Anbody go to this tonight?:
By Joe Couture, Leader-Post October 21, 2010
A expert on local history will facilitate a look at downtown Regina's future.
As part of the University of Regina's Coffee House Controversies series, William Brennan of the history department will give a talk called "The Regina Downtown Neighbourhood Plan: What it is and Will it work?" at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Chapters bookstore.
Brennan has written extensively about the history of Regina. In his role with advocacy organization Heritage Regina, he made presentations to Office for Urbanism, the consultant that developed the "Walk to Work" downtown plan that Regina's city council approved last year.
The first part of his talk will focus on the evolution of downtown Regina since the Second World War and how the city's core came to no longer be the dominating retailing hub of the city, he said.
Suburban sprawl has caused Regina's land area to grow by more than four times since 1946, Brennan said. The population has tripled over the same time period.
Expanding city limits has meant "complete reliance on automobiles," he said.
He also will talk about the downtown plan itself and whether it will work.
"The (plan) has quite ambitious goals for supporting new residential construction," said Brennan, referring to its prescription for increased population downtown and the benefits that would provide.
"I think what's problematic is the notion that the city should do more to privilege pedestrians and cyclists and people who ride public transit -- Reginans, like other North Americans, love their cars."
There aren't wide streets downtown, because, when the original townsite was laid out in 1883, Canadian Pacific Railway and its real estate business partner, the Canada North-West Land Company, "squeezed as many lots as they could" into the original three-square-mile townsite, which extended from what is now Winnipeg Street on the east to Pasqua Street on the west and College Avenue on the south to 4th Avenue on the north.
It's a question "whether drivers will put up with designated bike lanes and bus lanes" in the tight space, Brennan continued, noting the "devil is in the details."
"Reginans are a funny lot," he said, adding many people say they never shop downtown because they can't find a place to park. "What they really mean sometimes is they can't find a place to park in front of the store they want to patronize."
The same people will drive to a big box store mall and, from the end of the lot, walk the equivalent of three blocks.
"There's a lot of small town left in Regina," Brennan continued, noting the fact downtown parking isn't free during the week -- unlike at suburban shopping centres -- is a factor, too.
"If any of us imagine that one day Regina's downtown will again be the city's premiere retailing hub, they're dreaming," he said.
"The downtown needs to reinvent itself. In some sense, that's what the (plan) encourages the City of Regina and the people of Regina to do."
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