What would bring more people back to downtown Vancouver?

Public safety, things to do, and parking are the leading factors for bringing more people back to downtown Vancouver: survey

Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive

What would bring more people back to the Central Business District (CBD) of downtown Vancouver?

According to the latest City Pulse survey on the future of CBDs in major cities around the world, improving public safety from crime in downtown Vancouver’s CBD is paramount, with 32% of respondents indicating they would go to the area more often if real strides were made to address this factor.

This is followed by 29% for the ability to discover new things, 25% for the availability of vehicle parking, 24% for culture and events, 19% for the high concentration of restaurants, cafes, and bars, 18% for retail/shopping variety, 11% for accessibility, another 11% for parks, 10% for family activities and events, and another 10% for walkability.

The public safety consideration for downtown Vancouver’s CBD exceeded the CBDs of downtown Boston (8%), downtown Atlanta (20%), Washington, DC (22%), downtown Miami (also 22%), midtown Manhattan (26%), downtown Toronto (28%), downtown Houston (also 28%), and downtown Dallas (31%).

But the same consideration is lower than midtown Toronto (35%), downtown San Francisco (36%), downtown Austin (also 36%), downtown Las Vegas (38%), downtown San Diego (43%), downtown Los Angeles (also 43%), Chicago’s Loop (46%), downtown Seattle (53%), and downtown Portland (63%).

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The City Pulse survey was conducted by the Gensler Research Institute, which is the research arm of world-renowned San Francisco-based architectural firm Gensler. The company also recently established a Vancouver office.

Since the early days of the pandemic in 2020, Gensler has been conducting biannual surveys on issues affecting some of the world’s largest urban centres. The latest survey, conducted in Fall 2023, had 26,000 respondents across 53 cities worldwide, covering 92 downtown areas including some cities with multiple city centres.

Public safety was the number one issue across the board.

“Increasing safety from crime was the number one policy improvement that urban residents wanted to see in their CBDs. Global respondents were most likely to feel that their sense of safety and affordability in their CBDs has gotten worse,” reads Gensler’s survey findings.

“Personal sense of safety is the biggest barrier for local visitors in coming to their CBDs and downtowns. Addressing these concerns could help downtowns reach a large, untapped user base… Attracting a greater number of local visitors downtown more frequently will help ensure and sustain the economic recovery of CBDs. Local visitors would go downtown more frequently if three key areas are improved: safety, parking, and exploration.”

Furthermore, the survey findings suggest that cleanliness, nighttime lighting, and personal sense of safety are the CBD factors that have the strongest role in determining how residents, workers, and local visitors perceive the attractiveness of their CBD.

“While the order of strength varied, the strongest predictors of CBD attractiveness for all three groups are cleanliness, lighting, and a sense of personal sense of safety. These [three] predictors demonstrate a clear need to create downtowns that are well-kept, beautiful, accessible, and inspire feelings of security,” reads the findings.

“People’s perceptions of CBD attractiveness are predicted to be defined more by design elements and personal sense of safety than amenities and/or transportation options.”

Fundamentally, “design and upkeep of a CBD strongly influences the comfort level of the people who visit.”

Overall, across the cities, local residents are not going into their CBDs very often, as only about one in five report they visit their CBD at least once a week or more, and the remaining one-fifth of respondents go less frequently.

When it comes to the proportion of respondents who rate downtown Vancouver’s CBD activities as “good/great,” 83% of respondents would give such a positive rating for dining/eating out, 76% for working, 72% for seeing performances and exhibits, 68% for having fun, 65% for discovering new things, 54% for meeting people, 52% for living, 33% for raising children, another 33% for starting a family.

In comparison, downtown Toronto had similar ratings for all activities, except for starting a family and raising children, which was considerably lower at 16% and 19%, respectively. In fact, downtown Toronto ranked dead last globally for starting a family and raising children.

However, midtown Toronto — the other Toronto CBD that was gauged — generally had better ratings for its activities than downtown Vancouver and downtown Toronto, including edging out downtown Vancouver’s CBD in raising children and starting a family.

“The design of CBDs transcends aesthetics — it influences every aspect of the urban experience. Physical design improvements cannot be separated from their human impact. While there is some variation across what the various CBD personas valued in their downtown experience, the clear importance of CBD attractiveness is universal,” continues the findings.

Urban residents surveyed worldwide, such as those who live within or near the city centres, were most likely to desire physical improvements in their CBD, such as reducing traffic congestion, adding more green space public open spaces, improving the streetscape, improving walkability, and improving parking capacity.

“The survey offers some general insights on what makes a great downtown. Overall, it found that work is no longer the number one reason people visit downtowns. Shopping, dining out, socializing, or simply hanging out all rate higher. The best or most highly rated downtowns offer a cluster of great experiences,” wrote Richard Florida, a renowned urbanist and professor at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities and Rotman School of Management, earlier this spring.

“Downtowns can no longer thrive as work-oriented Central Business Districts. They must become safer and more balanced places to live, raise children, play – and especially to visit and connect. With their central locations, well-developed transit and transport connections, and high densities of cultural and entertainment venues and amenities, they are very well placed to do this.”

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