OPENING REMARKS

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Dyan Dunsmoor-Farley, Conference Chair and Moderator

Dyan recalled the invitation a year ago of Victoria’s City Manager to meet with City staff to discuss revitalization of downtown core, which evolved into a citizen-based initiative with the creation of the DVC. To broaden the depth of involvement DVCA involved a broad cross-section of interested organizations and individuals including planners, architects, developers, social service organizations, environmental and transportation experts, academics, business and neighbourhood organizations.

The conference is envisioned as a series of forums with expert speakers who could expand our knowledge of the ideas and approaches being tried in other places. The next forum planned for the spring of 2004 will likely deal with issues of practical application such as transportation, and downtown residential. Planning for that forum is currently underway.

What do we mean by ‘downtown’?

Both the physical and geographical area bounded by Belleville, Blanshard, the harbour and Rock Bay; but also the relationship of this area to the abutting neighbourhoods of Burnside-Gorge, North Park, Humboldt Valley, Harris Green, Fairfield, and James Bay.

The Goal

To create a vision for a renewed downtown Victoria which is beautiful, economically vibrant, populous, socially responsive, a centre of job growth, culturally rich, and a model of urban ecology and sustainability.

What we hope to achieve:

• Building a community of awareness and interest around downtown opportunities
• Engaging the public in a discussion about the future of downtown
• Generating ideas that are both exciting and realistic for creating a healthier, more vital downtown and building a consensus in support of the ideas
• Identifying strategies and structures for implementing these ideas
• Creating a repository of information on downtown issues
• Developing an ongoing visioning capability
• Building an organization for sustained downtown stewardship

Dyan introduced Mayor Alan Lowe.

Mayor Alan Lowe

Mayor Lowe referred to the urbanist Jane Jacobs, commenting that great downtowns are what make great cities. A city should be itself. Every city has differences. These are important. One of the most dismal things is going to a city and it’s like twelve others you’ve seen. That isn’t interesting or truthful.

Mayor Lowe mentioned the federal government’s new deal for municipalities. He acknowledged the attendance of all City Councillors and key City staff. He thanked the DVCA.

City Council is in the process of finalizing the City’s strategic plan, and has been conducting a survey of downtown social services. With VIHA and the Victoria Police, the City has launched a downtown action plan to address pressing social issues. The plan is approaching its one-year review.

Ideas raised at this conference may be helpful in developing some new creative solutions.

The 2020 conference could not have come at a better time. All of us have a role to play. The City cannot do it alone. Mayor Lowe commended the DVCA.

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JOEL KOTKIN: What are cities becoming?

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Joel Kotkin is a Senior Fellow at the Davenport Institute for Public Policy at Pepperdine University. He has published several books, including THE NEW GEOGRAPHY, How the Digital Revolution is Reshaping the American Landscape.

Kotkin introduced his talk with the comment, “Great downtowns make great cities.” He framed his presentation on the concept: Revisioning Victoria, The Future of the City of Gardens. His perspective has been partly shaped by research for a book he is writing about the history of cities, how they grow and develop within a historical perspective and context. “What is a city about?”

Key Points:

• A city (specifically downtown) has an accumulated memory. It is a collection of memories and feelings. Cities with a sense of history/identity tend to give those raised there a sense of belonging. “The city is a state of mind, a body of custom and traditions, and of unorganized sentiments and attitudes,” said economist Walter Park. Victoria has a strong identity going for it, but…
• Heritage does not mean renovating old buildings to create a “mall in brick”. Similarly, the suburbs cannot create a past that does not exist.
• There is an opportunity in Victoria to use the natural environment as an advantage but people must also think of the economic underpinnings. What happens when a city becomes too reliant on a tourist economy or is known primarily as a lifestyle city dependent on people from elsewhere (tourists, retirees who don’t want further development, absentee home owners, etc.)? It has been said that contemporary San Francisco, for example, has become “a cross between Carmel and Calcutta”.
• The issue of economic activity can cause differences among the various groups involved. There tends to be a false dichotomy: economic underpinning versus urban greening and environmentalism.
• Before the 18th century, cities were small and the natural world was immediate. New technology and wealth changed that. Like now, these factors seemed at odds with a widespread dissatisfaction concerning quality of life. A recent study reported that in 1998 those surveyed said that material possessions (“toys”) were their top priority; in 2002, it was quality of life. Prime concerns are working class dissatisfaction, a global sense of degraded lifestyle, severe housing shortages, and a growing desire for a quieter life.
• The Industrial Revolution produced cities with serious health problems that sent the wealthy to country estates, leaving behind the working class. As cities have grown, so too has the need to integrate nature. How do we integrate nature with the built environment? New York’s Central Park is an example of early green urbanism. The Islamic urban ideal was a celestial garden.
• Sprawl has detached urbanites and suburbanites from the environment. The suburbs try to recreate a connection with the environment but do so imperfectly.
• Cities situated by the water have an advantage. Water provides a visible connection to the environment. Manhattan is an example of how unplanned development has detached people from a spectacular natural setting, one of the world’s best harbours.
• People move into the suburbs for good reasons. They “are not stupid”. They move into the suburbs due to affordability and (perceived) safety from the homeless, and physical assault.
• Sprawl is a reaction to the failure of the city centre to create a viable economic environment and a nice place to live.
• Cities are fundamentally commercial places. Declustering, the move away from focusing on one primary industry (clustering) is advised. Technology, and the instant global access to information, has changed the vocational geography; people can choose where they live and work, including from remote locations. We’re seeing a migration away from larger cities to smaller municipalities. Why? Housing prices send people 30 to 44 out of the city centre. When people enter their thirties, they are focused on raising families, and their careers, and don’t find the appropriate resources, amenities, and affordability they need in the inner city.
• Preserving the middle class; we talk a lot about urban design and restoration, but we don’t talk enough about the people living there, and their needs.
• Throughout history, leading cities have been built upon, and evolved out of, the importance of sense of sacredness. When you get home after work you should feel something not just about your house, but about your community as well. “People live together to do something together,” wrote the late Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega V. Gassett.

