A year into his 4 year term as Mayor of Brampton, we asked Patrick Brown about his vision for Downtown Brampton and how the plan was progressing. The city’s downtown core has been plagued by perceptions of high crime and consistently fails to attract residents and employers. One of the first major decisions the newly elected council made in their first year was to approve city staff’s controversial recommendation to postpone the Downtown Re-imagined streetscaping project due to a lack of a “strategic framework”.
Mayor Brown says that the city is still pursuing downtown re-imagined and is focused on “bringing people into the downtown… I want to see busy restaurants and busy shops and what disappoints me… that pains me is I see shops and restaurants in the downtown that throw their life savings into this project to invest in our city and some of them haven’t been successful, and that breaks my heart.”
The Mayor cites new apartment and condo developments, a continuing push for a University and Centre for Innovation combined with economic development efforts to council’s strategy to bring people into the downtown.
Algoma University also announce a major expansion plan and Ryerson University’s Centre for Cyber Security at City Hall is expected to open soon.
The downtown’s major attraction, The Rose Theatre also transitioned recently attracting theatre veteran Steven Schipper who envisions full venues and “a city teeming with artists and audiences sharing in the act of imagining.”
Peel Regional Police also recently announced a new sub-station in the downtown with more dedicated staff to alleviate concerns of local shopkeepers and residents.
