Yellowknife (May 05/03) - Bob Wilson is the long-time owner of Yellowknife Photo and chair of the city's downtown enhancement committee which formed in February.

Wilson talks about the mandate of the committee and his vision of the future of Yellowknife's downtown.

News/North: How did you get involved in the downtown enhancement committee?

Bob Wilson: Basically the city was looking for people interested in the committee and I was interested so I put forward my name and was chosen, and later chosen as chairman of the committee.

N/N: What made you want to be involved in this committee?

BW: I've lived in Yellowknife since 1970 and one of my first jobs was working at this store downtown. I've been in this store at this location since 1972 and I bought the business in 1983. I've always been interested in seeing the downtown thrive and grow, partially because I want my business to do well but also I think it's an important part of any community to have a healthy and vibrant downtown neighbourhood.

N/N: What do you see as being the mandate of the committee?

BW: To enhance the downtown, to make it more of a neighbourhood kind of feel rather than a place people go to drink at night and work during the day. A place where people feel comfortable, and to that end one of the big things we're trying to do is encourage residential development downtown.

N/N: What are some of the other things the committee will look at?

BW: We're looking a street furniture, bike racks and benches, trees. There seems to be an ongoing battle, as soon as they get planted somebody tears them out, so they don't seem to last past their first year of life. We're hoping eventually they'll take. We're working on a mural program, downtown facade program, where we'll match dollars for downtown businesses who want to beautify their facade.

N/N: How do you see downtown Yellowknife changing in the next five to 10 years?

BW: My prediction is possibly different than the way it might go. I would like to see the downtown become much more a place where people live. There are so many problems with alcoholism and crime and I think that the more eyes and ears you have downtown, the less crime you're going to have. People may not feel that it's acceptable to be puke-through-the-nose drunk if there's more people around.

N/N: How do you see the nature of business and tourism in Yellowknife diversifying?

BW: The committee would very much like to see the downtown have things that would attract tourism, rather than closing the Gold Range on Friday and Saturday night --although that could be a source of income if we set up bleachers but that's not really the direction we want to go. But seriously, what we want to do is make downtown a community where people want to go and a place where people live. That ties in very well with the fact that there's very little land left for development so we have to grow up rather than out. From an environmental standpoint that's a much more attractive option than a bunch more single-family dwellings.

N/N: What's the biggest challenge or constraint that the committee and people of like mind are facing?

BW: The trend has been more toward suburban situations and many of the communities that went that way now wish that they hadn't. Yellowknife is sometimes two or three years behind the rest of the country on these things so we have the opportunity to do something a little bit differently here and not have the downtown die completely before we decide that we miss it. The main thing is just the inevitable trend towards suburbanization -- it's a hard trend to buck.

N/N: What do you, as a Yellowknifer, think our city's strengths are?

BW: Yellowknife is still, despite the fact that it is very cosmopolitan, still has that small town feel. I still walk down the street and know most of the people I see. It's a very supportive, very good city from that point of view. It's got the best of both worlds. I think that if we enhance the downtown that feel will be even more predominant. It's something that's very unique to Yellowknife that we really have to work to hold onto.

N/N: What can we watch for from YK Photo in the near future?

BW: We're diving into the digital end of things very strongly, you can order your prints online now. We're hoping in the near future to branch out into larger format prints. You'll be able to order poster sizes. We're just trying to settle in with the new stuff now. We still plan to be downtown and strongly committed to being a downtown business.