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Within reach

It was in the 1940s when Yellowknifers realized that the city's business base was better situated up the hill from Old Town, where it all began. Today, the downtown core serves as the banking, business and commercial centre for the capital. The mix of bistros, boutiques, bars and bungalows makes residents forget just how small the city is.

Sarah Holland
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 29/00) - Downtown hasn't always been the centre of Yellowknife. Old Town is where the city was born, where the first businesses - the Wildcat Cafe, Weaver & Devore and the Hudson's Bay Company - set up shop.

Construction of New Town began in the 1940s, and at first it was mostly a residential development. Today the downtown core includes retail stores, restaurants, services and hundreds of offices.

Downtown remains true to its residential roots. Amidt the bustle of the work-a-day world, shade-tolerant Yellowknifers still garden and grow in the shadowed spaces between the multi-storey office buildings.

The makeup of the downtown population is unique, with street after street of rented houses and transient apartment dwellers. This isn't to say there aren't long-term downtown residences, but the majority are, as the song says, here for a good time, not a long time. Blair Elliott, a 28-year-old employee at the Black Knight pub, has lived downtown for five-and-a-half years. For Elliott, like most downtown residents, it's all about convenience.

"Living downtown is closer to work, eliminates the need for a vehicle and is close to all amenities," said Elliott, originally from Saskatchewan.

"I consider it a trade-off to not live in the suburbs. There's cheaper rent there but I would need a vehicle. Living downtown is great for my lifestyle, if I had a family I would probably look at living in the suburbs."

There's also a lot of energy and social interaction downtown, and you can "see as many as 10 people you know just on a one-block walk to work," according to Elliott.

One factor that comes to mind when thinking about downtown life is the safety factor.

"The times when I'm out on the street is often 2 a.m. when I'm walking home from work," said Elliott. "I haven't had many problems, but I'm not sure if it's different for women. And I do know guys who have been beaten up late at night, but those were isolated incidents."

Most people say there aren't many safety problems downtown, except in the late hours on weekends.

"Sometimes kids are a problem," says Loc Nguyen, manager of the downtown Reddi-Mart. "Sometimes there are too many of them," wandering the streets unattended, he says.

At his central location, Nguyen knows a large percentage of the people who live downtown. Those people who come in to use the mail services and buy coffee and newspapers.

"I would say about 80 per cent of the people around here are single," said Nguyen.

The future of downtown is the focus of a Downtown Enhancement Study produced by the City of Yellowknife and consulting firms Terriplan Consultants Ltd. of Yellowknife and the Ontario-based MacNaughton Hermsen Britton Clarkson

In August a workshop was held, a brainstorming session for the development and improvement of downtown. The workshop included city councillors and staff, downtown business and property owners, chamber of commerce members and city residents. A public consultation meeting was held in October to view the report on the urban plan.

The goal is for Yellowknife to become an "urban winter village" by the year 2016. This entails, generally, the downtown area being a combination of active and intimate living, with shops, offices, services, entertainment and housing. The idea is also to address the issues of Yellowknife being a cold climate city and make it more livable.

There are a number of preliminary considerations listed in the study. Residential improvement and development is a focus, and suggestions included creating an incentive program to off-set residential development costs (for example, waiving permit and application fees).

A public market was another idea. And not just a summer market, but one that is able to run year-round.

All-hours parking on Franklin and the removal of parking metres just might become a reality.

If the parking metres were removed, the parking would be free for two hours and an enforcement program would have to be created. The study also suggested a review of the frequency of city maintenance, including street cleaning, and creating guidelines for signage and storefronts.

Small, visual additions were also discussed.

Ideas included planters, and stoves and trees placed beside the benches.

The stoves, the study suggests, could either be animal hitching posts or ashtrays.

The marketing of Yellowknife will continue with the city being dubbed the diamond capital of Canada.

The plan, as far as people are concerned, is to form a group that focuses on the realization of the downtown vision.

The city of Yellowknife has 17 cocktail lounges, 23 dining rooms and four club rooms.

That's a lot of licensed establishments, most of which are downtown. Another element of the downtown vision is to continue working with the RCMP to ensure a strong police presence at night, especially near these licensed establishments.

During October's public meeting, in which a group of 45 business people and residents attended, they "went through the document point by point and sort of discussed whether there was any support for some things or whether we were on the mark with some things, or if something was missing," said city planner Dave Jones.

There were concerns about street and sidewalk cleaning and garbage collection.

These issues, said Jones, will be addressed by city officials in the future.

New mayor Gordon Van Tighem had some concerns with the study.

"I think they need to consult with a few more people than they have been ... to involve more of the downtown businesses and downtown residents.

They had a lot of people from outside the downtown area there," said Van Tighem.

People live downtown for convenience; they appreciate having the services they need within three or four blocks. They share a unique sense of community that comes from living in the heart of the city and feeling its pulse every day.