The City of Nelson will start planning the development of Railtown in January at a meeting with a new by-invitation group of stakeholders that includes business owners, landowners, developers, local government, and community groups.
New stakeholder group will plan Railtown
Bill Metcalfe - Nelson Star, 8 Dec. 2015
Not in January: Kevin Cormack, City Manager, and David Reid, EcoDirector, have been at it for some time; how long exactly we - the great unwashed - don't know. As we probably won't in the coming days either, what with being decisively uninvited into this hush-hush-so-far supergroup of local consequence.
Who pulled this group together?
Who comprise it?
Who is running it?
Names?
Initially we are to be invited to a regular-folks-input in November - last month: results of which then possible to become part of the grand design for Railtown. The reasonable way to go: start at grass-roots level and - organically, one may say - grow upward.
But what with the Cormack/Reid alliance just not willing to wait - not caring to be part of - their going-it-alone scuppers this growth-process: the input-meeting never happens, is never mentioned again, and wherever we are today: it's not Railtown.
Pam Mierau, Approving Officer, Planning & Development - in a first-time thus laudable effort to keep us informed - will enable us to track the progress of the Railtown plan and get public feedback on it through a specifically to be set-up website. Track - but not input-before-the-fact - you can look, but don't touch! - won't affect anything. Commenting impossible to be more than most of the usual natter in the Star.
Two Possible Railtown Scenarios
1. Scenario
A Tom Thomson - David Reid Axis
Railtown: the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce (NDCC) in the CPR Station on the right - a Cottonwood Falls Market (CFM) on the left. Whatever else makes money in between.
NDCC - Tom Thomson
Clearly - the NDCC has seen itself as the centre of that universe since acquisition of the CPR Station. Strings pulled, favors called-in, tax-dollars tapped - it materializes. And there we now have a very costly Disneyland version of heritage. Tasteful color-harmonies; geraniums waiting to happen! Nice - but not swoon-worthy.
Not particularly novel either: a trend today in BC is to redo train-stations, still in actual use or as commercialized paeans to a sanitized heritage. Easy on the mud! For tourist-consumption - more directly: tourist money.
Which is what the NDCC is all about.
They now have more space than they could ever possibly, reasonably need - justifying it all with a Nelson Visitor Centre and the Nelson Star moving in to fill the void.
Less Visible Heritage
Several years ago, my interest in local history/politics becomes decidedly activist as the direct result of a visit to the Visitor Centre in its Hall/Lake quarters.
Discovering the decisive Chinese component in the making of Nelson, I ask for officialised written info on this. The person I speak with neither has anything nor is even aware of this local significance. Nothing of significantly participatory color on their history-website: white-on-white-in-white. While - drum-roll! - the location of the Visitor Centre then is in what used to be - Chinatown!
Aiyoh! - as we groan in Chinese disbelief!
Yet to be mentioned down by the tracks: the majority of workers building the Kootenay & Columbia Railway - therefore the CPR Station - are underpaid/overworked Chinese. Specifically brought in for their expertise and solid work-ethic hint-hint. Chinese then also running market-gardens close-by in the CPR flats, keeping Nelson healthy with bountiful, cheap produce.
Seemingly there are no plans for making the building culturally significant in real-time.
A power-base.
CFM - David Reid
Rumored to have political ambitions - David Reid decides to create a brand-new market on his own - in his own image, so to speak. This on the left, in the very prime-location close to Cottonwood Falls and Japanese Park. With his very own very spacious parking-lot. We must wonder what further use - if any - Reid is planning for market-plus-parking during the rest of the week, month, year. Whatever it may be: his impressive superciliousness and relationship with Cormack should make it happen without a hiccup.
Disregarding what a development-plan for Railtown may develop into next year: Reid's exploratory plan now for his own market-design is funded with tax-dollars - while without us: the tax-payers.
Asked how this Railtown Plan will be coordinated with the development of a plan for the Cottonwood Market stalls which appears to be on a faster track to be completed by spring, Mierau said the timing is perfect and the two plans mesh well.Neither timing nor plans mesh make sense. Separate realities. What's clear though is that we are not to know what the initiates know and do.
One possible explanation - with Reid also a member of the supergroup: the CFM may become primary focus, more so than (secondary?) Railtown proper.
Anyway - there it is:
1. Scenario
Thomson on the right, Reid on the left.
2. Scenario
THE HEART
Is a multi-purpose meeting-place of exceptional design and function in Railtown.
Among others - it facilitates:
Easily convertible meeting-, class-, in/outdoor performance-space
Rental/lease based on specific need/time.
Easily convertible recording-, exhibit-, gallery-space
Rental/lease based on specific need/time
Easily set-up/taken-down Cottonwood Falls Market
Lease permanent part-time
Cafe
Lease permanent part-time/full-time
Nelson lacks spaces such as these: offering/combining them all centrally provides cultural focus, makes THE HEART a continuous draw for locals and tourists: users and visitors. It gives Nelson generally and Railtown specifically just that - a heart!
Major plus: the infra-structure is simplified; parking is fully utilized at all times.
There is a symbiotic affinity with the Visitor Centre.
Of course it may be said: there's no money for this - predictably putting money before vision. Really meaning Nelson still is not ready for prime-time.
Possibly never will be unless.
Additional undertakings - commercial or otherwise - are supplementary, orbital.
There has never been visionary movement towards the exceptional, towards excellence in Nelson - with Nelson Commons an opportunity missed. This is the time! Whatever Railtown becomes will in large part determine Nelson's future. We can't afford to blow this simply for the short-term benefit of special interests.
A superficially heritage info-centre and a part-time market-extravaganza for whose benefit are good enough is not good enough.
Some may think this reality-check too blunt - so why should anyone pay attention to my 2. Scenario wish-list. Well, I have a vision of how good Nelson could be - and apathy of the greater whole - while comfy - won't get us there. But only further under control of a muscular segment - consistently favored by City Hall - and their ho-ho-ho all the way to the bank!
johnrieber.com
mobile.tg.com
wb-festival.com
carugatibenedetta.wix.com
art.ifang.com
spykeheels.com
huffingtonpost.com
irishmirror.com
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