'We are being heard': Harbin Gate, 97 Street bridge, park projects considered for Chinatown

Edmonton's Harbin Gate was taken down for LRT in construction in 2017 and has yet to be reinstalled. (CTV News Edmonton)

As Edmonton city councillors continue to work on making Chinatown safer and cleaner in the wake of recent homicides, attention turned Wednesday to improving infrastructure in the area.

The city's executive committee voted 5-0 to explore the price of completing a number of projects including reinstalling the Harbin Gate, fixing up Mary Burlie Park and considering demolition of the 97 Street overpass.

“We’ve all talked about the word neglect in Chinatown and that’s become synonymous now,” said Hon Leong of the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative.

He was one of the community leaders who went to city hall on May 24 to demand better support from the people who work there. Leong is happy with conversations that have happened since.

“We are being heard and that’s a fundamental shift that we didn’t see in the past with prior councils,” he said.

Leong also wants the city to consider free street parking to encourage business in Chinatown. He supports plans for streetscape changes and said the city needs to stay on top of simple things like pothole repair. All of that is part of a complicated solution to improve the inner-city community, Leong believes.

“We can add infrastructure but it will not succeed without greater funding from the province or the federal government to deal with mental illness, the opiate crisis, houselessness. So all of these things have to happen at the same time,” he told CTV News Edmonton.

Councillors want city staff to further study the cost of the improvements and options will be presented as part of the 2023-26 capital budget discussion. There were no costs in the update presented Wednesday.

“I personally have a very deep commitment to making sure that we bring life back into Chinatown in a way that it becomes a thriving place, as it was in the past,” Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said after Wednesday's meeting.

“I’m impressed by the resiliency of the community despite all the challenges. They’re still there, working hard and demanding accountability and we will work with them."

Sohi said while other initiatives are underway to improve Chinatown, there have not been enough resources, or coordination of efforts, to this point.

The mayor, as well as councillors Andrew Knack, Jennifer Rice, Erin Rutherford and Anne Stevenson all supported Wednesday's motion to move the infrastructure projects forward.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson