Civic Alert: New Arena joins Mayor’s legacy list

This is the proposed new Arena, in whatever form it ultimately takes. “It may not be completed by the end of the mandate, but I am determined that, at least, we have a shovel in the ground and construction is on the way.”

Marks hopes there will be a crossover of the two projects, so that the new facility is also built to the highest and greenest of standards.

“That will be a very expensive undertaking,” she warned, “because arenas are huge energy consumers.”

Doubtless, there will be those who will argue that we can only consider a new building if it is at the highest environmental standard.

Marks promises full opportunity for public input once there is a project to be considered.

The mayor feels that unless a project is actually put forward for consideration, a public debate would be too unstructured.

She maintains that the Library reconstruction only began with architectural concepts. No doubt she was referring to the expensive version with reflecting pools. A more modest revision was accepted after an outcry!

I hope the new presentations will come in the form of additional components to the basic arena, so that citizens can consider the implications, including land use, height and cost.

Tackling the To-Do List

With a summer break behind her, Marks was in great form on Monday, hosting a lunch for the visiting Communities in Bloom judges.

Now, council turns to the long To Do List that awaits them this fall, although some members and a few senior staff are still on vacation. There is a short council meeting at noon today (Thursday) and a full meeting on Monday evening, Aug. 27, with the Agglom resuming on the following Thursday.

The Recreation and Culture Standing Committee also meets today after the council meeting.

My list last week of recent legacy work in the community has not been challenged, although it has provoked a number of interesting additions — including what might be regarded as near-legacy achievements.

Yet the most interesting new suggestion does not qualify!

It comes from Laurel Bossen, a York Avenue resident for many years. She thinks that the decision against allowing the old train station to be used as a proposed Police-Fire megastation is a great legacy.

“Then Mayor Peter Trent deserves a lot of credit for listening to the citizens and responding when they said it was a bad idea. He was not hung up on an Edifice Complex.”

Megastation remembered

With the forced mergers that followed, both services have been usurped by Big Montreal, and Westmount would not be the owner of the station, she points out.

Prof. Bossen wants to see the station used productively — another potential item for the Council’s To-Do List.

Her suggestion is to convert it to a half-museum/half-library. “Make it a site for the storage and use of Westmount archives — perhaps only with reduced hours — as a branch of the Library.

“It would also be a small museum where we could celebrate our history.

“Some great people have lived in Westmount — from Leonard Cohen to Gabrielle Roy to Brian Mulroney. Let it feature our artists, scholars, scientists, athletes, journalists, musicians, authors — and, even, politicians.

That would be a nice legacy!”

Bossen e-mailed her thoughts on Westmount in response to last week’s article. It was full of suggestions meant to enhance life for citizens.

Misused bike path

It was such a comprehensive list that I asked permission to publish all of it, but she declined.

However, she said I could use some extracts, so here is another I particularly liked: her analysis of reasons why people walk — dangerously — on the bike path through Westmount Park even though there is a pedestrian path.

The bike path has an asphalt surface, she observes. It is much softer and more pleasant, so it continues to be used. When the pedestrian path next needs replacement, she suggests that asphalt or a well-drained cinder path replaces the concrete.

Among councillors, Nicole Forbes suggested the open-day tours of local artists’ studios, an enormously successful innovation last October, could be considered a new legacy.

The event will next be held in 2008; on Tuesday, Forbes met with SEAC, her events committee, to begin preparations.

While this event does not yet qualify as a legacy, it may become one over the years and, meantime, can be regarded as a great achievement.

There are many more for which citizens can be proud.

Councillors’ suggestions

Kathleen Duncan put forward the restoration of the Cenotaph and was supported by Tom Thompson.

“The Cenotaph is an element of official Westmount, its culture and tradition,” he said.

The large body of activities in the city led Thompson to nominate them, as achievements, if not as legacies. He cited the many Library programmes.

The annual McEntyre Essay contest, with its enormous participation of schoolchildren, might even qualify as a legacy.

The wide participation in Communities in Bloom was in itself a demonstration of the city’s values, he thought.

Among examples of events which spotlight the community spirit are the Secret Garden Tour, the Halloween judging, Christmas Carols and Hanukah Lighting, and the Canada Day and St-Jean-Baptiste Day traditions and, of course, Family Day in the Park.

Also notable are the various block parties, organized by residents and supported by the City.

Swim success

Thompson enthused over the success of the swim team and their weekend meet that Westmount had hosted for the first time — and won!

All such activities gave an added value to the quality of Westmount life, he said.

Thompson thinks the campaign waged by the Save the Park group has produced an effect beyond that anticipated by the advocates: an increased general awareness of all 13 park facilities.

He believes there is a human need to re-create oneself periodically — ‘re-create’ being at the root of the recreation concept — and that the city provides essential facilities and opportunities for this human revitalization.

Meantime, Coucillor Patrick Martin maintains that the present council’s volume of work will lead to its chapter in the history of the City.

Not necessarily concrete

“A legacy may not be something constructed in concrete,” he maintains. “For instance, the sea change of culture that we went through leading to the purchase of the hybrid cars marks a key step in our transition to a sustainable community.”

It may not be generally recalled that, in 2004 while an annexed borough, the Healthy City Project asked that council to take a lead and buy a hybrid vehicle as a demonstration of its green orientation.

Council investigated, but for various reasons — financial and practical — the idea.

While the HCP periodically raised the issue, it was only this spring that a new determination on Council’s part found vehicles with a specification that met operational needs, and the four Toyota hybrids were bought for Public Security.

A hybrid replacement was also chosen for the Director-General’s car.

Hybrids create change

They have been patrolling the city streets for several weeks and with positive reports from their users.

“We found that we actually save money on the total cost,” said Martin, “so both the environment and the city finances benefit.”

The councillor also nominated the Marianopolis CEGEP in its new Mother House campus, where opening is imminent, will become viewed as part of its legacy.

“It is a major anglophone facility and, while not a city responsibility, has been re-located to Westmount with maximum cooperation from City Hall. The needs of neighbours, traffic, parking, public transit, the students and faculty, have had maximum consideration by all parties.

“We have also had a fruitful cooperation with the councillors of CDN-NDG Borough, who were also involved. It will be seen as a major event!”

Martin and other councillors had much more to say about Council’s agenda for the rest of their mandate. I will discuss some of them in a future column and would welcome readers’ suggestions, whether for omitted legacies, achievements or items for the To-Do List.

• Community activist Don Wedge can be reached at calert@web.net. His columns are archived at www.westmountexaminer.com, go to Opinion.