Bow River Flow

[MelBridgeman]

The fumes from all the gridlock made me sick

[Resolute 14]

Never would have guessed this would be an epic fail.

It was so well publicized that when I saw this thread title this morning, I was thinking that it was a topic on the river running high for some reason. Never even knew it was happening until I was caught in the CrossIron Maiden on Hwy2 and was listening to the news for traffic updates.

Bravo, Druh. You sure earned your salary today...

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by First Lady

http://www.corymorgan.com/?p=324

Well I have to give it to them, I was actually quite impressed with the “festival” There was a variety of booths and activities and people generally seemed to be having a good time. It was a nice little gathering for people to get out and about on a weekend.

Well it looks like it was a success then. Except for the mouthbreathers that are only capable of complaining.

[starseed]

I might check it out next year if I am not busy.

[Bunk]

If it's kept going it will get better year by year. For a first time festival, it seemed reasonably successful. Looks like plenty of families had some fun. Drivers will learn to take alternate routes like all the other hundreds of events that close roads, including memorial drive.

Mountain out of a mole hill.

[BlackArcher101]

But the thing is, why cannot this festival be held somewhere else, say... not on a road?
It would STILL be successful, and wouldn't interfere with other people as much... a win-win situation. I cannot for the life of me figure out why it has got to be on memorial.

Were not saying the festival is useless, but were saying the location is.

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

But the thing is, why cannot this festival be held somewhere else, say... not on a road?
It would STILL be successful, and wouldn't interfere with other people as much... a win-win situation. I cannot for the life of me figure out why it has got to be on memorial.

Were not saying the festival is useless, but were saying the location is.

Cause Druh wants it that way. And what Druh wants, she gets.

[GreatWhiteEbola]

Neighborhood revitalization, perhaps?

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Well it looks like it was a success then. Except for the mouthbreathers that are only capable of complaining.

Mouthbreathers - great debating skills there.

The reason people are upset with this is the fact that they didn't start with an idea for a festival and then assess who road closures would be required. They started with the road closures with no idea of what to do with it.

The Lilac Festival started small and as it grew the necessary road closures grew with it - makes sense.

If they had come with the idea for the "First Annual Kensington Art Walk" and decided to have it on Memorial - great - have at it.

This was someone flexing her administrative muscle to close a major road with no clue what to do with it - once she got approval.

People were stuck in traffic for a long time, and the other trickle down was that traffic on the local neighborhood roads were packed as people looked for short cuts.

Brutal idea, badly executed.

But maybe I'm just a mouthbreather.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Bunk

The Herald photo shows a lot of people on the road. More community-oriented events are good for Calgary, where that feeling often seems to be lacking. I'm sure this one will grow and get better year by year. You should see the photos of the Lilac Festival when it first started - very modest, now has over 100,000 people every year.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Gallery...518/story.html


I'm not sure why some Calgarians are getting their panties in a knot over a lane reduction that will slow people down for a few minutes on a sunday.

Because the process is backwards. Nobody objects to closing a road for a festival. What's dumb about this is that this is a festival for closing a road.

[MRCboicgy]

Although I thought it was kind of lame, I think if they set up something worthwhile, it could be a good thing. I like that they change things up, even though it's change for the sake of change.

[enthused]

I'm all for promoting cycling and walking and all that, so I decided to go check it out today. I had hoped that even though I knew it was a bad idea that maybe somehow it would turn out well.... and it really really didn't.

Everything just seemed very poorly planned and there really just wasn't much of anything going on. Pretty disappointing. And Memorial really wasn't a good place to do it. It didn't even extend to 10th street, so it was literally just a random chunk of Memorial sectioned off randomly.

If they decide to do this again next year, I really hope a bit more thought and effort is put in.

[4X4]

What's the idea here? A festival from 10th to where? Prince's Island?
That sounds cool. I hope it actually becomes something. There are a few good weekend festivals that I love attending. Always room for one more.
As for the traffic disruption, as the local driving nazi, I hereby don't give a sh1t. It's sunday. The idea of a festival on Memorial actually makes me think good things instead of bad. If it were to become a big thing after a few years, y'all would be loving it.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
Please don't interpret this post as some kind of Druh Farrel love. She's not even close to my favorite alderman, but this is not such a terrible thing. There's not much else going on in late August. Another good festival would be great. Druh managed to concoct it. Gotta give her credit for that. After all, she loves credit. She spends taxpayer dollars like it's a credit card without a limit.

