More and more people are feeling unsafe when they go to downtown Sudbury, Mayor Brian Bigger said Friday, promising to open a police storefront at the Rainbow Centre.
Bigger said having a more visible police presence in the city core will support city council's plans to develop the area as an arts district, since people won't come to the area if they don't feel safe.
“We need to bring more people downtown to shop to eat and spend their money,” he said, at a Friday news conference at the mall. “However, there's a real concern about the growing rates of mental illness and addictions challenges impacting our downtown.
“If we want our downtown to thrive compete and grow, we need a downtown where seniors feel safe to go to the bank or to medical appointments. We needed downtown where parents don't have to look over their shoulders when taking their kids to dinner or to a movie.”
So far this year at the mall, Bigger said there have been 12 assaults, 20 medical emergencies, 27 incidents involving drugs, 66 incidents of property damage, 130 incidents of theft, 181 notices of trespass issued and 561 discarded needles have also been found on property this year.
He personally witnessed two people in a street brawl when he took the bus downtown recently.
“The the increase in the amount of violence is absolutely shocking,” Bigger said. “ I've never seen this before to this extent in our community.”
The move is the latest attempt to deal with issues in three areas downtown that have had issues with people feeling safe. The owners of the Tim Hortons and LCBO parking lot recently banned smoking in an attempt to reduce loitering, and the city doubled security hours at the Sudbury Transit Terminal following some violent incidents there.
Groups are working together to find solutions, Bigger said, but Sudbury is not alone. Downtowns across the country are struggling to deal with the opioid crisis and the resulting safety and crime issues.
Rainbow is offering space to Sudbury police free of charge.
Mall manager Robert Green welcomed the move, saying a thriving downtown is good for the whole city.
“It can't be glossed over there is a huge problem in the downtown,” Green said. “We do need the city to come forward and provide the stability, safety and the security necessary.”
While more police presence won't solve the problem, Bigger said the city is part of a community drug strategy with 50 community partners working on strategies to address the addictions crisis, which he said is “growing at an exponential rate.
“So what I'm saying is I'm absolutely committed to improving the safety, the family friendliness of the downtown,” he said. “But we know there's no magic cure. It is very complex.
“We're committed to investing the downtown but that's not going to work unless we change people's impression of downtown. And you can't just change the impression, you need to actually have a physical presence downtown to change things."