In conclusion, Victoria’s advantages are:

• An existing, vital, compact downtown
• Access to nature and environmental protection (well ahead of most places)
• Heritage: oldest city in BC, colonial history
• It’s a city of gardens.
• Victoria can offer cost advantages compared to big cities.

The challenges facing Victoria:

• Creating and maintaining economic opportunity and busy commercial activity
• Attracting younger people, knowledge-based workers and companies, entrepreneurs and investors, artisans, technology companies, business services, creative workers
• Focus on locally-based growth. What are our growth industries? Especially ones with better wages over the last five or ten years. Ask professional service firms if they’re planning to stay or move, why they’re moving, and what would make a difference.
• Develop a workforce with skills. If you’re going to have an elite university presence, make sure graduates can find work in their areas of study. Don’t disown the smaller colleges and vocational schools, high schools, and community colleges.
• Recognize that retired people are not really interested in the place. They’re here for lifestyle and don’t want more business.
• Affordable housing for families
• Keep natural areas, continue developing parks/green spaces.
• Communicate consistently what we want to achieve. Make sure we’ve got a good story to tell, one that will spread by word of mouth.
• Don’t depend on large cultural edifices: symphony, museums, etc. Develop artisan industries.
• Create a shopping district/experience unique from the suburbs.
• Develop live/work spaces.

Panel Comments:

Bill Porteous, Frank D’Ambrosio, Mark Hornell

Hornell:

• Retirement centre describes Victoria well.
• Victoria doesn’t have large tech community due to rep as a lifestylecity.
• Strategy—we are doing a number of things already, particularly concerning the natural environment.
• Not sure we’re doing a good job developing a local workforce.
• Tend to lose young people because we’re not creating upwardly mobileopportunities.
• We tend not to focus on growth but what we’ve got here already
• Declustering; is there a contradiction with refocusing on the urban centre or are they parallel trends?

Kotkin Response:

• It depends on whose cluster is getting declustered. There is no
  
  identifiable cluster here. Financial services? Business service growth? Why can’t some corporate operations have offices here.
  

Porteous:

• Quality of life here is incomparable.
• Struck by the idea that more and more people are looking atspiritual values
• Got involved in art not to have a career, or to sell, but to look at and ask questions about what has meaning, what has value, directly to do with the quality of life issue.
• If the needs of the arts community are served, would that serve the needs for culture?

Kotkin Response:

• Cultural aspect is important, but most cities look at Bilbao, Frank
  
  Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum. A lot of cities are putting emphasis on edifices. I’d like to see more emphasis on production of art rather than consumption of art. Better to be known as a centre for the production of art. That will draw people over time.
  

Porteous:

• Artists often move into derelict spaces, discover lofts from industrial days, move in because cost is minimal, and then humanize them. Over time, others move in and fix up buildings. Victoria needs reasonable spaces for artists to work and or live in. That should be considered for future.

Dunsmoor-Farley:

• Can you describe artisan industries?

Kotkin Response:

• Jewelry, garments, specialty furniture, etc.

D‘Ambrosio:

• Victoria has a foot in two camps: historic foundation from beginnings, transitional areas that have been vacated by industries. Dockside and harbour areas are between stages. There is fear and reticence about moving forward and developing. Is this typical or unique?

Kotkin Response:

• I think that there is reticence. A lot of people say, “You got a good thing going and changing it could mess it up. Leave well enough alone.” Some things developed here over the last 20 years weren’t that great. But no one talks about the cost of doing nothing. It won’t stay the same anyway.

