Downtown Association - All Candidates Survey

Transcription

1 #23 COMPLETE Collector: Web Link 1 (Web Link) Started: Tuesday, October 02, :49:51 PM Last Modified: Tuesday, October 02, :13:06 PM Time Spent: 02:23:15 IP Address: Page 1: General Informaiton Q1 Full Name Lisa Vezeau-Allen Q2 How do you define Downtown? In the traditional sense, a downtown is where the town conducted all business, commerce and retail. People met and bought their groceries, went to the bank and towns and cities grew from that city centre. With the inevitable urban sprawl, the downtown in most cities has changed to a place where people still gather, but for entertainment primarily and as a centre for arts and culture. Q3 What is your opinion of the current state of the City's Downtown/Queen Street? I have lived the vast majority of my life within walking distance to downtown and would walk the majority of the time to get to where I needed. When you walk, you observe more. I also owned a business on Queen Street and participated in the events, primarily Moonlight Magic and Rotary Fest. While these events did bring people to our downtown, for many it was an annual visit. Our downtown needs help, as do many in smaller cities within Ontario, we are not the only city who has a struggling downtown. It is going in a positive direction, in that the community is paying attention to it. Q4 What do you understand to be the role and function of the Downtown Association (DTA) or its board? Directly from the website: Our Business Improvement Area is an organization that allows Queen St E (from Pim to Dennis) business people and commercial property owners and tenants join together and, with support of the City of Sault Ste Marie, organize, finance, and carry out physical improvements and promote economic development in our district. The Board sets direction, policy and the actions of the Association and monitors the day to day operations - their function is oversight. Page 2: City Relations 1 / 6

2 Q5 What do you think your role is as City Councillor? The role as a city councillor is similar to many roles that I have had on various Boards of Directors. To define the position as per municipal regulatory, it is: representing the public and considering the well-being and interests of the municipality; developing and evaluating the policies and programs of the municipality; determining which services the municipality provides; ensuring administrative policies, practices and procedures and controllership policies, practices and procedures are in place to implement the decisions of council; ensuring the accountability and transparency of the operations of the municipality, including the activities of the senior management of the municipality; maintaining the financial integrity of the municipality. Beyond those duties, it is also to champion for my community and my Ward. Q6 Will you request that staff contact the DTA with consideration of issues such as downtown cleanliness, beautification, signage, snow removal, event planning etc? Q7 Will you review current policies that are limiting downtown business to increase City value as opposed to limiting risk? Q8 Are you in favor of a review into the process used to hire the current Integrity Commissioner? No Q9 Does the City spend too much money on Consultants? What would you do differently if you believe it does? Give examples of wasted money on consultant s fees and spending. I do not have the exact number for that. I do know that we have an abundance of talent in this community and we should always first source local and also look to see what other organizations have done prior to heading into a consultant agreement. Example: Sault Youth Association has researched and published reports on Youth Outmigration with recommendations - we do not need another report to inform us as to the reasons for Youth Outmigration. Q10 Are you in favour of public involvement when reviewing the Code of Conduct? Page 3: Events, DTA Expansion, Parking Q11 The City of Sault Ste. Marie does not have an Event Planner. should it hire one? No Q12 Given the events held or organized by the DTA and staff should it be allowed to have access to plan and hold events at Bondar Place? 2 / 6

3 Q13 Should the geographic area of the Downtown Association be expanded? If so, what should the new boundary consist of and how would you support the expansion? That needs to be done by community consultation involving residents and business owners within the downtown corridor and also a case of support to determine the benefits needs to be presented before any decision is made. I support the decision from the majority that is evidence based. Q14 How do you view our current downtown parking infrastructure? I have lived in other cities that have free parking on all weekend hours and longer times at meters - we need to examine the cost benefit of parking, and we need better access for people with mobility issues. Page 4: Revitalization Q15 What would you recommend to enhance our Downtown? How would you support or initiate downtown revitalization? This question is more involved than a simple survey portal, study outcomes from NORDIK's Downtown Dialogue and talk to business owners and the people who frequent some. Some recommendations that I would suggest are: 1. Bike Racks 2. Green Space and multi use playground (Wellington, Ontario has a beautiful downtown waterfront playground) 3. Continue with the Patio culture 4. Have a co-op hub for artists and crafters to sell their products - indoor market Q16 If financial constraints were not an issue, what new ideas would you bring forward to beautify the City of Sault Ste. Marie? Again, a very open question for a survey. We have a beautiful city, we need to embrace our green space, have business on waterfront (ice cream, cafe) in a larger capacity and many other elements could help. Q17 Are you satisfied with the enforcement of our building code in the Downtown area of the city? If not what do you propose be done? No, and this is a City Policy issue that needs to be addressed in terms as to how within legal framework more can be done. Q18 What green space initiatives can you foresee in the downtown area? As stated a playground Q19 Will you promote the purchase of consistently vacant buildings and assist developers to construct new residential occupancies, business occupancies, and a community piazza square? 3 / 6

