Staff at Perfume Paradise hope a fresh leader in the city will make a difference for downtown businesses.

“Downtown has a bad rep and it's no longer valid. Downtown has lots of cool people, cool businesses, and they're only going to thrive if people come back down here, and stop being afraid,” said Shandi Strong.

Shandi Strong feels more messages explaining why downtown is safe would help boost business.

She hopes the new mayor will also focus on ways to make shopping downtown accessible.

“If there was an easy way to park their car and come downtown such as a park and ride it would probably make it easier,” said Strong.

That was one of the topics that came up at a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce forum.

“We need to do whatever we can to make it more livable and a place where people can walk,” said mayoral candidate Brian Bowman.

Candidates vying for mayor faced off in the Winnipeg Convention Centre Oct. 16.

“Portage and Main was a mega project. Portage Place was a mega project, but it didn't seem to work. What we need is 10,000 little projects, and it actually just using government to set up certain regulations and a framework,” said Robert-Falcon Ouellette.

“We need to provide incentives for people to want to be downtown,” said Paula Havixbeck.

Gary Tesfatsiun agrees. He opened Bar Red Sea downtown three months ago and said the previous restaurant in this spot closed after less than a year because of lost business during the NHL lockout.

“Getting downtown clients especially at night time, is very hard. At event time…we have clients,” he said. “But no event, no client.”

He feels more incentives to attract businesses to the core could help fill out the neighborhood bringing in more people after hours.

He hopes the new mayor might also consider a rent subsidy for start-up businesses.

Gord Steeves said one of the best ways to help businesses thrive is to cut red tape.

Judy Wasylycia-Leis said making sure local artists are a part of beautifying the city is important.

Mayoral candidate Michel Fillion and David Sanders were not invited to take part in the forum.