The first act of the lower Centre Square Mall’s new owners has been to ditch the high-pitched whine that seemed to be in place to deter loitering.
The sound began about 18 months ago, emanating from a device near the lower mall’s parkade. It has since been an almost ever-present feature for a couple of downtown Yellowknife blocks.
“Yup, we shut that off yesterday,” Nunastar’s Ben Cox said by email on Friday.
“Most frequent feedback we got from the community was the dislike of it so it had to go.”
Nunastar announced this week it was taking over ownership of the lower mall, which is split into two levels. The company has promised to “put the ‘centre’ back into Centre Square” after years of stagnation.
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The demise of the so-called “mosquito device” was first reported by NNSL.
Yellowknife’s mayor, Ben Hendriksen, had called for such devices to be regulated when he was a city councillor and after this one first appeared downtown.
Speaking in 2024, Hendriksen said he understood property owners wanting to prevent people from loitering, littering and possibly causing damage, and agreed it is not their responsibility to provide a sheltered space for people to spend time. (Some nearby owners said the device did appear to deter loitering.)
Hendriksen, though, said the noise had wider negative impacts on the city’s downtown.
“If we take no action on the use of these types of devices we are, in my opinion, saying that we really don’t care about standards in our downtown,” he said in 2024.