4 Q20 What incentives could be offered to citizens to encourage the pop-up of more small businesses downtown? We have funding from Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation for start-ups, but the sectors do not connect with the needs of new downtown business. Also, many new business owners are not the building owners, so this creates a unique situation. Q21 What can be done at the City level to increase vendors along the boardwalk? Work with licensing so that people can open business. Q22 Wayfinding and signage has been identified as a major issue in need of updating. How do you rate this in terms of priority for completion? (1 being low, 5 being high) S 5 Page 5: Safety Q23 Do you think the current police presence downtown is sufficient? In not, would you support more funding or work to restructure patrols? Council needs to work with law enforcement to determine the needs, to properly respond I need more background information Q24 Currently, the police track crime rates across the City as a whole and tracks them according to, type of crime, (theft, vandalism, murder, attempted murder etc.) Do you support the initiative to have police track the actual crime rates, not only by type but by designated areas, for example, Downtown vs. Steelton or by wards? As a researcher it depends on what their database capabilities are, adding a field for addresses. That is a question for police services. Q25 How do you feel about having safe injection sites in this community? If so, where would they be located? They are a proven model and should be located where people who need it have easy access. Q26 What actions can the City take to deal with the increasing number of drug/opioid use and revitalize spaces frequented by drug users? They need to form a Task Force with all community partners to create a solution. Q27 How do you feel about development of a by-law restricting the location or number of methadone clinics? I support this Page 6: Tax & Budget 4 / 6

5 Q28 How important is it to you to complete a line by line review of the City's budgetary spending? (1 being low, 5 being high) S 5 Q29 Commercial property owners in the downtown core pay the highest amount of municipal taxes compared to other municipalities of similar size. Do you foresee any possible reduction in those rates? If so, how? If not, why? Until I see the actual numbers I cannot comment Q30 North Bay City Council is currently working with the Landlord Association to help make changes to the Residential Tenancies Act on a provincial level. If possible, what role could a Sault Ste. Marie Councillor take to assist landlords locally? As the voice for the people in the community who need safe housing and work to advocate. Page 7: Tourism Q31 How important is the Downtown to tourism on a scale of 1 to 5. (1 being low, 5 being high) S 5 Q32 Based on your scoring above what would be your plan or idea to make the downtown even more attractive or important to tourism? That is a multi-faceted solution that involves both infrastructure improvements (granting already in place), business development and rather than creating a "place" it is supporting existing events that attract and supporting new ones, such as Buskerfest, Marathon Run, Wanderlust Yoga Festival, Maker's Festival and more that will bring people to our community who seek out these and other types of festivals and events. Q33 Do you believe we need more visitors and local residents to patronize and support the Queen Street Merchants? what is your view as to what can be done in that regard?, most certainly as a past business owner, however, retail is changing and people want experiences in their downtown not necessarily things. Food, crafts, art are important sectors in new downtown are needed. Q34 Do you have any thoughts as to how or what the City should do with respect to it Branding itself? Does "Naturally Gifted" really do us justice or mean anything? We need to go beyond branding and actually realize where are gaps are in terms of tourism. Q35 What initiatives can the City implement to increase American tourism? We need to clearly let them know what they need in terms of identification to cross the border and develop relationships with close communities such as Mackinac City and Island, St. Ignace, Petoskey and Traverse City to develop partnerships. 5 / 6

6 Page 8: Traffic Q36 Do you support the idea of converting Queen street, and Bay street to two way traffic and would you support funding to achieve that / goal? It is not my decision, it should go to a vote and more community involvement is needed. I have however, lived in communities with 2 way traffic and that made transportation much easier. Q37 In considering the above or the reconstruction of Queen Street and Bay street how important or relevant are the wishes of the DTA members and the business community? It should all be consulted with all stakeholders and community members. 6 / 6