I spent all day yesterday at a “Visioning Workshop” put on by the City of Calgary, to help determine what the good people in my neighbourhood and those surrounding think about the new West Leg of the LRT cutting a swath through our nicely established area. There were about forty of us at this thing, a few citizens who were willing to give up their weekedn to let some planners know that, in short, we think the idea of the train coming through here sucks. Really sucks.
I realize the entire exercise is really a ploy on the part of the city to placate us, to make us feel like we had some say in the ruining of our area, which has been nice and calm and quiet for fifty years. Still, I went anyway, because I figure that if I’m going to enjoy where I live, I’m going to have to stand up and say something to the people who are planning on ruining it so a bunch of Starbucks-drinking suburbanites can not take the train downtown every day, even though it’s right there. I think the other people in the group felt the same way – that they’re bringing this hideously ugly, albeit relatively convenient, leg of light rapid transit to our area, and it’s not really for us. It’s for all the new development that creates the urban sprawl and traffic that we, in the end, have to deal with every day.
I came out of there at the end of the day with a few thoughts rolling around in my head. One, that I cannot believe the horrible suspicion I have that the city is going to cheap out and, no matter what, stick to their thirty-year-old plan and build the train a block away from me, right through the mom-and-pop grocery stores, the little auto place, and even the Shopper’s Drug Mart. They won’t build it below ground, because that’s too expensive. Instead, they’ll knock down old houses and run it above-ground, where it will snarl traffic and ruin the atmosphere of the area. We’ll hear those obnoxious “ding-ding-ding” crossing bells every fifteen minutes.
Two, if this is what they are going to do, in spite of strong opposition from the people who live around here, then there will be alot of “For Sale” signs going up. Including mine. Almost everyone at the workshop seems opposed to the idea, for all the reasons listed above. They like where they live. They like the atmosphere. They can deal with the traffic. They think this plan is stupid.
Three, this plan is really stupid. It will also possibly never happen, because people are going to kick up a fuss, and because they don’t even have funding yet. And I know this is just a land-use study (supposedly), but if I were running the study, at the end of the day I’d be counting the votes for how many of us like our neighbourhood just the way it is, and making my decisions based on that. Of course, I’m a logical person who doesn’t work there except on contract, so, you can draw your own conclusions.
Four, there are some very interesting people in my neighbouhood, and it was nice to meet some of them. A few of them have raised their kids here and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. They walk past my house every day, but I had no idea who they were. So really, the eight hours was not a loss even if it was an exercise in futility, because I did get to know a few new people, and that’s never a bad thing (except for meeting that one really annoying lady whose voice I could hear in the back of my head all day).
Five, you can feed me, but that won’t make me like your idea any better. There was a ton of food, but it all had that strange “bought for you by taxpayers” aftertaste to it. I guess I can just add the catering budget to the list of things I’m paying my taxes for every year – like the random garbage pick-up and the pothole in my alley. I don’t have a problem paying taxes, I really do not. I do have a problem with people mismanaging my money. I don’t recall “egg-salad sandwiches for 40″ on the itemized list of things I bought through the TIPP program this year.
Anyway, after our little exercises were done and the architects had rendered these fabulous drawings of our vision, we got to vote on all the things we liked best. And then the day was done, and starting tomorrow these city planners will supposedly be scrutinizing our drawings to figure out what they should do next. Of course, we won’t hear anything about that until November, assuming the province coughs up the over $600 million they’ll need to do the project, because there’s an election. But I can guarantee you that between now and then we’re going to hear all kinds of promises. Anything to get us to put our X on the right spot on the ballot.