strategic growth areas of the City. He is also currently serving as the Program Lead for the City’s new Downtown Strategy in collaboration with Calgary Economic Development, the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation and Downtown Business Improvement Areas. Thom has over 30 years of experience in city planning and has worked in the areas of development review, urban design, policy planning and economic development.  In addition to his 15 years of experience with the City of Calgary, he has also practiced in Southwestern Ontario and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.  He holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Arts, Honours degree in geography from the University of Manitoba. 00:57:45 Canadian Urban Institute: Chris Glaisek is the Chief Planning and Design Officer at Waterfront Toronto and is a passionate advocate for design excellence in the public realm. He is a strong promoter of sustainable city building and making great urban neighborhoods come to life. He is responsible for conceiving planning and design initiatives and managing detailed design for Waterfront Toronto projects in the 2,000-acre Designated Waterfront Area and strives to ensure high standards are achieved in development of parks and public realm, new buildings, streetscapes and infrastructure. Under Chris’s stewardship, Waterfront Toronto has received more than 60 national and international design awards and nominations for its master plans, parks, and streetscape designs. 00:57:57 Canadian Urban Institute: Puneeta McBryan is Executive Director of the Edmonton Downtown Business Association, where she is working hard to secure the ongoing and renewed vibrancy of Downtown Edmonton, having taken on the role in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic as downtowns across North America grappled with the new realities and challenges ahead. Prior to joining the EDBA, she served public and private sector clients across Alberta as a marketing & communications consultant and business strategist. A transformational leader and a connector by nature, Puneeta is working to support Edmonton’s economic recovery and transformation through innovative new initiatives & community collaborations with downtown stakeholders, the business community, and all three levels of government. 00:58:11 Canadian Urban Institute: Tom Girvan is Manager, Strategic Investment for the City of Edmonton, a role focused on the Downtown Vibrancy Strategy. As someone with a love of Edmonton’s downtown having lived and worked there for nearly a decade, one of the most exciting parts of this work is the opportunity to develop relationships with people, businesses and organizations with a vested interest in the future of downtown Edmonton. 00:58:28 Ralph Cipolla: Ralph cipolla joining from the sunshine city Orillia Ontario…great presentations thank you 01:00:06 Judith Cox: Hi Ralph, lots of fabulous information !! 01:00:08 Meg Marshall: CafeTO is a wonderful program! And is getting better every year! 01:00:19 Meg Marshall: I helped 4 neighbrouhoods set theirs up 01:00:23 Terry Guiel: Will AGCO continue to be flexible with patio’s? 01:00:42 Meg Marshall: We have provided a lot of feedback to ensure it gets better every year :0 01:00:45 Meg Marshall: 😀 01:01:02 Meg Marshall: AGCO has allowed a business patio to operate up to 10M from their storefront 01:03:03 Mary Pattion: Hello from ShopLocal2Win – very eager to learn how we can further apply our 40+ years of combined experience in tourism, marketing and retail engagement to help with the economic recovery and future resiliency of Main Streets across our country. 01:08:40 Patrick Sullivan: Great Bridge, made in Halifax, and placed in Toronto! 01:11:01 Paul LaRose: Actually two identical bridges from Nova Scotia and floated down the seaway to their resting spot 01:12:45 Mark van Elsberg: CafeTO highlights how our streets can be used differently,  and when we rebalance the remaining curb space including improving safety, creating space for streetfurniture and other improvements with trees, swm infrastructure and others we can really change our Centres and our main streets.   This last snow fall in TO highlights how much space we actually need.  Snow occupies more than 30% of our streets and traffic continues to flow.  Lets freeze this moment in time and reuse this snow as a tactical urbanism template 01:13:36 Terry Guiel: Public spaces are great but they are being taken over by the homeless and littered with discarded needles.  Patio’s are great but the constant harassment of aggressive panhandlers hinders the use and enjoyment of them. 01:15:03 Josh Neubauer: Here is a link to the collaborative idea paper: https://collabsessions.ca/collaborative-session-2/?lang=en 01:15:31 Tzu Chen Wang: With most of the small business owners finding rent to the biggest challenge to success, and commercial real estate company (landlords) not understanding how tough the COVID situation has on business, what do y’all think will be the right way forward to ensure our small businesses are protected? 01:16:17 Tobias Novogrodsky: Here is the link to more info about the Toronto Main Street Recovery and Renewal Initiative: https://www.toronto.ca/business-economy/business-operation-growth/business-incentives/toronto-main-street-recovery-and-rebuild-initiative/ 01:19:30 Terry Guiel: Puneeta, the number of homelessness in Edmonton has double during Covid.  2,800 people living rough according to recent stats.  A lack of shelters is part of the issue.  What are your cities strategies on this? 01:19:49 Cynthia Wilkey: I think Toronto’s CafeTO program demonstrated to resistant small business owners that creating space for cafes and separated bike lanes was good for business.  Parking, a peren 01:19:59 Trina MacDonald: Can we get a copy of this presentation 01:20:37 Canadian Urban Institute: Hi Trina, all the presentations will be posted along with the recordings next week. 01:21:21 Terry Guiel: Love to hear more about HELP Program.  