Great article about Arts on the Ave and the driving force behind the changes in Alberta Ave area. Christy is an amazing force
Passion and faith bring life to the Ave
A profile of community activist Christy Morin
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Passion+faith+bring+life/6828064/story.html
Some interesting exerpts:
The Morins moved to Alberta Avenue in 1994 as newlyweds. Christy had just graduated from the University of Alberta with a bachelor’s degree in French and drama. She was selling condos near Northgate Mall and Darcy was working in a warehouse before training as a welder. A 63-year-old house in a neighbourhood with a reputation for prostitution and petty crime was the only thing they could afford with a yard.
“It was Alberta Avenue or Mill Woods in a condo,” said Darcy. “We were thinking two to three years, then we’d flip it and move to the south side.”
They didn’t.
First they renovated, then they raised two children as they got to know and respect many of the neighbours around them.
...
She started Arts on the Avenue three month later, and they held their first Arts Alive Festival in partnership with the city’s Avenue Initiative that fall.
The effort has since grown into six different festivals a year, a farmer’s market every other Thursday, community cleanup events, and collective efforts to promote local businesses. “The change in attitude is just amazing,” said Judy Allan, the city’s avenue initiative co-ordinator.
Over the past three years, crime had dropped by one-third, nearly all the store fronts are full, and the area boasted the highest rate of building and renovation of any mature neighbourhood in 2011.
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