| Some bar owners in Calgary are questioning why city council has decided to cap the number of bars that will be allowed in the Beltline, arguing that a stronger police presence or the establishment of an entertainment district would’ve been a better option.
Under the Beltline Area Redevelopment Plan, city council approved a new policy that will "strongly discourage" a block from having more than 50 per cent bars.
Brent Toderian, manager of centre city planning, says the new policy is not a "hard cap" but more of a guideline, and he points out that it will only apply to bars and nightclubs, not restaurants that also serve booze.
"It’s firm direction for us to use when we’re exercising our discretion," says Toderian. "It’s needed to address what you might call the worst-case scenario."
Toderian says city council created the bylaw in order to avoid the creation of another Electric Avenue, which in the late ’80s and early ’90s was home to 24 bars in only two blocks. Toderian says First Street S.W. was also a concern. Two men were killed on the street, one in 2003 and one in 2004, and there have been other violent incidents.
P.J. L’Heureux, owner of the Castle Pub and the Cherry Lounge on First Street S.W. says part of the problem has been the lack of a police presence.
"There was no police presence on First Street at all," he says. "All it took was one police van to be there every night, which the bars would’ve chipped in on and there would’ve been no problems."
He says city council should consider creating an entertainment district with a large number of bars in one area, which would make it easy for police to patrol.
"There should be a designated entertainment zone where there wouldn’t need to be a cap. You could even shut down the streets and make it a vibrant nightlife, let it happen," he says. "What it does is it draws the problems to one area instead of having the police running all over the place. Every major city has an entertainment district. We had ours – it wasn’t handled properly. They shut it down and it just keeps moving."
L’Heureux says the bar strip moved from Electric Avenue to First Street S.W. and now is moving to 17th Avenue S.W. He adds that it’s ironic that the city decided to introduce the new cap in response to the situation on First Street S.W. because the strip is much deader now – there used to be eight bars on a two-block strip, but now there are four.
"It’s 70 per cent vacant. What (the city) has done is forced the bars out and now it’s become worse than ever," says L’Heureux. "It’s basically turned into crack Hastings," he adds, referring to the notorious Hastings Street in Vancouver.
Nicola Wealleans, operations manager at the Ship and Anchor on 17th Avenue S.W., describes the new cap as "perhaps a little excessive" and says a 75 per cent cap might be more appropriate.
She agrees with the city that it’s good to have a mix of businesses in an area, and not just bars, but says she’s concerned that part of the impetus for the new cap was due to concern over the Red Mile phenomenon.
"(Ald.) Madeleine King had some concerns, as did her constituents," says Wealleans. "I think the reason (the cap) went through with the severity it did was because of a lot of hype around the Red Mile that made 17th Avenue seem like a street with a bunch of bars and that was going to become the next Electric Avenue, and you have to put a stop to that. I think it was painted with a broad brush unfairly."
Toderian says no block on 17th Avenue currently exceeds the new guideline, although the block that Ship and Anchor is on has about 40 per cent bars at the moment – the highest concentration on the street.
"17th Avenue right now does not have a problem with excessive bar clustering," he says. "(The) guideline as we’ve written it allows considerable growth of new bars and restaurants on 17th Avenue…. There’s plenty of blocks where new bars can come in."
Larry Davis, the owner of the Rose and Crown pub on Fourth Street S.W., says he’s in favour of the cap and doesn’t expect it to have any negative impact on bar owners.
"Nobody would want to see another Electric Avenue," he says. "Electric Avenue created all sorts of issues."
The Concorde Group, which owns a number of bars in the Beltline including The Whiskey and Mercury, says in an e-mailed statement that it supports the cap because it "promotes diversity in the area, and helps minimize clustering of liquor licences…. Forward thinking like this will help keep the streets alive both day and night." |
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