SASKATOON – 22nd Street and 2nd Ave in downtown Saskatoon is an area perceived as unsafe.
City administration suggested spending $40,000 to remove the street benches at the corner in hopes of reducing loitering.
Vanessa Charles with the Saskatoon Anti-Poverty Coalition feels the idea is wrong and says it places a prejudice on the people who hang out there.
The city’s planning and operations committee decided on Tuesday that the benches will stay but the conversation has prompted some bigger discussions.
According to the city’s manager of planning and operations Alan Wallace, Saskatoon needs to “really reach down and figure out why people are on the street in the first place.”
Partial blame in this situation is being placed on the McDonald’s restaurant located at that corner where coffee is cheap and refills are free. The owner of the building, Ken Achs, says the situation has gotten so bad he’s decided to plow the restaurant, saying it will be demolished by August.
Achs says the business is still performing economically but feels he has a duty to mitigate the situation.
Residents who hang out in the area are frustrated by the upcoming change.
Executive Director of The Partnership, Terry Scaddan, doesn’t believe demolishing the building is the solution saying “at least part of the problem is the transit terminal at the other end of the block.”
The city acknowledges this issue, but plans to get rid of the terminal aren’t expected to come forward until 2016 when the transit system is revamped.
In the meantime, the discussion returns to city administration to work with community partners to come up with a more suitable solution.
“I think we have to look at a safe place where people can congregate where free coffee is provided and they can sit and comfy couches,” said Vanessa Charles with the Anti-Poverty Coalition.
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