In the Committe of the Whole (COW), 16 Nov, 2015: Council - rather Kevin Cormack, CAO - decides - has decided already! - that the Cottonwood Market (CM) structures will be torn down next week. While Council raises several strong points: ultimately it stops short, it caves - ignoring a larger picture of Railtown-as-a-whole.
Due Process What!?!
Last time around we have the contrived Request For Decision for a panhandling bylaw - this time the CM is neither on the Agenda nor introduced as a Late Item at the beginning of the COW. Only towards the end brought-up sort-of and just-like-that: then - predictably - with a minimum of public scrutiny and no fuss from a pesky citizenry not there there to begin with or not any longer!
Because info of this item to be presented has been deliberately withheld!?!
Clearly - a lesson was learned from the public's inconvenient reaction to the previous announcement of impending CM demolition.
Seeing that this plan for a plan has been in the works for some time among Cormack, David Reid, EcoSociety, and Cover Architectural: there can be no justifiable explanation for the CM not on the Agenda.
What with this not getting into the Star (and Nelson Daily) until the 19th in
Cottonwood Market stalls to be torn down next week
Bill Metcalfe
by the time you read about it here the CM as you know it probably is the CM as you knew it - and undesirables will be elsewhere. Done! You blinked - you missed it!
Dangerous What!?!
Unfortunately Councillor Purcell doesn't pursue a definitive clarification with her poignant question exactly how are they dangerous - referring to the market-structures - and is satisfied with: Staff said so.
Why! Because!
Definitive as in: if they are dangerous now - when did they become dangerous so suddenly? Why wasn't this determined sooner when - following this scenario - some serious damage could have been done on any crowded Saturday - or any day for that matter - in the past! Raising the liability-issue now seems simplistically good enough for us. Even Reid says foundations and walls are in good shape.
Railtown What!?!
A new CM should be envisioned as naturally within the heart of the Railtown development: a multi-purpose meeting-place.
Traditionally a market always part of a center.
Telling us that a (separate, totally independent!) design for it can be completed that does not impact the large Railtown planning work ignores that, is presumptuous, grabby and potentially limits the scope of overall planning. It is not collaborative! What with Cover Architectural - the CM plan-planners - vaguely all over the place in a big way - literally - on crucial Railtown real-estate: the designer of the whole - already hired, working, he was here first! - may now have to wait until Cormack/Reid egos have decided on a design for their stand-alone me-me-me! with-all-its-bells-and-whistles CM.
So - hello, Council! - we are now looking at two probably competing plans - within no vision at all for the whole!?!
While - superficially - it's commendable that a local business intends to significantly contribute to building the new structures - not naming it makes the intention questionable, as must its motivation be questioned.
The EcoSociety will be happy with all this, but Reid's narrowly defined, self-promoting vision hardly comes from benefit to the greater whole - making fundraising-efforts for it unsupportable.
So What!?!
Our tax-dollar is to pay for THEIR plan - not OURS, because while there supposedly will be room for public input in the grand scheme of things - initially planned for this month!?! - there doesn't seem to be any within this sizable CM extravaganza. May this - may that.
More appropriately - such funds could be used towards fixing roof, wiring and what-not of the structures-as-are. This as temporary solution until an overall Railtown plan turns into a tangible reality - with a CM part of it - surely at least 3 years down the road.
I feel manipulated - and I don't like it!
Railtown also has boarded up houses that the city owns. No sleep for the wicked! ... as the old saying goes.
ReplyDeleteThe old market structure, while being iconic and rustic beauty to others (even out of towners who spend money in Nelson), to other more well-heeled individuals, it's an eyesore and doesn't fit with the squeeky clean image of a newly minted North Vancouver replica-town. Tinsle and all... After all, if you're rich, you have to have something to do with all your money, and you want to pee in all corners of your town. Squirt squirt. This is mine! (Cheshire cat grins all around).