It has been given a fresh new look, with new trees, seating, lighting and signage and some of the aging infrastructure beneath the street has been replaced or repaired. Now, the city hopes to attract more visitors to the area.

Calgary’s historic pedestrian street, Stephen Avenue, is located in the heart of the city’s downtown core.

On Wednesday, the city launched its “See You on Stephen Avenue” campaign to encourage more people to dine and shop in the area.

“For nearly 150 years (this) has been a place of community, of commerce, and a central feature of our downtown that we continue to build our future,” said Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas, during a Wednesday morning updated on the city’s plans.

“This project represents the next hundred years, and as our city grows to welcome two million people, three million people and more, when we look around today, we see the foundations of that story,” Farkas added.

Aside from the needed infrastructure improvements, the biggest deterrent to growing the number of visitors to the area have been concerns over issues like drug use, public safety and other issues of social disorder.

“I think if they cleaned it up, obviously there are some issues here, it would bring more people here. I think a lot of people avoid the area because of some things,” said Calgarian Andrea Beauchamp as she walked along Stephen Avenue on Wednesday morning.

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Another Calgarian, Steve McCann, said the recent improvements have certainly helped to beautify the area, but Stephen Avenue still needs more people.

“It would be good to kind of revitalize the area. I know over the last few years it’s taken a bit of a hit and some of the more vulnerable population have been more prominent down here,” McCann said.

“So, you know, resources to come down and help those people and then kind of revitalize it and bring more people down. It’d be great, yeah, bring some life back to the area.”

Concerns about public safety are something Calgary police chief Katie McLellan insists are being addressed.

“For a downtown to thrive, people need to feel safe, businesses need to be supported, residents, workers, and visitors need to feel confident spending time in all of these spaces,” McLellan said.

“On June 25th, we launched Operation Restore, a sustained, high-visibility initiative focused on Steven Avenue and the East Village. These are areas that have been identified as hot spots for crime, social disorder and public concerns about safety,” McLellan said.

“Since the operation began up to mid-July, officers assigned to these areas have responded to more than 2,500 calls for service, conducted 471 business visits, initiated nearly 700 arrest warrants, laid 75 charges and connected the vulnerable individuals with support, social supports, on 829 occasions and that’s only the information that we actually capture,” McLellan added.

Today’s launch of the See You on Stephen Avenue campaign also coincided with the reopening of the Stephen Avenue Safety Hub, a dedicated downtown base for police and other support agencies, such as Alpha House, to work out of — not just for enforcement issues, but to also offer outreach and other support services for some of the more vulnerable members of Calgary’s population who frequent the area around Stephen Avenue.

“Just these last couple of months leading up to Stampede, I got several phone calls who said the redeployment that we’ve done with other officers where they actually own a piece of downtown in certain blocks has made a difference,” said McLellan.

“Its a bit early to tell, but the feedback that I have received from several people through phone calls and through meet and greets and so forth has been positive.”