Downtown cleaning pilot `impactful'
Streets now meet `bare minimum' standard: business spokesperson
Business groups say Edmonton's extra attention to cleaning in the core since last summer had an undeniably positive impact on Downtown as the city considers whether to keep spending the added dollars.
The city started ramping up cleaning in the core last May, but the enhanced pilot project ends July 31. Dedicated city crews proactively clean sidewalks, remove litter and graffiti and maintain parks, flower beds and shrubs Downtown, west to 124 Street, east to 95 Street, and in Chinatown at a higher frequency than usual. Without action, cleaning will be scaled back to stretch the dollars to Oct. 31.
City council will decide at an April 23 spring budget debate whether to keep the pilot running to the end of December for $1.5 million, council's community and public services committee decided Monday. The program was partially paid for by a $1.2 million grant from the Alberta government, but the province has not renewed it.
Edmonton Downtown Business Association executive director Puneeta McBryan told councillors that people who didn't even know the pilot was happening told her the Downtown felt a lot cleaner last summer and fall.
“The impact was undeniable,” she said Monday.
But, she warned this level of maintenance and cleaning in the core is fundamental and needed all the time so Downtown can flourish.
“What we achieved over the last year is the bare minimum of an acceptable standard for cleanliness and maintenance in the most economically and culturally consequential neighbourhood of our city,” McBryan said.
Alexandra Hryciw, chair for the Downtown Recovery Coalition, also called the pilot “nothing short of impactful.”
“I cannot stress the importance of ensuring our Downtown is clean, in particular their efforts leading up to major events, like for example the hydrogen convention, are not only critical but make visitors feel safe and willing to enjoy the many offerings our Downtown has for them,” she said.
“By continuing this program, we're not only ensuring consistent and enhanced service levels, but also demonstrating an unwavering commitment to the prosperity and well-being of our city.”
There was also discussion as to whether the city should continue doing extra cleaning in-house or if it should be farmed out to non-profits like Hire Good. McBryan pointed out other cities in North America have enhanced cleaning run by business groups.
Council will also review whether to continue the funding long-term at the fall budget update for all business improvement areas and Downtown.
Coun. Andrew Knack, introducing the motion written by himself and Coun. Anne Stevenson, said he's putting them on the table because he thinks it's worth having the discussion even when finances are tight.
“I don't think there's any debate happening that the work here is core services, so it's a matter of to what degree of the core services do we want to do, and the overall impact we want to have,” he said.
Coun. Aaron Paquette said keeping Downtown clean is important.
“If we have a filthy Downtown centre that's unkempt, that does not inspire confidence, attract investment or remain in keeping with expectations of Edmontonians, and I'm one of them. I do expect a clean city,” he said. “And if we don't have the budget for it there's something wrong with that.”
Crews responded to 311 requests in an average of five days instead of 17 in the core from last June to January, according to a staff presentation. They responded to 10,000 notifications for service, of which about 92 per cent were identified by the proactive cleaning crews directly.
Staff also removed more than 3,000 graffiti tags, picked up 15,000 needles and responded to 1,600 reports of garbage and litter in that time frame.
But despite the extra work and positive reception from business owners and their patrons in the core, this work doesn't seem to have changed the public's perception of the core.
Mark Beare, director of infrastructure and road services, told councillors two surveys to get public feedback showed perceptions of cleanliness were about the same from March and September 2023.
“This may have been influenced by a few different factors, such as the time of year, or weather conditions impacting time spent outside, and visibility of waste,” Beare said.