The Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association is trying out a few initiatives to help improve visibility and safety in the city core.
This past weekend, the BIA had staff from ACS Security Group operating in the core to help young people get to and from the various venues downtown as part of a program called WALK SAFE.
Giant portable high-powered lights were also put in place in a few locations and around parking lots in the core as part of an effort called PARK SAFE.
Ward 3 city councillor Renaldo Agostino says if it doesn't work, they will try something else.
"We've seen a huge uptick in business over the past few weeks. This weekend was phenomenal downtown. Business owners are telling me it was the busiest night they've had in a decade. We see that downtown is getting busy. Listen, I know the problems that a busy downtown can bring forward; I was in that business for a long, long time, so we want to make sure we don't repeat the mistakes of the past," he says.
He says they're trying to get things done downtown.
"We're going to bring it to our board; we're going to review what the notes were. This is a BIA initiative, so it's a different organization than city council, but we're going to review notes and see the successes and failures and continue to do stuff like that," he says.
Agostino adds that five brand-new hospitality venues have opened within the Downtown Windsor BIA in the last few weeks, including Aiirus, which opened this past weekend in the former Tequila Bob's at 576 Ouellette Avenue after operating for nearly a decade out of Caesars Windsor.