Construction is underway on the new play space at Galt Gardens. As work begins, the City of Lethbridge is fielding concerns from residents.
“I would say that there are several things the city is working on currently to reactivate the space in Galt Gardens Park, so the play space is just one of those elements that we are trying to bring in positive behaviours into the space,” said Crystal Scheit, the city’s urban revitalization manager.
“The City has been trying for (three) decades to revitalize the downtown area. Putting a playground in Galt Gardens will not bring the people down. It’s so painful to see the continued waste of money,” read one comment on Twitter.
Another comment reads: “Its naive to think that anyone that’s familiar with the goings on in the downtown core would go there.”
Scheit saidthe city has steps in place to help address safety concerns and is working with the police service to implement those strategies.
“We’ve also increased our cleaning capacity within the park, we have security within the park to also help create more body’s in the space,” she added.
The project is being partially funded by federal grant money, however, some online comments voiced concern about the additional costs.
“You can say you are getting grants for the park but who pays for the extras, policing, having staff clean the park (two) times a day, security walking around the park. These will all cost the city money,” said a tweet.
Scheit added spending the money in downtown and drawing more activity to Galt Gardens will help with its revitalization and growth.
“We’ve had many years showing and research that shows that reactivating a space in a positive way tends to drive out that negative behaviour so that is just one of the things that we are working on.”
You can find more details about the play space here. Construction is set to be complete by the end of September.
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