Avenue Magazine Edmonton

Posted by Omar Mouallem in on Dec 25 2009 16:55

That road between City Hall and Sir Winston Churchill Square will be no more. Not that it was much since last summer, when orange blockades were placed at the intersections on opposite sides of 102A Avenue (between 99 and 100 Streets) to prevent the unfriendly meeting of cars and festival-goers. A winter later, City Council voted not only to keep those barriers in place, but to just shut down the road permanently.

The decision didn't go down without a half-hearted, if not completely token fight. According to the Edmonton Journal, Councillor Jane Batty contested the decision, claiming its closure would be a safety hazard. "To have the road open and vehicles going by, it's eyes on the street, it's a safety issue," she said.

Mostly, her colleagues trumpeted the closure as an opportunity to make the city more walkable. Yes, it's a stretch of road the length of one building, but if Edmontonians are going to learn how to walk again, they should start small anyway.

But isn't that what sidewalks are for? Last I checked, there are two sidewalks on that road, plus a square where no jaywalking rules apply. So why not develop the concrete lot into something more functional?

In the news last November, the skateboarders, BMXers and Rollerbladers were looking for a downtown skate park. If we build them one, they would also function to keep eyes and ears on the happenings of the square — year-round if we hire staff to shovel snow from the ramps and rails five months of the year, because there's no way the skaters would be bothered to do it.

Perhaps that's too costly.

Maybe we could develop something that would make a buck. Hmmm ... well, it's too small for the new arena and still too cold to house Lucy the elephant. We could always just do what we do best: build another mall. Although China and Dubai have yanked the claim to world's biggest mall from us — the title of world's tiniest mall is still without ownership, I'm sure. Then again, what do you call a mini-mall? Shucks.

Well, what do you think we could do with that road? Post your ideas in the comments area below.