Today I am going to talk about the burning issue of safety in the downtown core.
In the city of Saskatoon. What, you thought I was going to talk about somewhere else?
Last Wednesday, I tuned in CKOM on my car radio to hear the start of the John Gormley radio show, as I usually do when I am driving to work.
Instead of his usual topics, like how great a place Saskatchewan is or things like that, Gormley was clearly in the mood to stir up the community again.
That morning he had on a gentleman named Kelly Lutz, an accountant who was the unfortunate victim of a stabbing at the Scotiabank Theatre in Saskatoon Feb. 13. He had gone to the theatre to get some gift vouchers for his daughters for Valentine’s Day, only for some lowlife to run after him and stab him five times in broad daylight as he was trying to enter the theatre doors.
That was the cue for callers to phone in and rant about the panhandlers at that location, which happens to be in close proximity to the Lighthouse supported living facility.
It turns out the accused, charged with aggravated assault, had been a client of the Lighthouse, or used to be one, at least.
As soon as this story aired, there was the typical reaction from communications-type people who seemed more interested in defending themselves and covering their rear ends. The most unimpressive was the communications woman for Cineplex who called in to Gormley.
Sounding every bit like a corporate hack, she tried to “clear up some facts” by claiming this incident took place outside the theatre doors, and called it a random act.
Wow.
If Cineplex seriously wants customers to go to their theatres, the safety of the patrons inside or outside their doors had better be their primary concern.
It seemed to be their primary concern last December when those online terror threats were circulated to theatres planning to screen The Interview. Cineplex moved swiftly to pull that movie from its entire chain to protect customers.
It’s good to know Cineplex is concerned about the terrorists. It would be good if they were just as concerned about the criminals and panhandlers, because frankly there are more of them.
It’s not just the callers to the Gormley show who have experienced these issues outside the Scotiabank Theatre.
I, too, have had people asking for money or cigarettes whenever I go to that theatre location. This often goes on right in front of the cinema doors. I try to avoid these folks as best I could. This has happened so many times that I’ve simply gotten used to it.
Adding to the issues is the parking situation downtown. Too often, I would park way up the street and end up walking a hair-raising few blocks to the theatre, hoping I wouldn’t get mugged on the way. So when people call the Gormley show to complain about safety downtown in Saskatoon, they have every right.
It’s a simple request movie patrons have. All we want is an assurance that when we go to a movie theatre, we won’t be accosted or mugged or even killed! We don’t want any of these problems. That’s all we want.
We deserve better than to hear higher-ups spewing their party line about how safe it is. You know what I want to hear? They should say: “The customers are right, we have a serious problem. All of us are going to get together immediately to address this right away, so the patrons will be safe going to the movie theatre in downtown Saskatoon from now on.”
That ought to mean more police, more security people, more cameras and all the things needed to get the criminals and the panhandlers off those streets. It would be a bonus if they also said “this stabbing will never happen again,” but it would be far better if the criminals made that commitment.
You are probably wondering what this has to do with North Battleford, which is earning the nickname “the miserable city,” because of the segment of the population that calls up the paper to complain all the time.
If there is one thing that unites the “miserable” people and the “positive” people in North Battleford, it’s the city’s un-luxurious two-screen downtown movie theatre.
I was sitting at a luncheon a while back at a table with a group of pillars of the community, what you would normally consider “positive” people. But when the topic turned to going to movies in North Battleford, they were complaining in no time.
It turns out their movie-going experiences are pretty typical for the Battlefords. Here’s what happens: instead of giving their business to what they consider a substandard local theatre that offers little selection, Battlefords moviegoers hit the road, wasting gas and money to travel in howling blizzards to Saskatoon to see the movies there.
Their destination is usually Scotiabank Theatre, which has the multiple big screens, 3-D and VIP screens, more movie selection and all the luxurious stuff missing from North Battleford.
So,if there is an issue with safety at that location, that concerns us directly because by default, Scotiabank Theatre is our movie theatre whether we like it or not.
It also defeats the entire purpose of going there.
It’s not just the situation at that theatre location. It’s crime in general there, with car chases, murders, drug activity and so on. If the situation gets out of hand any more than it is, folks in North Battleford may not be in the mood to take our business to Saskatoon anymore.
But where would we go instead? Lloydminster? Prince Albert? Do we sit at home and watch Netflix?
City Hall in North Battleford, please, get us a new movie theatre, soon. Going to Saskatoon just isn’t working for any of us.
