The West End Biz is hoping to help store owners add a little colour and light to their shops when they’re closed.
Specifically, the group wants to spruce up the roll-down shutters which have been installed to protect windows and doors of some area businesses.
“You find shutters throughout the city,” said West End Biz executive director Gloria Cardwell-Hoeppner. “And for businesses they’ve got a large investment, right. Crime knows no boundaries.”
“We certainly don’t like the look of the closed shutters but we can understand why they’re in place.”
Cardwell-Hoeppner said the West End Biz plans to do an audit of all the businesses which have shutters and then see if those businesses would be willing to partner with the group in creating street art on the shutters.
“The kind I would like to explore is depicting the type of business that’s behind the shutter,” she said. “So that somebody who’s going down that street and maybe it’s the evening and maybe that business is closed can tell that maybe during the daytime there’s a coffee shop or a hardware store.”
Longtime West End businesses owner and West End Biz board member John Unger of John’s Hair Designers said shutters give a negative impression of the area.
“We did have a lot of crime and a lot of windows were smashed at one time and I guess that’s where the whole shutter thing started and people wanted to protect their goods and their stores,” said Unger. “I just wish that we could move on to something else and open it up and make it look a lot more inviting to people 24 hours a day.”
When Feast Café Bistro owner Christa Bruneau-Guenther moved into the West End around four years ago the roll-down shutters were already installed in the building where she opened her restaurant.
Bruneau-Guenther said the shutters have worked well protecting her property which has several windows.
“I have so much glass here in the restaurant, definitely a great way to protect the glass,” said Bruneau-Guenther. “There’s been a couple of car accidents on our corner where a car hit our building and if the shutters were not shut, the windows would’ve smashed.”
“I just want to protect the glass from crime or traffic or anything.”
Bruneau-Guenther isn’t convinced adding art to the shutters is the way to go.
“As a business owner I just think of cost, first of all,” said Bruneau-Guenther. “We have very long, harsh winters so am I going to be having to replace art every two years. After a year is it even going to look good anymore?”
“I probably wouldn’t want to do something like that but I’d have to find out a little more about it.”
Jino Distasio, director of the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg, said the issue highlights the difficult balance between safety and the look of a neighbourhood.
“I think always the challenge is perception and when we begin to see an increased fortified landscape the message that it sends sometimes can be mixed,” said Distasio. “Business owners want to protect their property, people want to feel safe in their neighbourhoods but sometimes when you see an increasing number of shutters you often wonder why just this community why just this location.”
The West End Biz is still working out the details of its plan but hopes to get some businesses on board in time for this coming spring.
