Watch above: Twenty-five years ago, the Riversdale Business Improvement District was formed to try to reverse negative issues in the area. Wendy Winiewski takes a look at then and now and why other BID’s look to Riversdale for guidance.
SASKATOON – The Albany and Barry hotels were notorious, crime was rampant, 42 per cent of buildings were vacant, and a dismal future was on the horizon for Riversdale. A group of area business owners came together to tackle that list exactly 25 years ago.
The City of Saskatoon proclaimed Feb. 12, 2015 as Riversdale Business Improvement District (BID) day.
Present day Riversdale is hustling and bustling. Doors of shops and restaurants swing open as young and old come and go, some flying solo, others as a family.
Rewind to 1990 and the contrast is drastic according to the chair of BID, Randy Pshebylo, who on the anniversary day is reminiscing with some old black and white photos.
“What’s particularly stark to me is, you don’t see anybody walking,” he says while looking at a street shot taken decades ago in the 100-block of 20th Street West.
“That was the focal point of how the BID came to be was, how do we deal with the cross street traffic, the public drunkenness, the fighting, everything that used to happen on a regular basis,” Pshebylo pondered.
The Riversdale BID was formed. Commercial properties in the neighbourhood pay into a levy to improve the area and have done so since 1990.
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In 2014, a property assessed at $100,000 paid 0.25 per cent into the levy. Wes Williams, owner of Salon Williams on Avenue B, has been contributing since the beginning. The launch of his business was shaky.
“When I went to the bank, they told me they didn’t do lending in this area,” he said while cutting a clients hair. “It wasn’t an area they felt would be a good prospect to open a business.”
With help from his parents and his credit card, he found a way. These days, financial institutions believe in the area.
New shops and restaurants abound. Primal Pasta opened Thursday, Drift Café last week, The Banks residential development is underway near the Farmer’s Market and a 20 unit condo project slated for Avenue F South received approval from city council in January.
The success story of the Riversdale BID is something the newly formed 33rd Street BID aspires to.
“I’d like to see people really attracted to doing business on 33rd Street” said BID president Nicola Tabb. Tabb owns Better Off Duds on 33rd Street and sees the potential for the area.
“It would be great to have somewhere to go for breakfast, somewhere to sit down to have a pint and some live music at night,” Tabb said.
Street scaping, planters, benches, and flagpoles will be funded by the BID and Tabb hopes adding that animation brings the energy to revitalize 33rd to a trendy street.
According to Pshebylo, the road is a long one. With the Riversdale BID establishing 25 years ago, Pshebylo said the public only began warming up to the area around 2008.
The downtown BID and Broadway BID are the oldest in the city, both established in 1986. Sutherland BID has existed since 1999.
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