Quote:
Originally Posted by spaustin
It seems like a thoughtful response to a very controversial issue. Mason suggests several possibilities in his post for how we could go forward. If I were to read anything into his words, they seem, to me, favour updating some of the interpretation, not renaming the park and tearing down the statue. Personally, I think that would be the best response. Have you read the plaques there lately? They say nothing about the uglier parts of the time period. Something a bit more comprehensive would go a long way.
The city really should have a historical interpretation program (interpretative panels don't even cost all that much). WDCL seems to get it right on the waterfront, but they are the exception. We have colourful stories, but we don't do a great job of sharing them. I was really impressed last year when I visited Savannah, Georgia. Now that's a city that knows how to tell its story. Hard to walk down any street without coming across a well-researched and colourful panel. It really brought the place to life.
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I agree. Historical/interpretative panels should be all over the city, and not just in historical properties. Historic streets, neighborhoods, everything.
But then again, I'm starting to understand why we don't have such panels around the city. Because such signage would assume there are people walking around.
And if this winter has proven anything, is that pedestrians on the peninsula are second class citizens. You don't have to look further than the clear roads all over the city (accomplished via diligent salting) that are lined with sidewalks that are essentially sheets of ice (accomplished by spreading useless and cheap gravel on sidewalks instead of salt, leaving them dangerous and mostly unwalkable for much of February/March).
I always resisted this sort of thinking. I used to think the RP+5 with its focus on dumb "road network plans" and the various dumb highway and road widening, was just ignorant thinking. I didn't think it actually meant the City, Councillors, and City Staff viewed pedestrians as second class citizens to drivers.
After this fall and winter, my thinking has changed. Pedestrians are second class. I mean, how many pedestrians had to get hit at crosswalks for these idiots to do anything? People literally have to die or almost thereto, for anything to change.
I think a pedestrian has to literally die on some sidewalk for sidewalk ice clearance practice to change.
So, no interpretative panels, because that would require catering to pedestrians. And this city simply doesn't do that sort of thing.
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