unimaginative2
Senior Member
Katz's plan done properly will electrify downtown
By Scott McKeen, Edmonton Journal
March 26, 2010
There are a few glimmers of true urban experience in our downtown.
Hunt through the ruins of the once-proud strolling and shopping district and you'll find them.
Yes, you'll pass parking lots and vacant lots, bunkers and faceless institutions. But suddenly, out of the bland, you'll come across a diner, fashion boutique, gallery or cafe.
Downtown is a work in progress. Glacial progress. But progress nonetheless.
The good news is of two bold plans emerging to reshape the core into a vibrant place of culture, community and commerce.
One plan, city hall's, was drafted over the past few years and involved numerous surveys, open houses and public meetings.
About 600 people helped shape the new Capital City Downtown Plan, with input from council, the civil service and the Edmonton Design Committee.
The other bold plan? It belongs to Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz, who promotes a $1.5-billion arena megaproject as the catalyst for downtown renewal.
The Capital City Downtown Plan -- available at www.edmonton.ca-- is broad and deep in scope and meaning. It details ways and means to reach the goal of creating a livable, walkable and sustainable uptown area with parks, architecture, public art and sidewalk shopping.
Katz's vision is more focused on his lands in and around 104th Avenue, just west of 101st Street. The project's centrepiece is a majestic hockey arena, surrounded by hotels, office buildings and public plaza.
I have no doubt Katz would also love the city's downtown plan.
Katz is a born-and-raised Edmontonian. Doubtless, he wants downtown to come alive with things to do and people to see.
Edmonton is largely a suburban city of 700 square kilometres. But humans yearn for gathering places.
Cities have many such places, both indoors and out, public and private. But downtown is usually the gathering place above all.
People work downtown, yes. But a downtown is also a place of shopping, arts, culture and the simple pleasure of people watching.
Katz's vision argues that all boats rise on the tide. That $1.5 billion of investment on 104th Avenue, along with thousands of people attending events at the arena, will spill dollars and investment south onto downtown streets.
That's one possible scenario. The other is that an arena district will shift energy north and away from Jasper Avenue, making 104th Avenue the city's new main street.
Coun. Ben Henderson, whose ward includes downtown, is concerned. Henderson fears the arena proposal is yet another car-oriented, indoor-focused complex.
Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with power centres, shopping malls and multiplex entertainment centres. But do they fit in an urban context?
West Edmonton Mall is often blamed for killing downtown. More likely, it was the development of Edmonton Centre, followed by Manulife and Commerce Place.
These office and shopping complexes turned the downtown outside-in, into just another shopping mall.
Slowly, over the past few years, people began showing up again on downtown streets. The sidewalk shops and eateries on 104th Street created some momentum.
The Bay Building was taken over by the U of A. Sobeys launched a Jasper Avenue outlet. New condo towers opened, along with a smattering of shops and restaurants in and around Jasper Avenue.
For the record, I'm an Oilers fan and have been since I can remember. Part of me dreams of a magnificent hockey arena for the team and its fans.
Yet I also dream of a vibrant downtown with blocks of shopping, dining, clubs and cafes.
My fear is the same as Henderson's. That the arena project will steal crowds away from Jasper Avenue and trap them inside another mall-like shopping and entertainment complex.
Henderson says everyone, even Katz, is focusing right now on how to finance the arena, instead of asking how it fits with Edmonton's urban planning goals.
Done well, a new arena will add pride and significance to downtown.
Done badly, the tiny glimmer will go out.
smckeen@thejournal.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
By Scott McKeen, Edmonton Journal
March 26, 2010
There are a few glimmers of true urban experience in our downtown.
Hunt through the ruins of the once-proud strolling and shopping district and you'll find them.
Yes, you'll pass parking lots and vacant lots, bunkers and faceless institutions. But suddenly, out of the bland, you'll come across a diner, fashion boutique, gallery or cafe.
Downtown is a work in progress. Glacial progress. But progress nonetheless.
The good news is of two bold plans emerging to reshape the core into a vibrant place of culture, community and commerce.
One plan, city hall's, was drafted over the past few years and involved numerous surveys, open houses and public meetings.
About 600 people helped shape the new Capital City Downtown Plan, with input from council, the civil service and the Edmonton Design Committee.
The other bold plan? It belongs to Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz, who promotes a $1.5-billion arena megaproject as the catalyst for downtown renewal.
The Capital City Downtown Plan -- available at www.edmonton.ca-- is broad and deep in scope and meaning. It details ways and means to reach the goal of creating a livable, walkable and sustainable uptown area with parks, architecture, public art and sidewalk shopping.
Katz's vision is more focused on his lands in and around 104th Avenue, just west of 101st Street. The project's centrepiece is a majestic hockey arena, surrounded by hotels, office buildings and public plaza.
I have no doubt Katz would also love the city's downtown plan.
Katz is a born-and-raised Edmontonian. Doubtless, he wants downtown to come alive with things to do and people to see.
Edmonton is largely a suburban city of 700 square kilometres. But humans yearn for gathering places.
Cities have many such places, both indoors and out, public and private. But downtown is usually the gathering place above all.
People work downtown, yes. But a downtown is also a place of shopping, arts, culture and the simple pleasure of people watching.
Katz's vision argues that all boats rise on the tide. That $1.5 billion of investment on 104th Avenue, along with thousands of people attending events at the arena, will spill dollars and investment south onto downtown streets.
That's one possible scenario. The other is that an arena district will shift energy north and away from Jasper Avenue, making 104th Avenue the city's new main street.
Coun. Ben Henderson, whose ward includes downtown, is concerned. Henderson fears the arena proposal is yet another car-oriented, indoor-focused complex.
Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with power centres, shopping malls and multiplex entertainment centres. But do they fit in an urban context?
West Edmonton Mall is often blamed for killing downtown. More likely, it was the development of Edmonton Centre, followed by Manulife and Commerce Place.
These office and shopping complexes turned the downtown outside-in, into just another shopping mall.
Slowly, over the past few years, people began showing up again on downtown streets. The sidewalk shops and eateries on 104th Street created some momentum.
The Bay Building was taken over by the U of A. Sobeys launched a Jasper Avenue outlet. New condo towers opened, along with a smattering of shops and restaurants in and around Jasper Avenue.
For the record, I'm an Oilers fan and have been since I can remember. Part of me dreams of a magnificent hockey arena for the team and its fans.
Yet I also dream of a vibrant downtown with blocks of shopping, dining, clubs and cafes.
My fear is the same as Henderson's. That the arena project will steal crowds away from Jasper Avenue and trap them inside another mall-like shopping and entertainment complex.
Henderson says everyone, even Katz, is focusing right now on how to finance the arena, instead of asking how it fits with Edmonton's urban planning goals.
Done well, a new arena will add pride and significance to downtown.
Done badly, the tiny glimmer will go out.
smckeen@thejournal.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal