Nelson citizens present new ideas for Railtown
Bill Metcalfe, Nelson Star
Feb. 27, 2016
It maybe fun to ooh-and-aah over the pretty computer-renderings - but underneath their slickness a surprising lack of functionality for/as a farmers' market needs to be questioned.
In addition - for any town-folk on the outside looking at (not in!) - it is impossible to get a sense of a cohesive whole, the before/after photo/drawing not enlightening either.
Seeing that a new market has (had?) been fast-tracked since Nov. 2015 as an almost immediate reality: while now critical if still to meet its earlier projected completion come spring - in this public-input presentation it was parked on the slow track, with all other possibles.
Or was it?
Or what!
The Premise
The area this 4-times-a-month/half-of-the-year market expects to occupy - with its close proximity to the Shuzenji Garden and Cottonwood Creek/Falls, at the sheltered very edge of Railtown - is the most desirable.
Attempting to replicate the Cottonwood Market there in a sanitized, jazzed-up version is unrealistic: its popularity was largely rooted in its funky-folky traditional ambience. And the intimacy possible there between customers/vendors, vendors/vendors and customers/customers.
With all that missing in these renderings: this only thus far presented model could at best be an impersonal/generic farmers' market. Impossibly ever as popular as the Cottonwood Market of old (literally!) - with locals and tourists alike.
Where are the heritage-folk in this?
Personally, I resist calling what is to come the Cottonwood Market: to me and many others going/being/shopping there was almost a ritual; there was a feeling of belonging - all in all a most basic thus deeply satisfying pleasure. Soul food!
The Renderings
The roofish covers of individual units - with no structurally seamless continuity - would provide little shelter from the elements.
Their zig-zag/folded/sloping design - shades of Frank Gehry - would have rain rush to their lowest points and from their gush straight down: splashing/spreading onto vendors, their display/storage-spaces and customers. Pooling in (mud-)puddles.
In addition, with more diffused rain slanting in from front or back - invited-in with upward-reaching outside wings, more down through the open center and spaces between units: a wet day would be a very wet day for vendors. And customers while circulating - umbrellas everywhere!
The center-stretch of square concrete blocks forever with greens growing in their hollow core - unsafely awkward to walk on at the best of times - would be even more dangerous accidentally stepped down-into when soggy-squishy. Oops, there goes another ankle!
Back to the covered units: Relatively more protected spots towards the middle of a unit soon to be argued over by vendors - creating bad vibes! - because significant space at both ends would be dodgy during/after rain.
How to minimize hassle with rain and each other? Best never to agree to an end-spot - just in case - unless the sky is blue on blue.
Meaning: at times a significant portion of space is not rented out - deadzone. This - in turn - possibly leading to a shortage of work-spaces. And grumbling!
Unless the whole is redesigned to make it practical, safe - need-based, more user-friendly.
Ironically - reasons for why the Cottonwood Market absolutely had to come down included: the roof was leaking and the place was unsafe.
So now what?
No matter how adjustable overall Railtown planning will be - the question arises: why weren't basic specifics presented above factored out/in for a doable market - BIG question-mark! - considering that local - they should have known better! - Cover Architecture have had the Council-approved scope of work go-ahead and funding of $12.600 for it since Nov. 2015.
Last week's stakeholder-charrette produced - sort-of impromptu - a surprising number of interesting possibilities for Railtown development. We can feel good about that!
While not so much about the market-proposal. Putting it among the just-ideas is inappropriate: its designers all along have been working on a different, reality-now trajectory of time, funding, professional expertise. Here pretending to be one of the gang is ludicrous - they never have been. No matter how they position themselves/are positioned: hands-on results shown to the public for the first time - 4 months after inception of the project - have been very limited, in terms of presentation and its feasibility.
This market-design is not a matter of having the public input a tweak here a tweak there to let them feel part of the process: this is a fundamentally inadequate design!
Another point to be addressed now is the - recorded in the same Request For Decision for which the above approval was given - unidentified(!?!) community business-partner who wanted to participate in the market and contribute an unspecified(!?!) amount of money to it.
Who is he, how much - but particularly WHY? Seeing that much of the proposed market seemingly is to be constructed with wood, and Kevin Cormack, City Manager, said at that time that Mr. X deals in wood. Major dots!
Constructing a hasty new part-time market - a cavalier use of location, funding, resources and goodwill - would need infra-structure of many tentacles, with probable impact on later development elsewhere.
Cultural Center
What Nelson does need is a cultural center. And in that space.
Also on the subject
Fernie: The Arts Station and How It's Done!
8 Feb, 2016
Our center including a farmers' market: starting earlier, finishing later and occasion-based run during off-season. Safe!
And while that center takes time to come to fruition - along with much else in Railtown development - a Saturday-market can comfortably spend its customary part-time on Baker St.
All in good time!
Market Photos:
Bill Metcalfe
Other Images:
cz.depositphotos.com
splashdreamstime.com
shutterstock.com
rockndirtyard.com
It's really sad that things are just pushed through and so often it's just a gesture to have any public input, but in actuality, it's a bunch of hotshot consultants who are given carte blanche to do whatever they please. And, look at the benches at the current Hall St, for example; they are not comfortable nor in good places to sit. They lack a "pattern language" (as the famous book title states) that contributes to us feeling as if our critterness is being nurtured.
ReplyDeleteWho wins? The consultants, mostly. Who loses? The taxpayers who still have to wait a year or two to sell a house here, but are on the hook for property taxes and don't really get to shape the future of our city. Heck, it used to be we had hundreds and hundreds of citizens putting input into VISIONING documents, well ahead of when the sketches were made for new neighbourhoods (abra cadabra -- we can all see planners and staff with little fairy wings and wands). They're dreaming big on our dime and pretending that our opinions count. It's a total shame that things have devolved in our city to this extent.
These "Railtown" plans all contribute to sprawl and disjointed, disconnected development. While I can sympathize with council and mayor who have to balance books all the time, I cannot condone the behavior of pretending to listen to their constituency.
There is a new jet set in Nelson who want everything to look shiny and new, at all costs. It is a gentrification two-step and they want everyone to dance to this new beat. Well... I think it's likely to backfire in more ways than one. I think one has to have their head totally in the sand to be ignoring the recent failures of our city to really deliver anything that is almost all sizzle and almost no steak. Give us a break, dear Lord!
Railtown is already a debacle as far as process goes; I shudder to think what will transpire with all this hoopla in the next while. I hope and pray the bottom will fall out of the real estate economy like it did in '07/'08 and none of these cheap condos will ever see the light of day.
There is nothing sustainable about real estate economies. They are destined for big fish swallowing smaller fish.
It's time for humans to be counted and thought of first and foremost. Sometimes, I wonder if they could design shopping robots, Chambers of Commerce would just love them to drive up with a huge credit card, and buy tons and just leave our town at night, cause no headaches for anyone, who wont talk back or give any criticism of the efforts of the business class. We humans are expected to be grateful for temporary garbage jobs, to turn a blind eye when migrant workers come and work for cheaper and have no benefits or proper safety on the job, and bow down to the Gods of Commerce.
I look into my crystal ball and see the day of reckoning a-comin' for the lunatics of quick fix, voodoo economics. Good luck to 'em all... I think they might need it.
If the crap really hits the fan one day, I'd rather have rednecks for neighbors than 9/10ths of these clueless, specialized yuppies.