Quote:
Originally Posted by JiriHrdina
There was no concept for the festival. Just someone who wanted to flex their aldermanic muscles.
Anytime you are shutting down a major road it should be for a good reason - an idea beyond just "hey let's shut down this street".
Roads are built for cars. That's what they are for. Again - I'm all for shutting them down from time to time but for a good reason.
The entire concept was poorly planned and a bad idea from the start. A community like Ramsay is dieing for an event like this (or Inglewood). Sticking it on Memorial just for the sake of doing so was silly.
And do be clear - I'm not upset about this specifically but it is more evidence about what is wrong with how this city has been run for the last few years. No real thought. Willy nilly decisions, and a lack of proper consultation.
The fact that attendance has been underwhelming 2 years running (if true) shows Calgarians don't care about this one.
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I dunno. They claim it mimics similar festivals in a bunch of other cities. From what I can tell, it's only problem is that it hasn't caught on (yet?). Since Farrell was the one that championed it (with endorsement from her ward), it makes sense that it would be on Memorial Dr. Besides that, Memorial Dr. is a pretty nice street to do something like this on. If Inglewood and Ramsay are so sorely lacking a festival, maybe the residents of Inglewood and Ramsay need to figure something out to rectify that. Either spearhead a festival, or elect a Farrell-esque alderman.
At the end of the day, I don't buy your reasoning for why this is so ill conceived. I don't disagree that there are problems at City Hall, but allowing a new festival to grow roots doesn't sound like one of it's problems. In fact, judging by the amount of "culture" debates this fine messageboard has had, it's quite the contrary. And how much money does it cost the CoC to shut down the south side of Memorial? It doesn't affect any businesses, and it really doesn't affect traffic (being on a Sunday). The City probably makes money on it if anything.
The yuppies in Sunnyside decided they wanted a fancy yoga party. They got it. If the fine folks in Inglewood or Ramsay want their own party, they can damn well go start one. It's not the city's job to ration out festivals to neighbourhoods like it's NFL parity.
Whether the thing flops or becomes a huge success makes no difference to me personally, but as a resident of Calgary, I hope it becomes a big success, like the aforementioned Lilac Festival. I'm not totally up to snuff on all my Calgary history, but I'm willing to bet that in it's infancy, the Lilac Festival was nowhere close to what it is today. And today it's quite something. I attend almost every year, and I'm glad that some starry eyed whoever-the-hell figured on starting it whenever the hell he or she did. Ditto for all the other cool festivals we have. I'm glad that there are a few neat things to check out during our annoyingly short summer. How anyone can complain about a festival on an easily road is beyond me. Just sounds like whining for no reason, IMO. And with that in mind, at least Memorial remains open. Lilac festival kills 4th street and 17th ave. Salsa festival kills Kensington rd and 10th street. Marda Gras kills 33rd and 34th. But it's all in the name of good times, so why the long face?