D’Ambrosio:

• Part of the sacrilege of this conference is to dare to say that there’s something wrong. It may be easier for an outsider to see the problems. There is a danger of complacency declining to neglect. How did LA’s resurgence occur? How is it happening?

Kotkin Response:

• It’s happening in different ways. It’s not necessarily a conscious plan. I’ve seen success where government does what it’s supposed to do; transportation, safety, and cleanup of the street. How do we knit together the various downtown communities, and communicate? How do you attract entrepreneurs and recruit people? Find out how people really feel, what they want, instead of saying this is my vision and I am going to impose it on you. What industries do exist here? Why are they here? Why would they stay here? I think it’s important to have good questions, not good answers, when you start this process.

Audience Q&A/responses:

• First Nations need to be part of the process, want to be part of the economy, to create their own opportunities. Open up dialogue with regional aboriginal people. First Nations people are important part of heritage and sacredness of place.
• What about social services, particularly for the poor? How can business, politicians, social services, and taxpayers build a city of real justice for both rich and poor? One aspect is a job base and training benefits to bridge the gap between downtown and suburbs, whose residents are terrified to come downtown.
• A vital downtown is important to the whole region. Stress the uniqueness of downtown Victoria within the region, not just outside it. Why would more retail in downtown be a reason for development? People don’t need to go downtown to “Buy a refrigerator”. What makes downtown unique from the suburbs?
• People who live downtown will buy a fridge downtown.
• Green urbanism can be a working ecology. Green areas can be an active part of the city, not just passive like parks. A lack of green space can lead to related health problems and costs. How do we create a situation in which green urbanism is integrated to benefit all society? Urbanism and the environment work together.
• Downtown can’t be a place of unlimited car activity/storage. Good transit and less cars has been successful in some smaller European centres.
• Transit alone isn’t a panacea.
• There should be a university presence in town and business-led student internships.
• There was concern that the reference to San Francisco as “Carmel and Calcutta” might be unduly interpreted as applicable to Victoria’s reputation as a tourist destination and lifestyle city.

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JACK DIAMOND: What can we do? What must we do?

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Jack Diamond is an internationally known and respected architect and urbanist, an Officer of the Order of Canada and recipient of numerous other awards and distinctions including the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada Gold Medal.

Diamond introduced his talk with the comment, “As our cities go, so goes Canada.” He suggested that we need the strength to go ahead with some things that won’t be popular.

• Victoria is not alone in its problems and issues.
• Cities are creatures of the province but it should be the opposite because cities are engines of provincial and national growth.
• We spend time debating health and education and only more recently have cites become a focus as important social and economic units requiring financial support more than health and education combined. New federal initiatives should encourage Victoria to join forces with its perimeter municipalities. The region must be dominated by a strong core. Get municipalities to support Victoria.
• The Canadian Fund for Innovation, for example, has changed the landscape and Canada is now the place to be for biomedical research.
• To take advantage of new funding opportunities for urban centres, Victoria needs to show that it can handle whatever it plans, has good objectives, the right structure, and can put in place something that will have benefits and spinoff.
• We need more than just pious statements of compactness, stopping sprawl, and improving quality of life. We need to demonstrate the means of achieving these things.
• Knowledge-based industries are engineers of the economy, but does Victoria have the educated workforce required? Our stats would indicate otherwise.
• If Victoria is going to participate in federal initiatives for urban areas, it will have to work together with the other municipalities to speak with one voice.
• We can’t focus on numbers only utilitarian concepts. Cutting the quality of life destroys a city’s competitive edge. People come to Canada, to Victoria, for quality of life. That’s what draws the creative class. Living standards and economic success are tightly linked. Quality of life attracts business.
• Cities are not expanding their tax bases quickly enough. Services cost more than assessments. Feds have downloaded costs and at the same time there is no connection between tax revenue assessments and costs of services. The core is subsidizing the perimeter (highways, sewer trunk lines, etc.). There should be full-cost pricing for amenities on city perimeter, instead of subsidizing infrastructure.
• Low-density development can’t support transit, increases car commuting traffic and fuel consumption, which affects the environment, and raises the cost of services over wider areas. People won’t get in the car and then get out at a transit stop. The dependency on cars creates immobility for the old, young, and those who don’t drive or can’t afford a car.
• A residential monoculture reduces social interaction.
• High density doesn’t mean low-rise buildings next to high rise buildings. There are extremely attractive densities in the mid ranges.
• Encourage, don’t discourage, clustering.
• Rise of the creative class; there is a strong linkage between creativity, technology, talent, and intensive activity that drive the economies of city regions, the “melting pot of the bohemian” or “the gay indices”. Cities that are tolerant of gays and ethnic minorities are tolerant in ways that stimulate economy and investment.
• There is a westward tilt of young kids coming here, bringing their problems with them. City centres have to deal with these problems.
• Lots of public access to the water doesn’t always solve problems. Look instead at a manmade, mixed use waterfront with buildings that have their “feet in the water”. (Who pays for toxic cleanup?) People love working waterways.
• Create intimate streets for a rainy climate, tight ones that go right down to the water, with narrow sidewalks.
• Parks and greenways aren’t always necessary.
• Consider eradicating zoning laws.
• Sustainability needs to have a longterm payback; it’s very good business