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by 4X4

I hereby don't give a sh1t. It's sunday. The idea of a festival on Memorial actually makes me think good things instead of bad. If it were to become a big thing after a few years, y'all would be loving it.

No one is debating the festival itself. As others have said before, it's backwards. Do the festival, on the bike path, and if enough people show up, to warrant closure of traffic lanes in the future, fine.
Don't be closing lanes of traffic just because you are an alderman, and this is your baby, and you can.

[CrusaderPi]

Originally Posted by arsenal

No one is debating the festival itself. As others have said before, it's backwards. Do the festival, on the bike path, and if enough people show up, to warrant closure of traffic lanes in the future, fine.
Don't be closing lanes of traffic just because you are an alderman, and this is your baby, and you can.

pffft. Half of everything I do is just because I can. If I had any sort of real power I'd be having fun with pet projects every chance I got.

[Bigtime]

I took the family down there around 1pm or so. Asides from the traffic that stayed on Memorial slowly cruising through the reduced lanes I didn't see traffic backed up for miles at the lights at 10th street or centre. So what is the big deal?

For a first run of this festival I think it was pretty good. No doubt a lot of lessons learned by the organizers and they will take note of that and make it better next year.

My condo building was absolutely cut off from being able to head out or in from it on the weekend without some crazy detours. Do you hear me complaining? It was a beautiful Sunday out, relax and enjoy the day.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by enthused

If they decide to do this again next year, I really hope a bit more thought and effort is put in.

Expecting thought and effort from Druh Farrel is like expecting a big name free agent to want to go to Edmonton.

[urban1]

Im in agreement with others that it seems the idea was to close the road first and then find something do with the closed road. Looks the like the festival could have been held on the pathways and adjacent grassy areas without closing the road. The cost of the road closure could have been redirected to other areas of the fetival itself like activities for the kids.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by urban1

Im in agreement with others that it seems the idea was to close the road first and then find something do with the closed road. Looks the like the festival could have been held on the pathways and adjacent grassy areas without closing the road. The cost of the road closure could have been redirected to other areas of the fetival itself like activities for the kids.

This issue wouldn't have even come up if the festival wasn't in the works. If nothing was in the works, no one would have asked to close the road. It costs money to close a road, you don't just close a road without a reason.

Also, why does everyone think this is organized by Druh Farrell? Did she even have anything to do with organizing the festival? There is no mention of her name on the website (other names are mentioned). I'm guessing the media attached her name to the festival, back when the council was debating the idea, and she was in support of the festival, AND that it's in her ward.

And that brings us to the third misconception, and that is Council voted to have the road closure. They did no such thing. All they did was debate whether they should have a say in who can close a road or not (provided that the proper payments are made). They very rightly came to the conclusion that they don't have a say in that, as that is what the transportation department is for. They do the determining. Plus, any citizen has always been able to get a temporary road closure. I've done in personally myself. Council can set the priorities for the transportation dept, but they don't need to be involved in every minor little decision. That is the issue here.

Thanks to the media for totally misleading most people in the city on this one.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

This issue wouldn't have even come up if the festival wasn't in the works. If nothing was in the works, no one would have asked to close the road. It costs money to close a road, you don't just close a road without a reason.

That's the thing. When Druh Farrell proposed closing Memorial for FOUR Sundays, there were no plans. No festivals, no concerts, no activities, nothing.

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/colum...99966-sun.html

No mention of a festival of any kind. Just an absolute moron of an alderman proposing to close a major road four times "just to have fun". It wasn't until after this idiotic scheme got approved, though only for one day instead of four, that an entirely separate group threw together a half assed attempt at a festival. Good on them for trying, but as noted, there was no need to close the road down.

Basically, Farrell came up with a hairbrained and poorly thought out scheme, got approval for only one shut down instead of four, had someone else do the work for her, and now is in full revisionist history mode, trying to pretend that this entire thing was what she planned from the start.