I might be in the minority, but it's about bloody time the City made a considerable investment in inner-city beautification. Pedestrian bridges, while exactly that, are still bridges - and the Bow River is as much a part of Calgary as the Calgary Tower and the Calgary Zoo are.
Hence, making the Bow River look good with these proposed bridges, especially with a signature bridge architect, is a step in the right direction for encouraging foot traffic in the inner-city, increasing tourism (no matter how small it initally may seem to be), and it's a step in the right direction for the environment as a whole in the long-term. The added effect of a beautifully designed bridge is the icing on the cake. It's about time municipal money is used for this purpose when it likely would have gone to building MORE roads for the suburbanites living witihin the City limits 3 hours south of downtown.
The key is spending that money to make the bridges worth, if not exceed, that proposed $25 million. With that kind of budget, the creative juices should not just be flowing, but violently flooding.
As someone who works in the design industry, I am very hopeful and excited about how this project will play out. Kudos to City Council for displaying a set and finally putting money into a new initiative in this City; or an initiative that has long been ignored.
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