Bow River Flow being recycled
By Rick Bell, Calgary Sun
Last Updated: April 1, 2010 10:17pm
This isn’t a belated April Fool’s joke. It’s city hall.
They don’t laugh at their jokes. They act on them.
Yes, one of the civic capers driving people nuts last year is back.
Plans are now well underway for the second annual partial closing of Memorial Dr. from 10 St. to 3 St. N.W. for six hours on a summer Sunday.
Last year, organizers of the Bow River Flow, the self-styled “human-powered transportation festival,” expected a modest 10,000 to show up for their consciousness-raising shindig and even they say they only got 4,000. Many nosecounters had the number lower.
The month before, another road-closed celebration in the same neighbourhood drew at least 20 times more souls.
And, it is reported, most of those who did go to the Flow stuck mostly to the pathways by the river and the grass nearby. Far fewer ventured on the closed lanes of Memorial except the cyclists going through and this year the two-wheelers have their own deal in June at Stanley Park.
Replacing the cyclists this year will be another kind of experience, the chance to see your hard-earned provincial tax dollars at work by visiting the construction site of the Calatrava designer bridge.
Didgeridoo playing and a world-class footbridge. What could be better?
Ah, and there is plenty of time between now and the summer, especially since a city election is on the calendar this October.
In 2009, the Bow River Flow, aka the Memorial Dr. closing to rally the masses against evil four-wheel vehicles, made it to a council debate and a vote, complete with an alderman reciting a cute poem.
The majority on council went with the Flow, another loose lightbulb emerging from the spidey sense of Ald. Druh Farrell.
But there was opposition. Some just didn’t want any part of a major east-west artery ever closing.
They liked a party but thought somebody should have looked at a map.
Others, like this columnist, who support more action in a city where most of the sizzle is spent on the human hamster wheel, especially didn’t like the preachy tone.
There was a time people fighting the causes of working people actually fought for fairness, the bread and butter issues. Now working people who can’t afford to live in the pricey digs of trendy Sunnyside are told they’re not as politically upright as the self-appointed smart set because they might own a truck.
One line is remembered from the 2009 Bow River Flow rollout.
“The machines have not taken over our cities quite yet.” Yah, that’s showing them.
Ryan Jestin, the city’s poobah of pavement, says he hasn’t seen a permit application. Last year, the Flow was advertised before they had a permit or even applied for one.
Normally the city expects an application 90 days in advance. That’s next month.
Applications can be taken 30 days before. That’s what this crowd will no doubt do to avoid political heat since city council’s last meeting before the election is July 19.
Jestin says his headaches come if the Flow expands much beyond where it is, a goal of the organizers.
He says he likes events but “we can’t always do it at the expense of traffic.”
Does he expect political warfare again?
“That’s the part where I’m not sure,” says Jestin.
Enter Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart, who holds the gavel of the council committee overseeing roads. It wouldn’t be overstating things to say she is not a Flow fan, nor a real buddy of our Druh.
“Just because a road cuts through your ward doesn’t mean you own it,” says Big Red.
“The event wasn’t a success. Why do we have to go through this again? It’s ridiculous.”
Big Red thinks this IS an April Fool’s joke, a little late.
“What can I possibly say that’s positive? One thing about city hall, things never die. They always come back again.”
The straight-talking Ald. Andre Chabot is also on the committee.
“If given the opportunity to vote for or against I would vote against, in support of my constituents. They had a chance to see the results and saw it was a flop. Once it’s a flop, dump it.”
Andre, when will you learn? The city doesn’t like to dump its garbage. It recycles.