Fort McMurray, northern Alberta - land of the northern lightsLast week was a very good week for SafeGrowth.
Fort McMurray, a city of over 100,000 is hub of the world-famous Alberta oil sands project. Established in 1870 as a Hudson's Bay trading post, today's Ft. Mac (officially the Municipality of Wood Buffalo) is ground zero for the world's biggest modern Gold Rush (...oil rush)!
As in times of old, Rushes lead to incredible population growth, crime and disorder. (Projected growth is over 230,000 in 15 years). Unlike times of old, Ft. Mac is taking steps to deal with it.
For the past year, myself and urban design specialist Megan Carr have been working with senior planner Tracey Tester and her talented crime prevention team to institute a new development plan. Our goal: create a neighborhood-based, collaborative plan based on crime prevention science. In other words, SafeGrowth. This past week the city council voted that crime prevention and reduction plan into life.
Even the media, it seems, has caught the excitement. News reports describe the plan.
Congratulations to Tracey and her team.
Mapping fear areas downtown. All part of SafeGrowth planning
Congratulations on getting the plan passed. With such a large population growth should an interesting environment to study crime reduction/prevention. Especially for kids.
ReplyDeleteWonder how long the oil will last.
Van C
Thanks for that. I am very proud of the work Tracey Tester has done with her tremendous team. It is for the kids and their future that we do all this work.
ReplyDeleteOil longevity? They've been producing it there for over 50 years. I wonder how long our oil addiction will last?