Victoria’s advantages:

• The Regional Growth Strategy is one of the best strategic plans around; stick to it, build on it.
• Downtown plan is consistent with original plan, which maintains character.
• 93% of business in Victoria comprises small enterprises of less than 11 people. A lot of small companies is a good thing.
• High environmental ambiance, mild climate, good medical system, compact core development.
• The number of new single family dwellings is declining.

Challenges facing Victoria:

• Ask where are we, where do we want to go, how do we get there?
• Curtail sprawl. Victoria has ample underutilized land in city boundaries for expansion. Make it cheaper to fill the land downtown.
• Transit stops within easy walking distance
• An integrated approach
• Strengthening clusters – clustering is crucial; cities grow around clusters.
• Low percentage of those with higher education is at a disconnect with desire for knowledge-based economy.
• The younger population is not growing, the older population is.
• Percentage of jobs in region predicted to go down.
• End low-density industrial spread.
• A comprehensive approach to change, with the municipalities on side. We’re not using growth in a focused, strategic way, spread across thirteen regions. Regions need to know that we all can’t be the same; it’s crucial to have a powerful Victoria downtown. We’ve got a selling job to do. The city can market all thirteen together. Doesn’t mean a loss of local autonomy. The city deals with region-wide issue, municipalities with local ones.
• Don’t extend capacity when what you’ve got isn’t filled.
• Sustainability costs money but offers longterm business benefits.
• Create a city building department as well as city planning.
• Make urban living for families acceptable.
• Invest in research and (university) faculties that have a direct connection to employment and regional capabilities. People will stay if you give them a job.
• Benchmark progress so you know where we’re going
• Tie transit system to land use.
• Institute means to repopulate core.
• Need a downtown resident population that shops, like people shop in suburbs.
• Introduce a reasonable percentage of rent-subsidized housing in mixed-use/income developments, so as not to create stigma.

Panel Comments:

Bing Thom, Pam Madoff, Donna Morton

Madoff:

• We should work together with [CRD] regions to build on strengths we have instead of trying to re-invent ourselves.


• The federal government has new opportunities for cities. As in Winnipeg’s example, the federal municipal and provincial governments all need to be at the table.
  

Thom:

• We have a knowledge economy in Victoria. Our growth must be founded on knowledge and education.


• We have something unique here in terms of the development of the global economy; we’re nine hours to London and nine hours to Beijing, and the people here have the spirit of perfection. It’s the dawn of a new age of doing business. We could be at the centre of the new economy. We’re dealing with yesterday, today and tomorrow at same time.


• Technology industry is based on culture and education, which is strong here. We have a dedicated, skilled, integrity-driven workforce with a high level of professionalism.


• Why don’t the university and library share the Bay building? Why not bring together dissimilar things from different boxes and then throw away the box.


• We have a unique scale, which we are loosing because of the new developments around the harbour. We need to find our formula of scale and stick with it in new developments.

Morton:

• Decision-makers and the public must be aware of the need for a strong, dynamic urban core. There needs to be a synergy and symbiosis within the region.


• Let’s come together and talk about what works rather that making rules that we then have to fight to see what fits.


• We should not dismiss our strategic plan, what we already have. We may now have an opportunity to work with federal government.


• We need to develop working initiatives with all levels of government as they are doing in Winnipeg.


• The big 5 Cities of Canada have New Deals worked out for them, but it is also important to revitalize smaller cities. If we provide leadership in revitalizing, then we can get bags of money for sustainability.


• Density is a good thing for sustainability.


• We are under-relying on parts of our tourism sector; arts and culture and First Nations.


• We have a wealth of retired executives here who should be linked to our young people in mentoring programs. This is an untapped resource.


• Our economic infrastructure needs a review regarding our Tax base and subsidies. We can’t be throwing money at any businesses coming to town without asking ourselves if that business leads us in a direction we want to go.

Dunsmoor-Farley:

• What about builders, plumbers and service people? Do they have a place in our city?

Madoff:

• Good point. Look at the auto upholstering industries and others in the north end of Downtown. They say that they need to be there to stay viable, but the Harbour Neighbourhood complains about living near them.

From the floor:

• This leads to a question: We want inclusive housing; low income, housing the homeless, and artisan communities. At the same time, land and housing always needs to be sold at the highest market value. But a leading ingredient in no affordable housing is no affordable land. How do we get beyond the attitude of, “I want the highest value possible no matter what the cost to the common good is.”

