Solutions needed for the growing problems downtown

By Lethbridge Herald on February 22, 2023.

Editor: 

Letter to Mayor Hyggen:

I sent you a email and photo of a fire set against our building back on December 1, 2022 regarding the ongoing vandalism and fire setting issues during the cold snap in December. 

Have a look at the picture attached below – this was what our employees had to experience on a recent morning at the front door of the Herald. 

(Editor’s note: Photo is of human excrement piled in a corner).

Would this be a welcomed occurrence at City Hall?

We acknowledge that the homeless/addiction/crime issues downtown are a challenge for the city to address but if the City and LPS are not capable of addressing these issues who is?

In your previous response to my earlier communication, you reference that housing is a provincial responsibility. While housing may be part of the issue, housing the homeless is not going to address the downtown crime, safety and drug issues. 

As just one of many tax-paying downtown businesses – that also have the additional burden of the annual Downtown BRZ fee/levy – we are getting tired of absorbing the extra costs to secure our businesses so that our staff, customers and property are shielded from the nightly onslaught of vandals, needles, condoms, squatters in our doorway and human waste left at our doorsteps. 

Mayor Hyggen, we ask city council to step up and find a solution or solutions that will address this growing concern now – not two or three years from now. 

Ryan McAdams

Group publisher

Alberta Newspaper Group LP