Love to connect with you Puneeta and hear more.  terry@ptbodbia.ca 01:21:42 Cynthia Wilkey: Continued with CafeTO – Parking was integrated into the design which was important to getting business support for the pilot,  But I suspect the big learning was the way the Cafe’s and bike lanes brought lots of foot traffic and customers out on the street during the COVID restrictions 01:22:49 Ken Kelly: GO Peter GO! 01:22:50 Mariah Samji: great job Edmonton team! 01:22:53 paul mackinnon: Great job Edmonton. Great partnership between city and BIAs can lead to great things. 01:23:35 Kay Matthews: Love using alleyways for bicycle lanes as there is so much competition for the sidewalk and roadways. 01:26:43 Cherie Klassen: In Old Strathcona BIA, we took expanded patio space to the curb lane with beautifying it and providing seating. Here’s some of what we did. https://oldstrathcona.ca/whyte-ave-sidewalks-growing-again/ 01:27:25 paul mackinnon: How supportive is the provincial government in AB of downtown initiatives in Edmonton and Calgary? What role does CLDC play? 01:28:40 Stephanie Beausoleil: excellent 01:28:42 Jamie Van Ymeren: How did you land on your target for what level of residential units you needed vs commercial space 01:28:46 Laurel Davies Snyder: Do communications initiatives fit into anyone’s downtown/core area strategies and action plans?  Not only marketing and promotion, but also building awareness, understanding & ongoing dialogue about “urbanity” including but not limited to city growth and change, how shaping the city in deliberate ways makes a difference, what can be changed (and what can’t), communicating data in a clear and accessible way, exploring “urban myths”, etc..  thank you. 01:29:17 Tom Girvan: Hi Terry, Thanks for the question. The City is committed to ensuring the safety of people experiencing homelessness in the downtown core, as well as the businesses that contribute so much to Edmonton’s vibrancy and economic success. We work with a variety of partners organizations and community groups (including overnight and daytime shelters, peace officers, volunteer cleanliness groups, and empowerment teams) to keep downtown clean, safe and address the factors that contribute to  social disorder 01:29:18 Mark van Elsberg: Can we work together with all City’s to take Tactical Urbanism to a new level . With City standards, provincial legislation to reinforce Highway regs (particularly with regards to legal responsibility of Drivers) This is how NYC was so successful.     Our city Engineers are often very supportive but always refer to the need to develop plans within standards.  Lets create a municipal “PRACTICAL URBANISM” focussed on safety and responsibility.  and empower  our communities, our BIAs and our City divisions  PLAN IT, PAINT IT and lets let everyone take part in BUILD IT.   This could be a new TAC guide 01:31:36 paul mackinnon: Great idea Mark. We have continual obstruction from city engineers on projects in the right-of-way. Who would do this work? 01:31:37 Bob van Wegen: Thom (or others) Are you considering converting one-way to two-way traffic, or narrowing wide one way roads?  To improve local habitability (vs. quick escape). 01:31:53 Michael Magnan: Will be great to see how streetside patio programs become normalized. I’m particularly interested in how this evolves into permanent, revenue neutral programs that benefit business, citizens and BIAs / gov’t partners. 01:33:48 Mark van Elsberg: This initiative really needs a working group of many municipalities.  In the past Cities have shared these ideas  Ontario has a group MUDR Municipal Urban Design Round table which has discussed this idea  CUI would be a great national version 01:35:24 Kay Matthews: The main street BIAs need to be a part of the taskforces, as they are the ones who are often cleaning up biohazards, garbage, providing naloxone, providing the washrooms and even security. 01:35:25 Mark van Elsberg: Would it be possible to end this session with an option to share contacts and to list a number of issues others might wish to continue working on? 01:35:53 Cherie Klassen: @Mark the International Downtown Association has done a lot of work on the federal level advocating for our BIAs and downtowns with various support programs. https://downtown.org/ 01:37:07 Mark van Elsberg: One real opportunity highlighted in this session is to set up a working group with the local experts, the BIA’s and to build on their needs, ideas and innovations 01:38:03 paul mackinnon: Enabler vs regulator. A terrific mindset shift! 01:39:30 Mark van Elsberg: BIA’s are the underestimated Enabler.  They are the local experts, they are an arm of the city, they cost share and add to City projects, they maintain and enliven.  This is where it should start 01:40:08 Kay Matthews: Agreed Mark! 01:40:32 paul mackinnon: BIA/city collaboration also prevents finger-pointing if things don’t go well. Allows for more risk and pilot projects. 01:40:43 Robert Plitt: Mark, any thoughts on how BIA’s will evolve in the near future? 01:40:43 Kay Matthews: BIAs are investors in the Public Realm and raise their own funds to make the community better. 01:40:59 Canadian Urban Institute: Thank you Sadhu, Tobias, Chris, Josh, Puneeta, Thom and Tom for such a wonderful session. 01:41:03 Catherine Deegan: Great session ! 01:41:18 Tim Kocur: Excellent session. Thanks everyone participating and commenting. 01:41:26 Cherie Klassen: Great job everyone! 01:41:35 Mary Pattion: Wonderful session!  Thank you everyone. 01:41:53 Canadian Urban Institute: We are going to take a quick 15 minute break and return at 1:30pm ET for our next session “Fuelling the Economic Recovery of Canada: the Role of Business to Lead” with Deborah Yedlin, Calgary Chamber of Commerce Michel Leblanc, Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal   Patrick Sullivan, Halifax Chamber of Commerce  Jan De Silva, CEO, Toronto Region Board of Trade 01:42:03 Adi Berardini: Thank you for these great presentations! 01:42:31 Mark van Elsberg: Lets set up a working group on empowering BIA’s as partners with Cities and City Constructors  and .. Govts 01:43:10 Carol Jolly: ☝️ 01:45:05 John Kiru: you folks ROCK, well done. lets not let this dialog end.