By and large, statistically, Calgary’s downtown is getting safer with social disorder incidents and the number of crimes committed having decreased from 2023.

But for many Calgarians, double-digit drops in the number of calls made to police, fire, and EMS aren’t translating into a perception of the downtown becoming safer to work in or visit.

Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong, who represents the majority of downtown communities minus the Beltline, said that during the last three community meetings he attended over the first weekend in September, safety continued to be the number one concern.

“Coincidentally, all three of them asked that same question, and that is ‘how is Calgary is advancing our safety and security in the downtown core.’ Particularly that there’s concerns on the Riverwalk with different sort of events and incidences that people were concerned about,” he said.

Among the other incidents that Coun. Wong said were pointed out to him included a recent stabbing at the 8 Street SW LRT platform, and continual violence at the East Village Superstore against security staff.

“The question is being posed is on either end of the downtown core, do we have enough resources? Do we have enough attention, not only from a safety and security perspective but also addressing the social ills we’ve got there?” Wong said.

“Whether it be supports for mental health, drug addiction, homelessness, as well as being able to find supports for the different building owners, operators.”

Coun. Wong said that he asked City of Calgary Administration on Sept. 10, about the status of the Downtown Safety Initiatives during council’s question period to determine if enough resources were being allocated to downtown safety.

“We’ve seen improvements in terms of allocating budget resources, but those are the measures that our administration sees and recognizes. The public, the people who are walking the streets, riding the trains, people are looking out of their condominium windows, they don’t see those numbers, what they see is incidences,” Wong said.

During Question Period Tuesday, admin said that the city does expect to have 11 recommendations completed from the Downtown Safety Leadership Table by the end of the year, but had eight recommendations that remained unresourced by council.