Diamond:

• This is where Public/Private partnerships come into play, agreeing to different rules.


• Public Land: If land is a large portion of the cost then you make it available.


• Rent Supplements: If a proportion of the population can’t afford rent, municipalities and the federal government should put nonprofit corporations together.


• Tax: Derelict buildings and open lots should be taxed.

From the floor:

• The assessment authority could tax lots according to highest and best use. Our zoning is not iron clad, so everything can be re-zoned and is taxed as if it will be. (The speaker made a very strong statement against “the monster condos around the harbour”.)


• The Capital should be a biker and walking community. We have the highest share of biking and walking in Canada. This is a lifestyle community and the walkable, bike-able traits make more density possible.


• A speaker “corrected” Jack Diamond’s assertion that parks in Victoria aren’t used in the winter because of the weather. They are!

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BILL O’GRADY: Downtown, the last public place.

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Bill O’Grady is an Associate Professor at Guelph Univeristy where he teaches courses in the areas of criminology and research methods. His recent research has focused on marginal youth, and he has a strong understanding of the economics of homelessness and the links between top down processes and their effects on the street.

Drawing from his recent research on Toronto’s “squeegee kids”, O’Grady focused his talk on homeless youth, how they live and how they survive economically, a very real concern in cities across Canada, including Victoria.

• Most homeless youth have troubled backgrounds. Many are running away from serious abuse, foster homes, and group homes. Many are gay, lesbian, or bisexual, escaping untenable situations.
• The street is their last refuge
• The average youth on the street has a grade 9 or 10 education.
• This problem must be taken care of at municipal level.
• There is a link between cost of housing and homelessness
• The main motivation for money is rent.
• Some people in shelters are working.
• Youth are attracted to cities because of jobs, and drawn by a vibrant youth culture. Also, cities are perceived as having a high level of tolerance
• Many homeless people are from the area.
• How do homeless make money?
• Legal economy; 15-20% have jobs in central Canada. Over 80% say they’d like to have a legitimate job.
• Informal economy: panhandling, squeegee, lining up for ticket scalpers, rickshaw drivers, etc.
• Illegal economy: sex trade, drug dealing (about 25-30%). These are attractive because they mean instant money.
• How to tackle problem? Ontario Safe Street Act targeted squeegee kids and aggressive panhandling. Now more are homeless, and less likely to stay in motels and rooming houses. There has been some increase in drugs and welfare, but welfare is more difficult to get, and an increase in sex work, mainly male. There have been more encounters with police who ticket street kids, and issue warrants when they don’t pay, which they can’t. Now more are entering the criminal justice system
• Main way of making money has been a return to squeegee-ing in less visible locations.
• Is this a matter for the criminal justice system? A progressive vision is needed.

Challenges facing Victoria:

A need for:

• Social support system


• Mentoring programs for homeless youth


• More counseling and social workers


• Affordable housing


• Using homeless people to help plan and build housing


• Educational activities: there is an interplay between education, health, and income

Panel Response:

Chief Paul Battershill, Dean Fortin, Dr. Richard Stanwick

Battershill:

• We are at a threshold stage in Victoria. We haven’t got problems yet like Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, but are starting to see a problem with youth/gangs/etc., and growing use of crystal meth.


• The police are not the solution in most of this. They have limited jurisdiction in terms of what they can respond to. There’s a lot to be done, but it’s not really a police matter.


• The police have made attempts to focus on doing things differently, focusing on street drug dealers. Whether or not it’s made a huge change or not, it looks cleaner on the street. This effort came out of Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, which says to think carefully about the activities you engage in, and choose one specific action that could tip things a little bit.


• Dunsmoor-Farley asked about the extent of drug use among youth on the street. O’Grady said that there is widespread marijuana use, not as many use harder drugs, but youth involved in sex work tend to be users of harder substances, particularly crack cocaine.

Stanwick:

• Reiterated Battershill’s comments.


• Demographically, Victoria is Canada ten years from now. What happens downtown has a profound impact cutting across all aspects of health. The Canada Health Act doesn’t differentiate on basis of lifestyle, and someone who is homeless with a certain level and configuration of health problems has access to complete care. But health care dollars are getting tighter and tighter. As resources become more limited, people are getting concerned. What grounds do we use to ration them? The rest of Canada is following what we do.


• Victoria is one of the healthiest places in Canada. Part of that is because we have the very elements that make people healthy: good education, housing, and employment. These are the fundamental social determinants of health. Factors of employment determine health.


• Work is being done with people on the margins to see how they can be helped to get control of their lives.


• Part of the problem downtown is the lack of an affordable supermarket where people can buy healthy food. The things that make people healthy are not abundant in the core.


• Unemployment and homelessness shorten life expectancy significantly.

