Nelson Commons: So What's With This Name?

Considering that City-staff/Council are now looking at possible approval  of the Kootenay Co-op's development of what used to be the Extra lot now about to turn into the somewhat updated Co-op lot - the following should be of interest. 

The big picture...
The Co-op - over a year ago - calls a meeting of its member-owners to have them vote on whether or not to allow shifting reserve-funds into a construction-fund.
The poster-boy here to lend the evening gravitas and legitimacy is Dave Wahn - the City's Manager of Development Services & Sustainability, APPROVING Officer.

At this time many Extra customers - infirm and/or with low income - are worried about very soon having to buy reasonably priced groceries at the box-store on Lakeside - a too far and very difficult trek for those without a car.
A member raises this concern in a Q&A with Dave Wahn. Who tells the woman  that there should be no problem because the City could build a bridge from City Hall to the box-store. Simple!
Actually there is a problem - a big one: the City has no intention to build a bridge at this time. And Mr. Wahn - in his capacity at City Hall - knows this. The woman is satisfied: the crowd noticeably relaxes - no feelings of guilt necessary. Close one!
And most here hearing only what they are open to hear and believing what they want to believe - the obvious question how could a bridge possibly be built anyway within the next month or so before Extra closes is not raised. Believers all! In thrall of the can-do-no-wrong-sacred-cow: my Co-op! Thinking for me!

In these very early days no plan exists for the property's development - fixing-up the store-as-is a consideration.
Mr. Wahn says a row of smaller stores could occupy the Vernon side of the store. Simple again! They eat it up!
What is not mentioned: the structural nature of the wall-as-is would not allow for window-and-door holes simply punched into it. Without a prior very far-reaching redo of the whole wall: it would certainly collapse thus the roof thus the building. Which raises the question does he know what he's talking about.
Regardless - he clearly does the sales-job the Co-op brought him here to do. He's the City-expert: promptly instrumental in member-owners then overwhelmingly voting for shifting the funds.

This raises the point - not necessarily legal but certainly ethical (not only for him but also the Co-op): does the City-thus-taxpayer employ him to flog private enterprise, particularly an enterprise in which he later most certainly will play an officially deciding role?

getting smaller...
Over time the project has gone through changes - the most determining that the Co-op is working without an outside-developer. After earlier saying that it did not want to become a rent-collecting landlord. This begs the question why - the answer possibly to be found in the come-and-gone Kutenai- and Nelson-Landing developments.
So - with the Co-op's prosaic focus on now having to get an apartment-building off the ground and selling units - the initial idea of turning the whole lot into a Commons - the center of the region, as the general manager called it - fades real fast like.

and smaller...
And what is before City-staff and Council for approval today is a 4-floors-closer-to-5 assembly-line apartment-block with a supermarket on the ground-floor and insufficient parking. Far removed from what the City's Waterfront & Downtown Master Plan thus Council envision for this particular area and the Co-op envisioned/promised originally. Condos only - no more of that green and social-housing talk.

I have been cautioning - as a single voice in blog-posts - against too-vague/too-big/too-soon since the beginning - while in principal I am for a bustling all-purpose/events central town-square - a Nelson Commons. And I will continue to caution Council and concerned City-services - particularly Mr. Wahn's! - to be circumspect in their part of the approval-process. Their decision will determine whether the center of the city will grow organically - so to speak - or be in lock-down for many years to come.

Not once are Commons-aspects - playground/meeting-place/green space for all - mentioned in Bob Hall's extensive Finding Commons Ground, Aug. 30. There is no plan for a green space.







and tiny...
On Aug. 25 - Russell Precious - the project's manager - invites me in an e-mail to a conversation in public. He as the rose - I as the thorn. My image. I immediately agree to this - but with a proviso of Co-op members, general public and news-media invited as well; the event well-publicized by mutual agreement - and not an opportune sales-pitch for the Co-op.
What we can talk about is that he is sacrificing the integrity of the original vision - the meaning of Nelson Commons - for the sake of enough-already convenience, and that I am holding him to maintaining that integrity. And will continue to do so.
We can also talk about Plan B.

As of this date - I have not received a response.







Images: H. Armstrong Roberts, Andy Warhol