THUNDER BAY – Derek Lankinen believes he’s got the recipe for success at city hall.
The popular chef, who has been creating culinary masterpieces for discerning diners in Thunder Bay for the past two decades, has decided to take a stab at municipal politics in 2018, taking a run at one of five at-large spots up for grabs in a field of 26 candidates.
Lankinen lists public safety as the top issue on his wish list to address should he find success on the ballot on Oct. 22.
“I don’t think anybody is going to be able to deny that as a community we feel things are worse than they were five, six, seven, eight years ago. There are ways we can combat it without putting more police on the streets, or putting more boots on the ground,” Lankinen said.
“We can look at the infrastructure. We can look at the lighting. We can look at the eye on the street program and look into community policing.”
It’s the latter suggestion he sees as a real possibility to combat a growing sense of fear in Thunder Bay.
While it’s been done in the past, Lankinen said there might be a better way.
“I feel we need to look harder at it and try to create a more developed strategy to implement it.”
As a chef in Thunder Bay, Lankinen is quite familiar with the growth in the city’s downtown north core, where a host of new bars and restaurants have set up shop in recent years, adding to the development on the waterfront.
Lankinen says he’d like to help spear-head similar growth on the city’s south side, which is just bursting with possibilities.
A good start to rehabilitating the area’s reputation is Victoriaville.
“We have to eliminate the hangouts, places where people can loiter and do undesirable things,” he said. “Personally I’d love to see the street opened up and the mall turned back into two different malls, with an emphasis more on community services, as opposed to retail.”
Pointing to a business like Heartbeat Hot Sauces, Lankinen said there’s plenty of room for business innovation in Thunder Bay, but companies often need assistance marketing themselves, something he feels the city can help with.
