Put Jasper Avenue out of its misery
Downtown main street is nothing a good bulldozing can't fix
Scott McKeen
The Edmonton Journal
Friday, May 01, 2009
Jasper Avenue is Whyte Avenue's ugly step-street.
Jasper Avenue is so homely it can't get a date with an intersection. It might be the worst looking main street in Canada.
Our main drag is gap-toothed and grimy, pockmarked and slovenly. It's army-green streetscape motif looks like it was designed by Soviets on 'shrooms.
Those hideous, bulbous, bird-pooped median features gotta go. While we're at it, let's dismantle the sidewalk transit features, with those grimy-green shelters that double as crystal-meth kiosks.
Black-patched sidewalks must be re-poured; curbs and cracks repaired. And can someone put a fresh coat of paint on a few buildings?
Admittedly, that's just window dressing -- lipstick on the proverbial pig. The core problems along Jasper Avenue won't be fixed with flower pots and paint. The core problem along Jasper Avenue is the zombie ambience.
Many nights it's like walking in a post-apocalyptic world where only banks, donair shops and Tim Hortons survived; where roads shuttle people as fast as possible to the safety of the land of the living suburbs.
You can walk entire blocks down Jasper Avenue without encountering anything to delight the eye or imagination. Banks and cash stores don't engage sidewalk strollers. Neither do shuttered buildings, nor canyon walls of concrete and glass.
Then there are the gaps in Jasper Avenue's grimace. We don't even acknowledge the "park" spaces along Jasper Avenue where buildings once existed. Apparently, Jasper Avenue is so ugly other buildings refuse to move in.
And where there are existing buildings, they're set back from the sidewalk as if they don't trust the humans.
Still other buildings eschew shops and restaurants for offices, employment agencies or medical services. Not exactly the stuff of window shopping.
Even worse are the false fronts on the blocks west of 109th Street, where stores and restaurants have fake doors on Jasper. You've got to go around back, to the parking lot side, to get in.
All in all, Jasper Avenue is a debacle. It isn't a main street. It is a mean street. It's time we called this dog a dog -- then shot the damned dog.
In the next two days, groups will meet to begin one of those city-hall visioning exercises for Jasper Avenue. All ideas will be thrown on the table -- including, I hope, bulldozers and dynamite.
Experts and then the public will get to put in their two cents' worth on how to make Jasper Avenue a main street again. I wish them well. I just warn them against thinking cobblestone and lamps will do the trick.
Jasper Avenue isn't like any other revitalization project this city has tackled before. The upgrading of Alberta Avenue at least started with blocks of occupied storefronts -- buildings of the proper scale and design to engage people on the sidewalk.
Jasper Avenue? Forget about it. We've screwed up our downtown so badly it will take a miracle to fix it. When Edmonton Centre, Eaton Centre, Manulife and Commerce Place were built downtown, the streets emptied of retail and restaurants. Downtown went inside and suburban, becoming a collection of malls.
Then old retail buildings and warehouses were knocked down. New buildings went up, but in a style that seemed to forget there was an outside, uh, outside.
If we're going to make headway now, tough architectural standards must be written for new buildings downtown, especially on Jasper Avenue. Ground-floor retail must be included with individual entrances to shops, cafes or restaurants. Maybe sidewalk space for patio tables?
Tax incentives or grants must be offered, as well, to existing building owners to carve out retail spaces on their main floors.
The Royal Bank on 101st Street with the Wok Box. We need more of it.
I realize mall owners want to trap us inside. But we've got to find ways to get them to open their stores to the sidewalk.
Commerce Place did it with a Tim Hortons. More, please.
The city must use traffic calming measures on Jasper Avenue, too. Maybe some bike lanes. More metered parking and trees. Reduce the feeling that you're walking next to a freeway. Pedestrians are people, too.
City council has talked for years -- decades -- about fixing up downtown. I'm tired of the lip service.
Jasper Avenue is our signature street. It speaks to our civic culture, values and priorities.
It is our public face to the world. Extreme makeover required.
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© The Edmonton Journal 2009
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