Fortin:

• We [as a society] try to do the easy things but are reluctant to do the hard, longterm work it will take to solve these problems.


• We need safe, affordable housing. Kids are living in unacceptable conditions. Law enforcement may reduce people on the streets downtown but displaces them elsewhere. We need to make sure that the problems don’t simply shift to another neighbourhood.


• People still don’t feel safe downtown.


• Most homeless kids are local, contrary to popular assumptions. Kids move back and forth from their homes to the street.


• Resources need to be shared among all neighbourhoods. We need the funding to do it. People doing [social services] work now are overworked, underpaid, and can’t do job right.

Audience Q&A/responses:

• We’re dealing with homeless now, not in 2020.


• Can early childhood intervention with follow-up later help?


• What about health and education programs mingling inner city and middle class families? Schools with a good social mix?


• Kids need more acceptance at home, in schools, communities.


• What will happen when the two year welfare cutoff kicks in?


• Families on income assistance will lose some benefits if a parent is considered employable. What plans do we have to deal with this, since income is a determinant of health?


• Why aren’t we questioning what jobs are beneficial or harmful to society?


• There is no one solution.


• Numbers of families with children needing housing/social help is overwhelming.


• Older homeless people on the street can take advantage of shelters, etc., but are still homeless. We are less conflicted about providing shelter for adults than youth. When is youth the responsibility of family? Can youth be given shelter when parents are legal guardians? Rights versus responsibilities. The shelter system for young people is fragmented. Youth don’t wait for people to figure this out. They do what they have to do to survive.


• What about a Canada Housing Act?

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GEORGE HELLER, PHIL BONAME: Downtown Retail

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George Heller is the Hudson Bay Company’s president and CEO. He was CEO of the Victoria Commonwealth Games from 1991-1994. Phil Boname has served as President of the Downtown Vancouver Association, chair of the International Downtown Association (Washington, D.C.) and co-founder of the Urban Development Institute – Pacific Region.

George Heller

• Protect heritage sites. European downtowns have a multipurpose history. Buildings in Europe are rarely demolished or boarded up. How did North America become detached from urban community? Why don’t we leverage what we already have?


• Are retailers part of the problem? Retailers race to be fresh, and are designed to reflect society. The Hudson Bay Company wants to be where people are. The exodus of consumers to the suburbs has caused a decrease in downtown retail. Outlying shopping areas like Langford are not good for downtown. The suburbs are better designed to deal with retailers but the HBC is committed to being a downtown presence too. Downtown needs the population to draw retailers, who are moving away from the core, not just to malls, but to big box [eg. Walmart, Costco] power centres. The HBC’s last 15 stores have been built in power centres.


• Municipalities across Canada need to join with all levels of government to improve transit.


• Consumers are time-pressed. Something needs to attract them to a location.


• Criteria for a working downtown are affordable transit, safety from crime, tourism, a resident workforce.


• Societal problems like panhandlers are not acceptable in suburbs. Citizens of Victoria are afraid to go downtown after dark. If we don’t do something about crime we will not have a vital downtown. New York City put more cops on street and now the city is a model of revitalization. That took guts. It takes courage to stand up and say let’s not strike another committee. It takes courage not to waver from doing what is right. You cannot keep 100% of the people on side every day. There has got to be strong leadership. There needs to be a vision.


• Urban revitalization is a priority for everyone. Support creative mixed development, including residential, and eliminate urban sprawl. Invest in tourism marketing, like Vancouver and Montreal


• Retail is an important variable in creating a ‘wow’ destination, like signature shopping areas such as Robson Street in Vancouver. Retail-supported downtown festivals and cultural events draw tourists and traffic.


• Cities suffer from low key marketing strategies.


• Downtown is not someone else’s problem, it’s everyone’s. People around the world think Victoria is the harbour outside the Empress, the downtown core. Municipalities say it’s not their problem but benefit from downtown’s economic engine. As goes downtown, so goes the city’s image.

Phil Boname

• Victoria actually sets the bar high for other cities in terms of best practices, especially heritage preservation and non-chain-retailing.


• Big box retailing will continue as a trend, but there is a positive trend in a resurgence of downtown retail. There is also an expanding e-commerce trend, meaning that the more time people spend in the digital world, the more they’ll be encouraged to go out.


• Calamities affecting Victoria retail have been tourist reduction and the reduction in disposable income.


• Retail cannot continue to shoulder the burden. On the public sector side, there should be retail zoning giving downtown an advantage over the suburbs, increased downtown accessibility and more parking. Take advantage of new software that tells drivers where there is available parking. Retail success will be a direct manifestation of what goes on in the public realm.


• On the private sector side, there needs to be better management, marketing, and promotion.


• Develop an effective Business Improvement Association. Just because it didn’t work before, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be tried again. Volunteer associations run out of steam. There should be a paid BIA director.


