More than half of B.C. residents say state of downtown core has declined in last year: poll
From overall safety to getting back to work in person, a new survey is revealing how Canadians feel about returning to their city's downtown cores,
The new Leger poll comes as many resist the idea of getting back to life as it was before the pandemic.
RETURN TO WORK
Nearly 30 per cent of employed Canadians polled were concerned about losing their job in the next year.
About one quarter said they are likely to quit their jobs.
If mandated to return to the office full time in the near future, 10 per cent say they would quit their job immediately.
Twenty-eight per cent indicated they would return to the office, but look for new work.
THE DECLINE OF THE DOWNTOWN CORE
Forty-five per cent of Canadians surveyed said that the state of the downtown core closest to where they live has declined in the last year.
That number is higher in British Columbia with 54 per cent reporting a decline.
Nearly all of those surveyed in B.C. attributed that to mental health challenges for vulnerable
populations, homelessness, rising crime rates, and drug addiction.
These are all issues senior crime analyst for the Vancouver Police Department and NPA city councillor candidate Arezo Zarrabian says are being driven by a lack of wraparound services.
“We're giving keys to marginalized people that some of them don't even want to live in those structures, because their chances of being re-victimized are higher than living on the streets,” said Zarrabian.
Zarrabian says it’s a failure of all levels of government.
“But right now, the issue is the municipal level is not coming out together as a group. It's created a very divisive situation or environment. It's pitted residents and neighborhoods against each other,” she told CTV News.
She believes public safety needs to be the city’s top priority.
“I'm a mother, I'm a woman, there's certain parts of the city that I, living in downtown, before for eight years would probably not walk down now in the evening. So it's not just the stats that we're talking about. We're talking about the overall concern people are fed up with,” said Zarrabian.
Twenty-two per cent said they, or a loved one, have feared for their safety in their downtown core in the last six months.
Eighteen per cent have experienced aggressive behaviour and 16 per cent have fallen victim to petty theft.
The web survey was conducted from Aug. 5 to 7, 2022, with 1,509 Canadians 18 years of age or older, randomly recruited from LEO’s online panel.
A margin of error cannot be associated with a non-probability sample in a panel survey.
For comparison, a probability sample of 1,509 respondents would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.52 per cent, 19 times out of 20, while a probability sample of 1,002 respondents would have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.09 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Ottawa public school board, 3 Toronto-area school boards launch lawsuit against social media giants
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and three school boards in the Toronto-area have launched legal action against social media giants, accusing them of "disrupting students' fundamental right to education."
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Tipping is off the table at this Toronto restaurant
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 mm among weather alerts in effect for 7 provinces
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 millimetres, air quality advisories and other alerts have been issued for seven Canadian provinces, according to the latest forecasts.
King Charles calls for acts of friendship in first public remarks since Kate's cancer diagnosis
King Charles III gave public remarks for Maundy Thursday, addressing the importance of acts of friendship, following his and Catherine, Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnoses.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
A fight to protect the dignity of Michelangelo's David raises questions about freedom of expression
Michelangelo's David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue's religious and political significance is being diminished.
Doctors visiting a Gaza hospital are stunned by the war's toll on Palestinian children
An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst. But the gruesome impact Israel’s war against Hamas is having on Palestinian children still left them stunned.