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Challenging cities
SUNDAY,
FEBRUARY 15, 2003 - CHRISTOPHER DEWOLF
MONTREAL, 22.01.04 : SNOWSTORM ON
ST-VIATEUR
MONTREAL, 22.01.04 : MILTON STREET,
6PM
MONTREAL, 23.01.04 : FIRE ON DUROCHER
STREET
MONTREAL, 31.01.04 : BUSKER, RUE
ST-DENIS
MONTREAL, 22.01.04 : BOOKSTORE ON
MILTON STREET
MONTREAL, 22.01.04 : FOOTBALL IN THE
SNOW, DOWNTOWN
MONTREAL, 22.01.04 : REDPATH MUSEUM,
MCGILL
MONTREAL, 01.02.04 : WALKING HOME ON
JEANNE-MANCE
MONTREAL, 22.01.04 : STE-CATHERINE AND
STANLEY
MONTREAL, 29.01.04 : CLEARING THE SNOW
AT MCGILL
MONTREAL, 02.02.04 : RUE DE LA
VISITATION, CENTRE-SUD
Last Thursday and Friday I
was at the
Challenging Cities in Canada conference, a nifty little
shindig put on by the McGill Institute for the Study of
Canada. Through speeches and panel discussions (and naturally,
lots of coffee, cocktails and schmoozing) it examined the
issues facing Canada's cities today. Governor General Adrienne
Clarkson got the ball rolling on Thursday morning with an engaging,
eloquent speech about her travels as head of state to Canada's
various cities. Looking for what would fulfill the Greek ideal
of the Good City, she and her husband, the philosopher John
Ralston Saul, visited a number of cities to observe the
various problems they faced and the ways in which they were coping with
them. In Calgary, they rejoiced at the conversion of an old
inner-city military base into a dense, walkable and mixed-use
neighbourhood. Across the country, in Saint John, they
discovered a downtown kept alive by an artists' colony. Quebec
City managed to transform its derelict St-Roch neighbourhood
into a hub of cultural activity and business through
progressive and inventive government policies. Clarkson and
Saul found that Saskatoon was home to a vibrant community of
writers, Booker-prize winner and expat Montrealer Yann
Martel among them, thanks to its academic life and cheap
housing ("It's the only place in Canada where a poet can
afford to buy a house," one wordsmith quipped). Her speech
emphasized the diversity of challenges facing Canada's cities
and, most importantly, the diversity of solutions to those
problems. Above all, she urged, we must listen to our cities.
Clarkson's talk framed the rest of the discussions
quite well.
Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay gave a surprisingly forceful
speech on the need for higher
levels of governments to treat Montreal as a partner, not a
subject. Later that day, one
panel offered its take on the question of how to sustain
Canada's cities. Jack Layton, federal leader of the NDP and
one of the panellists, attacked the Paul Martin government's
efforts to forge a new deal for cities as a mere exercise in
public relations. The government, which recently promised to
make municipal governments sales tax-exempt, was doing far
too little when it could be shifting the money about to be
spent on corporate tax cuts towards affordable housing, Layton
insisted. It was a solid but predictable speech, pretty much
the same canned message he always dishes up. Considering he
has spent the great part of his life as a Toronto city
councillor and an expert on urban issues
–
he has a PhD in
this stuff, for crying out loud
–
his contribution would have
benefited from more analysis and less pre-campaign rhetoric.
Some of the other panels
were interesting, too. One, "How Does a City Make Its Mark?"
presented a variety of ways for cities to become vital places
that attract worldwide attention. "The City and the
Imagination," which sounds like it was one of the most
interesting panels, was also one of the few I missed.
According to
an article in
the Toronto Star, it focused on cities' self-identity;
basically, how we shape cities and how they shape us. In the
words of Vancouver architect Bing Thom, who was on the panel,
the glue that holds cities together is
common values, common ideas
and, "in recent years, it's also the growing importance of
culture. Our economic well-being is based on our ability to
celebrate culture, and celebrate the true identity of our
cities."
(In the lunch line, I did end
up standing in front of Thom, who was telling someone a story
about a colleague, a new boat, the Burrard Street Bridge and
significant damage, but that didn't shed much light on urban
self-identity.) Thom recently designed the stunning new
Aberdeen Centre, a large Asian mall, in the Vancouver suburb
of Richmond, which is about 40 percent Chinese and half Asian.
It runs right up to the sidewalk and features a multicoloured
glass facade that glows at night like a lantern. It seems like
a remarkable way of creating a focal point for Richmond's
strong Chinese culture, instilling a sense of place in a
suburban landscape.
It was towards the end of
conference on Friday that Clarkson's point about listening to
cities was really hammered home. In a discussion on civic
participation, panellists as wide-ranging Phyllis Lambert
–
éminence grise of the Montreal architecture
world and the reason New York's Seagram building was built in
the first place
–
former federal cabinet minister and
citizens' right activist Warren Allmand, Elyse Allen, the
president of the Toronto Board of Trade, the executive
director of an organization that "greens" cities, the dean of
social sciences at the University of Ottawa and the associate
director of Convercité, a local group that resolves conflicts
in urban development issues. Each of their presentations
stressed how important it is for governments to listen to
citizens (and, by default, cities). Allman in particular was
quite forceful about the need for transparent governments,
public consultations and the ability to hold referendums. All
too often, he said, citizens can only act after a decision has
been made behind closed doors. Ironically, the new Montreal
megacity, which was conceived in a profoundly undemocratic
manner, has proven to be notably progressive in its respect of
citizens' rights and public participation. Surprisingly, Elyse
Allen spoke about an epiphany the Board of Trade experienced
several years ago: if the business community worked together
with the citizens to satisfy pressing urban issues, the Board
realized, Toronto would become a healthier, more economically
robust place.