• Empower retailers by giving them the vote. 53% of Victoria’s tax revenue is retail-based, but they have no vote.


• Restore downtown buildings in an authentic way, not a touristy, attention-getting way.


• Anchor the north part of downtown by making The Bay building a specialty shopping centre.


• Continue branding Victoria with its unique U.K. heritage.


• Landscaping downtown is inconsistent and can be improved. Tree-planting offers a long range benefit. Include more public art that reflects local heritage and community values.


• Implement better street signage and street lighting.


• Convert one-way streets back to two-way streets, and narrow sidewalks.


• Can’t keep burdening retail community with taxes. Re-examine sharing of tax retailers and residents.


• Create a Waterfront Development Corporation


• There needs to be significant housing, including for the homeless. Start a Downtown Housing Corporation. There should be another 10,000 to 20,000 people downtown.


• Develop exciting history/cultural destinations like Vancouver’s Storeum.


• Avoid pedestrian malls. 75% of these in North American have been re-opened to traffic.


• Create boulevards, mini-parks.

Panel Response:

David Adams, Wendy Graham, Mischa Gringras, Shellie Gudgeon, Matt McNeil, Phil Nyren, Jim Ralph and audience comments/Q&A

• Separate the doers form the talkers.


• The library brings in more than 2,000 people a day and 79% shop retail at the same time, so The Bay would be a good place for the library. A comment was made that retail needs 2,000 people an hour.


• Why is there so much talk and why has nothing been done about The Bay building?


• Retail and library are not mutually exclusive. Why can’t they share?


• A BIA for Victoria was not declined by merchants but by property owners


• A BIA needs to devise a business plan that benefits all stakeholders and has the best cost benefit ratio possible.


• There has been a focus on tourist and outsider retail. What about locals?


• Independent retailers welcome the business big box retailers can bring downtown. What kind of big box retailers suit downtown?


• Maybe create districts with tax rate incentives.


• We need to address the differences in what social agencies and retailers want.


• What about store’s initiating their own education programs to enhance the retail experience, ‘edutainment’, turning downtown into a virtual museum to attract families?


• What about attracting people without large incomes to downtown?


• Don’t focus solely on Victoria’s U.K. heritage.


• Involve the First Nations.


• Develop a communications plan as outreach to other municipalities.


• Incorporate arts and culture into development.


• Rock Bay is under prime consideration as north anchor for downtown.

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GORDON PRICE: Beyond the obvious. Ideas to action.

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Born in Victoria, and one of Monday Magazine’s first columnists, Gordon Price went on to serve six terms on Vancouver’s city council. He is credited for being a leading player in transforming Vancouver. He is committed to a sustainable, livable and environmentally sensible city and is experienced with the practical side of “getting things done”.

Price began his wrap-up by suggesting that just as Vancouver did what was appropriate for Vancouver, so must Victoria do what is appropriate for Victoria. He sensed impatience with process, and asked, “How can we make this process do-able? What is do-able?”

He recited a list of items that had garnered the most applause, while noting that some of the ideas that people applauded were diametrically opposed over the two-day conference:

• You’ve got a good thing going here.


• Democratic process can sometimes equal procrastination


• Residents downtown are needed to support business downtown. You can’t rely on suburbanites


• Don’t confuse density with building height


• Our position in the new economy


• Sustainability


• House the homeless.


• Establish a downtown campus for Uvic, possibly the Bay bldg.


• Heritage tramway


• Cultural investments in the core


• Create a vibrant BIA.


• Give retailers the vote.


• Find the ten people who are the doers.


• If you think revitalization is an issue only for downtown Victoria, you’re delusional.

Price’s thoughts:

• The importance of Victoria’s collective memory; suburbs cannot create a past.


• A green place means good business, economic health.


• There has to be access to the water. Vancouver had a vision of interconnected sea-wall system. Routes here come to an abrupt end.


• A working waterfront, like New Westminster quay.


• Victoria’s walkable and bike friendly, and this should continue.


• There is an urbanist/environmentalist divide that can be reconciled.


• You can have a lifestyle economy and the economic vibrancy to give young people a job.


• We’ve got one of the best Regional Growth Strategies. Use it.


• No development outside of 1000 feet of transit (Jack Diamond’s comment) is a tall order. Lots of work to be done in this area. Land use and transportation needs to be dealt with at same time.


• Tax-shifting so city doesn’t subsidize perimeter.


• The homeless send a message a generation from the suburbs doesn’t want to hear, or deal with.


• We’re not expanding our sources of revenue as fast as our costs. No point getting into an amalgamation of municipalities if you want to get the do-ables done, It can be very difficult, but municipalities can get together on issues of common interest.


