Edmonton’s city council recently committed to funding the Chinatown Healthy Streets Operation Centre, a $15M hub meant to deploy additional officers into Chinatown. The vote passed overwhelmingly, with a number of councillors expressing valid opposition but voting in favour anyway.
We had a chance to interview Edmonton city councillor Michael Janz about the decision, hear about his “insider-outsider” theory of change, and question whether meaningful progress can be achieved from within the structure of city council.