WATCH: Downtown Kelowna is Best in the West

• Helps make downtown safe and vibrant
• Supports the local economy

Keeping downtown safe and vibrant is at the heart of one local association.

The Downtown Kelowna Association (DKA) has been recognized as “Best In The West” for its role in making Kelowna’s downtown an increasingly desirable place to live, conduct business, work, and play.

Recently, business improvement areas (BIAs) across the province celebrated efforts in contributing to the success of communities and local economies.

The association took home three accolades: the Award of Merit in Special Events for the DKA Winter Street Market (2021), the Award of Excellence in Programming & Partnerships for Meet Me on Bernard (2021), and the Award of Excellence in Safety & Security for DKA’s On-Street Services.

“I think we all want to go to places that are safe, and clean, and friendly, and especially because Kelowna is a family friendly town, you want to be able to take your family down,” Veronika Kubik, marketing manager at DKA told Kelowna10.

Kubik said the Winter Street Market was one of the first events they were able to host since the pandemic began and it was a way to bring community back into downtown.

“We had a bunch of vendors, a few thousand people came out, we had Santa Claus there, music, and the street light-up,” she explained.

Meet Me on Bernard started in 2020 where Bernard Avenue is closed during the summer to allow local businesses to expand their patios and increase foot traffic in the area. It was so successful it’s coming back this summer for the third year in a row.

Safety is also important in the downtown core, and the DKA on-street services make sure it’s a clean, safe, and secure place to work and enjoy. The team works alongside business members, visitors to downtown, the RCMP, and social service agencies to help foster and maintain a positive social environment.

“On-street services, as anyone who’s been in downtown knows, is the red shirts that you see and also the blue shirts who do a lot of the cleaning,” Kubik said.

“We find it really important because we want to make it an environment people can really enjoy and feel like downtown is the place to come to whenever people are visiting.”