A DYNAMIC DOWNTOWN CAN BE CANADIAN BEACON
Mary W. Rowe says that Calgary is uniquely situated to lead the way in city rejuvenation.
Calgary brings many assets to its recovery. Calgary has a young and innovative culture, a dynamic, diverse and well-educated population and best-in-class infrastructure. Its riverfront is a stunning public space, and Calgary's natural beauty draws people from all over the world. Mary W. Rowe
Close to 60 years ago Petula Clark famously sang that you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go downtown, where the lights are much brighter. Today, many of the lights are out in Canada's downtowns, as they stand depopulated and struggling, hit hard by the pandemic. Gone are the vast majority of office workers, transit riders, students and visitors. Many of the venues that attracted people downtown remain closed, along with the businesses that served them.
Downtowns are not only central to the economies of Canadian cities, but they nurture the creativity, innovation, social opportunity and connections that draw people together for celebration, entertainment and civic engagement. The world's most dynamic cities bustle with arts and culture, tourism and culinary offerings, 24-7.
But dynamic downtowns don't just happen; they thrive with the right mix of planning and investment, policies and incentives, contributed to by the public, private and community sector.
Prior to COVID, many forward-looking cities realized they could no longer rely solely on serving as the workplace for the 9-to-5 set. Instead, they set about attracting a diverse population to live downtown, in the heart of “the action.” The secret of their success lies in creating complete communities that appeal to a diverse mix of users. Vibrant downtown cores require infrastructure. Not just transit and roads, but perhaps even more importantly parks, schools, bike paths and other accessible shared spaces.
Dynamic downtowns are the result of intentional policy choices and local leadership, followed through by bold action. The Canadian Urban Institute spent a week in virtual residency in Calgary at the end of 2020, working with the city's leaders and municipal staff to understand its diverse communities, challenges and its many assets. What became clear is that Calgary was facing greater challenges than many Canadian cities before the pandemic hit. It had a jump-start to address the crisis that now looms more pervasively in Canada's largest cities. A key step is creating Calgary's Greater Downtown Plan that will provide the vision and roadmap for reinventing itself.
Calgary brings many assets to its recovery. Calgary has a young and innovative culture, a dynamic, diverse and well-educated population and best-in-class infrastructure. Its riverfront is a stunning public space, and Calgary's natural beauty draws people from all over the world. The city also has a growing reputation as a tech and innovation hub. If Calgary chooses to pursue a bold vision for its downtown, it has all the key ingredients to not only reimagine itself but in fact to lead the rest of Canada by showing what is possible.
Cities, like nature, create dynamic ecosystems that enable change and foster innovation. The City of Calgary is building a robust one with arm's-length agencies like the Calgary Municipal Land Corp., which led the development of the East Village and the new Central Library, while leveraging innovative financing policies like the community revitalization levy. Calgary Economic Development and Calgary Arts Development have both been heavily engaged in the creation of Calgary's Greater Downtown Plan. These entities reflect the commitment of an ambitious municipal government, as do recently announced programs to incentivize office conversions and residential development, and the continued nurturance of a burgeoning tech and innovation sector through the Living Labs program. The challenge of economic diversification isn't a new one for Alberta's cities: the pandemic may give them the final nudge to accomplish it.
The magic of Clark's song was it called anyone — everyone — to come downtown. But like every city in Canada, people in Calgary's racialized, lower-income and homeless communities have suffered more throughout the pandemic than other members of society, and that is particularly visible in our downtowns. Systemic racism and inequities were made worse by COVID-19, and redressing that must be central to the way we rebuild. Policy-makers, practitioners and city leaders need to not only face the legacies and ongoing implications of racism in urbanism, but to put inclusion and equity at the core of decisions going forward.
And while Calgary is adapting to the evolving needs of a new generation of work and business and the way people live, travel and build community, it is also seizing this extraordinary opportunity to invest and build for resilience, again going “against type” and pioneering new approaches to addressing changing climate and the weather-related risks. When I visited in 2019, I commented to Mayor Naheed Nenshi that I saw Calgary as Canada's “prophetic city,” because of the range of social, economic and environmental challenges it was having to face, all at once.
The pandemic added urgency, and now is the time for bold moves. Reimagining downtown is an imperative for prosperity and quality of life in every city in our post-pandemic world. Calgary's commitment to collective leadership and collaborative action to remake a greater downtown will serve as a beacon for other cities across the country.