Its not really my style to raise a cloud over the celebration, but since someone specifically asked . . .
My issue isn't how the architect was chosen--that's more of an aside that I couldn't care less about. What irks to this day me is how the city took sustainable transportation dollars to build a piece of art that connects two parks. The bridge does little to move traffic in and out of downtown, and I'll probably only use if if I go way out of my way to use it, just like the majority of cyclists coming from the north.
It's a clusterfata that epitomizes how ineffiecient the city plans and executes projects, and how they gloss over that deficit with ill conceived ideas like the bike share program and 10th street bike lanes. Then they package it all as one big master plan and sell it to Calgarians.
Regarding the design, I don't hate it and I think the city could use a splash of 'different.' But I won't be there on the 24th to pop a cork and listen to poetry.
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