I’ve spoken about this before in the campaign, but while it’s on our minds, I want to share the 10 immediate actions I would take as Mayor to begin to revitalize our downtown: 

1. Establish a much stronger link between the Downtown Business Association and the Mayor’s Office. This partnership is essential to exchange information and respond quickly to the on-the-ground realities of business downtown. 
2. Instruct City Administration to quickly improve planning and coordination between City departments, utility companies, and private developers to reduce the impact of construction on businesses and visitors. I will ask Administration to put forward a list of concrete actions they will take to accomplish this in the first 60 days of my time in office.
3. Immediately convene a meeting of the Police chief, Police Commission and social agencies to develop and empower teams of skilled responders to address unsafe situations downtown, and connect vulnerable Edmontonians with appropriate services. This needs to be a collaboration, one that focuses on both  safety for those struggling with houselessness and addictions and for residents, visitors and workers downtown.
4. Allocate resources for additional cleaning for litter, gravel and needles, including increased cleaning for LRT stations and more frequent garbage collection throughout downtown.
5. Work with the Downtown Business Association, multicultural organizations and Indigenous communities to encourage and attract more festivals downtown.
6. Create an artist recovery grant—with funding of $1.2M for 2022—to animate outdoor spaces and venues throughout downtown. Read more about this fund here.
7. Instruct City Administration to work with the downtown community leagues and the Downtown Business Association to create small-scale community amenities, recreation and leisure spots for all to enjoy. This could be basketball courts, pocket parks, or ping pong—I want to hear your ideas too!
8. Accelerate the construction of the long-awaited warehouse district park.
9. Proactively encourage companies to keep their office space downtown, and bring their employees back to the heart of our city when it is safe to do so. This could look like targeted outreach in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and Business Associations. 
10. Building on the previous point, I will ask government employers, including the City of Edmonton, to bring their employees back to downtown when it is safe to do so. 

These are simple and cost-efficient steps we can take as a City to make downtown a more inviting, safer and more interesting place to be as we look to the end of the fourth wave of the pandemic.