Heated sidewalks? Residents chime in on how to make Saskatoon more winter friendly

Heated sidewalks, winterized washrooms, lighting for nighttime cross-country skiing: people have plenty of ideas on how to make Saskatoon a better place to live during the winter season.

The City of Saskatoon is sharing the results of recent surveys that asked people how the city could beat its reputation as a primarily summer-focused city.

• Feeling dreary about winter? City of Saskatoon trying to change that

In addition to hosting nine roundtable sessions with 48 community organizations, the city also received 531 online responses during its WinterCityYXE reach-out.

"Given that it's an open-ended survey, not just a checkbox thing, that's pretty darned good engagement from our community," said Brenda Wallace, the city's director of environmental and corporate initiatives.

Some of the other ideas floated include:

• Creating walkable spaces for pedestrians that are shielded from the wind.
• Allowing seasonal businesses along the Meewasin Trail.
• Providing more indoor parking lots.
• Holding smaller events and festivals in neighbourhoods.

Public information session 

The city will share the full results of the survey Thursday at a public information session at the Legion Hall at 606 Spadina Cres. W. starting at 8 a.m.

Wallace said the city wants to know which of these ideas people feel most passionate about.

"We need to spend some time deciding as a community what we actually want to do and what are the priorities," she said.

Asked if the recent financial pressures caused by the 2017-2018 provincial budget could put a damper on any of these initiatives, Wallace responded: "I would say the strategy has largely been about what we can leverage, what we can co-create with the community and where is there community energy, so that if we band our community together… we can make one plus one equal three."