i had a few nice walks downtown this summer but i went a few days ago and it was bad... too many drunks/drugs/punks, i was on my own and was asked "do you have a smoke on you?" by a young native, looking dirty and badly dressed, who then went to ask to other people at the next bus stop... But even if he wasnt' asking, looking around and seeing too many drunks/bums doesn't give a nice feeling of being downtown, it makes you feel like you shouldn't be there in the first place

I agree downtown London is uglier looking but much more vibrant, they have a long street packed with bars and shop where it's very crowded.

i've never felt uncumfertable near the vegrints but then i walk under the main st subway with my cameras in full view

As someone from Regina, I agree that our downtown is impressive for a city of our size. It is also exciting to hear about a new 25 story condo complex and Hilton hotel at the corner of Albert St/ Victoria Av. Harvard Developments also wants to build a new tower at 12th/ Hamilton St. There has been a concerted effort between City Hall and private investors to make downtown hip and a desirable place to live. However (and this is a big however), remember that downtown Regina is sandwiched between two ghettos. North Central is directly north-west of downtown while the core area is directly to the east of Broad St. Both are within walking distance of downtown and many scumbags traverse downtown to travel between these two ghettos. (especially at night) Victoria Park is not the place to be at night despite the fact it is well lit and the bushes have been cut down around the perimiter. If Regina's downtown grows the way it looks like it will (dome stadium) then the natural expansion of the downtown's footprint may alliviate some of the vagrant problems. The more people there are downtown, the safer it becomes. However, due to the natural lay out of the inner city, I believe there will always be a problem with crime downtown.

Also, with the possibilty of Mosaic stadium being torn down and more housing being built where it/the tracks were, that would connect Cathedral with North Central. That could be interesting. I feel a lot more safe in the "Core" than I do in North Central though. Do you think it`s possible for an area like the Core to be phased out over a course of so many years? For it to become another Cathedral style neighbourhood, with China town reshaping into desirable shops and the like? Rename it Germantown?

There already is the area I think adjacent to Chinatown that is called Germantown, so I don't see them renaming Chinatown to a second Germantown... would be nice to see an improvement to Chinatown though.

I thought that was part of Germantown...I must be wrong, as I don`t know too much about it haha. And I would love to see Chinatown turn around...the place is kind of a crap hole. Would have loved to see it in its good days assuming it had them though.

is china town like winnipegs with holes in it from fires and such with a mix of markets and realy good food but looking depression cause of all the holes in the strip?

Reginas is mainly pawn shops and a couple Asian grocers. Really not much going on. Very run down looking even without the fires.

not even good restraunts that suxs :(

sad part about the fires on the strip is that the buildings were being used at the time to

i realy need to get out to regina and explore it some more but from what i have seen of it from the greyhound and wondering away from the bus depo (the old one) i found it to be a nice city within a couple blocks of it during a sunrise none the less

Well the good chinese restaurants are all over the city. There are tonnes of Chinese/Vietnamese restaurants here. They just aren't confined to one area of the city like I suppose is the case when a city has an established Chinatown area.

I believe City Hall has unveiled a plan to clean up Regina's core area. The drawings I saw in the Leader Post last year showed 11th Ave east of Broad St transformed into a market type setting like the Scarth St Mall. It looked very nice, however, the city has its work cut out for it. The 1700 block of Montreal St, Halifax St, Toronto St (etc) all the way south to College Ave are full of delapitated rental homes ready for the bulldozer. I believe the potential is there for the core area to be transformed into another Cathedral type area. 11th Ave already has shops like Oscars Deli, some Chinese resturants, Butcher shops and Ukranian Coop. However, the surrounding area is crap. The slum lords have to be delt with first.

The Core area doesn't exist anymore. It is the Heritage Area as outlined by the new plan. The Canterbury Park development going up on the SE corner of College and Broad will do wonders to help improve the area. Its only a matter of time that it becomes the new Cathedral area. Its all about bringing people in who have money to spend. Because they have money, the businesses will come and the improvements will be seen. The people who are taking the chance to move to the downtown area will have to trust that philosophy.

Ok, so they changed the name. The area and all of its problems remains the same. The prostitution stroll is still 12th Ave between Broad and Winnipeg and drug houses still infest the area like a cancer. While I agree that development around the area (like Canterbury Park) will help, we still need to shut down (or bulldoze) about half the neighbourhood. Agencies like SCAN (Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods) can be part of the solution. SCAN has the power to evict people from homes involved in the drug trade and prostitution. In some cases where the home is found to be too delapitated and the landlord refuses to bring it up to standard, it is bulldozed.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for development and investment in the area. I just think there are other agencies that could work in tandem with the business community to clean the area up faster.

The problem with just outright bulldozing that area is that it is where a lot of the low income people in this city live. Without that housing, no matter how bad it is, they are on the street. So you would definitely have to have some work being done along side. For example, for every place you bulldoze, you have to make sure there is a low rental unit somewhere available for the displaced people. The actions of the slumlord type management isn't their fault, and they shouldn't have to suffer from it. If think a lot of that area probably could be bulldozed, but some of the solutions could be to also use some of that bulldozed land and build some maybe 5-6 story low rental apartment buildings. There would need to be a lot of Provincial and Federal support for a project like that though.

I agree with everything you say except for one thing. It is precisely the slumlords fault and yes, they should suffer for it. (not the residents) I have personally been witness to many homes in the core and North Central areas and believe me, they are not fit for my dog to live in. SCAN and other municiple agecies have done a tremendous job in shutting down and bulldozing drug houses and homes that landlords refuse to bring up to standard. Newer homes have been popping up in North Central for the past 2-3 years on lots that used to have condemmed homes on them. Some of these homes were built in partnership with local reserves and were actually purchaced by band members instead of simply renting them out. (pride of ownership) At any rate, I am not suggesting displacing low income people. Rather, I think between existing programs and new business investment, the core area and North Central can be rejuvinated and brought up to an acceptable level for all residents.

I should have been more clear the way I wrote it... I was saying it isn't the residents fault for the mess of the buildings the slumlord are responsible for. Punish the slumlords, I'm all for that, but by just removing the homes from the slumlords control and destroying them, you are also punishing those that without even run down homes like that, would be on the street. And yes, as bad as we think those are, living on the street is worse.

So I guess we are on complete agreement there after all.

Someone should tell the three beggars that set up shop on Scarth by the SaskPower building every day. I have to get through them on my way to and from work in the building 4 times a day.