• A lesson from Vancouver:


• In Vancouver, downtown is where the residential growth is and there is a retail market to meet every need. Offer people downtown everything you can get in the suburbs, then offer what only the city can provide. There are people, including families, who will prefer the downtown alternative. A neighbourhood that’s good for kids is good for everyone else. Build communities, create density, make it clean, green safe, and with good schools. One good thing leads to another.

Audience Ideas:

Price asked that they be do-able, affordable, broadly-based, supportable, leverage-able, unique and citizen-based.

1. Connect Galloping Goose to downtown via the Johnson Street Bridge.


2. Make downtown more secure by lighting buildings at night or adding a second set of lights to streetlamps, or entwining trees with lights.


3. Social agencies, government, business, and residents need to get together and figure out what a desirable density is, and how it should take shape. Identify where the anxieties concerning density arise.


4. Communicate with street people and the homeless, engage them. Find out what they need and, as citizens, provide it. Everyone needs to be involved in the solution. What is the obligation of street youth in return?


5. Social agencies need to be considered as equal partners, included as an important part of what we do. Look at creative ways of funding initiatives.


6. Downtown is boring for suburban youth. Maybe create an entertainment centre for youth. Also, police hassle local youth that aren’t homeless.


7. Victoria needs to focus on attracting skilled immigrants. There is no program to attract immigrants outside of the Big 3 (Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal). This would be part of the idea of welcoming diversity, and send out the message that we’re not entirely British.


8. Provide a level of certainty that will allow resources to stay here. Jobs and business here today face an uncertain future. This would mean defining what certainty is or means, and establishing ways of benchmarking a certainty process.


9. People need better education about the homeless in order to exercise change in a compassionate manner. “There but for the grace of God go I.”


10. We need more people downtown. How do we draw them here? What pubic amenities do we want from density? Priorities: Rock Bay, walkways, amenities for families.


11. The role of the university is important. Students want to be downtown. How can UVic be integrated as part of downtown’s economic engine?


12. Add a new tourist tax to pay for everything.


13. Downtown businesses could establish mentoring programs for students, street youth and other homeless people. Are there any volunteers?


14. We need to get started on all this now and figure out how to bring the 13 municipalities on side. 100% of everything everyone wants is not an achievable goal.


15. We need to reach out to a larger group of people to get things done; the federal government will listen if the region speaks with one voice.


16. There needs to be a communications program to turn around disagreement among the 13 communities in the region. There have been positive outcomes in the past. But we need to get more concrete.


17. Economic diversification could be aided by an economic development organization funded by all the communities in the region.


18. What about the trades? Create a trade school in a downtown that supports the training of trades people. Trades people are necessary to development. This could help address the idea of mentoring.


19. No one has mentioned seniors. The Chinese community is a good example of a social group that integrates its seniors.


20. All the issues we’re talking about are linked, notably health and security. In the short term we need a safe injection site, and then a full support system to prevent people from going in and out of the criminal justice system.


21. Sustainability means better transit and more greenways.


22. We should encourage tourists to visit the outer regions.


23. Academy Square; it’s do-able and would knit back together a fractured downtown.


24. We can look at street people and the homeless as a problem, or as potential. AIDS Vancouver Island pays people to clean up discarded injection needles. Develop beautification programs that these people can work on. Work with social agencies.


25. Love each other.


26. Encourage the arts more, the heart of the city. Business can become more involved in stimulating cultural activities, like art in storefronts.


27. Start a school for street kids.


28. Develop a public transit policy now.


29. Make homes for the homeless in vacant lots.


30. Start an e-group to connect people beyond this conference.


31. Use the neighbourhood level process for establishing greenways as a template at the private and government levels.


32. Where does culture rate in all this, in the centre or on the side?


33. Extend bike routes along waterways.


34. More effective, more affordable transit.

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CLOSING REMARKS

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Dyan Dunsmoor-Farley, Conference Chair and Moderator

Dyan thanked everyone who participated for their energy, hard work and enthusiasm, specifically mentioning the speakers, panelists and sponsors. She then gave a special thanks to the over 40 volunteers who worked behind the scenes to make the conference happen, including the DVCA Board, Steering Committee, Planning Group, and Volunteers from the University of Victoria and Common Ground.

She reiterated the major themes emerging from the conference, and described what would happen next. Conference proceedings were recorded to enable the further exploration and development of key issues and ideas, and to help lay the groundwork for a second forum that is scheduled for early spring, 2004, at which time more information and ideas will be considered. Dyan remarked that the DVCA hoped this event would serve as a catalyst to keep the discussion(s) alive between now and the second forum.

A report will be drafted incorporating the outcomes of the two forums, and all of the activities that will have taken place in the interim period, plus an action plan of creative, doable initiatives that can be implemented immediately. She called attention to an evaluation form in the conference package, and asked attendees to take a few minutes to complete it, with an eye to making the next conference even better.

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