Calgary's Chinatown becomes Business Revitalization Zone

Chinatown is the latest Calgary neighbourhood to become a business revitalization zone (BRZ), to the delight of business owners in the area who say it's been a struggle since the 2013 flood.

• Calgary Chinatown rebounds post-flood with street festival

The BRZ is aself-help program that lets commercial operatorsin a specificarea jointly raise and administer fundsto improve and promote their businesses, according to the city's website.

"Our business is going up right now, so pretty much it's OK, but it takes time to recover like all of our loss and stuff," saidMickieChiu, owner of a shop,O'Cup,on Second Avenue S.E.That stretch of Chinatown was one of the hardest hit by the flood.

Chiu says running her business in Chinatown has also been challenging because parking is expensive during the week, and there are limited spaces available. She'd also like to see changes that would make the area safer for pedestrians.

Those who brought the BRZapplication forward to city council say they want to make Chinatowna cultural hub for the local community and for visitors to the city.

Tourists wanted

"Any major city in Canada,whether it's Toronto or Montreal, has a Chinatown and you don't go to those cities without visiting Chinatown:Calgary needs to have that same destination point," said Terry Wong, one of the directors on the interim board for the BRZ.

While the parking and pedestrianaccess are key issues, Wong says the group will primarily aim to bolster the sense of community.-

"We have at least threeif not fourgenerations of culture here and we need to preserve that, not only for our kids but for people who are coming over from Hong Kong and China today."

Chiusaid there's no other place she'd rather do business.

"For me, I'll create a business here because I speak the same language, [it's]more positive for me."

The official board will be selected by the end of December andwill create a threeyear business plan and outline infrastructure target projects for Chinatown.