It turns out there's a huge
diversity of issues facing the cities of Canada and each one
requires a unique solution. In general, though, it's a bit
like the advice of a relationship counsellor: we need more
communication. City governments need to communicate with their
citizens and higher levels of government, the provinces and
Ottawa, need to listen to cities. It isn't enough to toss a
few extra scraps of food off the dinner plate
as one would do for a dog
–
cities need sit at the
table as equals.
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Head over to the archives for
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Frontier
town
SUNDAY,
FEBRUARY 1, 2003 - CHRISTOPHER DEWOLF
MONTREAL, 17.01.04 : BOULEVARD
ST-LAURENT
MONTREAL, 10.01.04 : MORNING ON
ST-ANDRÉ
MONTREAL, 11.01.04 : PRINCE ARTHUR,
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
MONTREAL, 07.01.04 : DÉPANNEUR IN
VERDUN
MONTREAL, 10.01.04 : WALKING THE DOG
ON PRINCE ARTHUR
MONTREAL, 08.01.04 : SNOW EATING
MACHINE, VERDUN
MONTREAL, 07.01.04 : COLONIALE STREET
MONTREAL, 17.01.04 : BACKSTREETS OF
VERDUN
MONTREAL, 10.01.04 : MILTON STREET
FROM A DINER
MONTREAL, 10.01.04 : VIEW FROM
MCGILL'S LEACOCK BUILDING
MONTREAL, 10.01.04 : CHESKIE BAKERY,
BERNARD STREET
MONTREAL, 19.01.04 : FABRIC STORE ON
PARC AVENUE
The problem with
Calgary
is that it has no history. Okay, that’s an overstatement, but
you catch my drift. Founded in the late 19th
century, Calgary was a small agricultural centre on the edge
of the Canadian Prairies until an oil boom in 1947 led
American oil companies to build their Canadian head offices in
Calgary. Today, with a million people, it is Canada’s
fifth-largest city and one of its most economically robust.
Migrants from the rest of Canada are pouring in along with an
ever-increasing number of immigrants from around the world,
Asia in particular. Above all, the impression that Calgary
gives off is one of youth: virtually all of the city has been
built within living memory. To be sure, there are still a few
reminders of its past. A handful of sandstone buildings
survive from its earliest boom days and the wood-frame houses
of its inner neighbourhoods evoke a certain small town
atmosphere. But make no mistake about it: this city is tied to
its past about as firmly as prairie topsoil clings to the
ground.
The Stampede, what many Canadians associate with Calgary,
provides us with a nice example. Held each July, the Calgary
Stampede and Exhibition is a week-long celebration of cowboy
boots, pancakes and line dancing. Corporate executives and
soccer moms put down their cell phone and pick up a Stetson.
At the exhibition grounds, you’ll find rodeo and chuckwagon
competitions, animal shows and a predictable array of tacky
midway rides, rock concerts and product demonstrations where
fast-talking sales reps pawn off miracle knifes that can cut
through five inches of concrete as if it was butter. Every so
often, actors perform mock shootouts in a cartoonish Western
village behind the big Coca-Cola stage. Down at the far end of
the site, across the Elbow River, there’s even a rather
unnerving
Indian
Village where members of local First Nations tribes live
“traditionally” in tipis for a week, performing dances for the
tourists every hour, on the hour.
It seems fitting, then, that the Stampede is as much a
celebration of a Western fantasy as it is a tribute to a real
Western past. In 1912, Guy Weadick, a vaudevillian
specializing in rope tricks, arrived in Calgary from his tours
across Europe and North America. He saw in the booming little
town the opportunity to create a frontier show and cowboy
competition that celebrated the “old west” and the skills of
local cowboys and ranchers. With the financial help of
Calgary’s “Big Four” businessmen, the Stampede made its debut
during the first week of September, 1912. Over the years, it
borrowed more and more heavily from the Wild West of the
popular imagination. There’s just one incongruity: Canada
never had a wild west. This is, don’t forget, the land of the
scarlet-coated Mounted Police; old Sir John A. was careful to
keep Canada’s great interior in check, lest any lawlessness
give the Americans an excuse to invade and steal it away.
Calgary was founded as a police fort and, later, it was built
almost from scratch by the executives of the Canadian Pacific
Railway. Today, it’s probably the most white collar city in
North America, dominated by the head offices of big oil
companies and countless other corporations.
Still, even if the Stampede’s rowdy frontier premise sexes up
Calgary’s real past, it’s easy enough to see where Weadick got
his inspiration. Just because there wasn’t widespread
lawlessness in Alberta’s history doesn’t mean that this isn’t
still pioneer country. Calgary is easily the most
individualistic place in Canada. With so little past to inform
the present, the individual rules – which probably explains
why so many people consider Calgary to be the most “American”
city in Canada, not to mention the entrepreneurial,
go-it-alone atmosphere that pervades most aspects of life in
the city. Some people find this incredibly liberating;
Calgary’s astounding growth as one of the continent’s business
poles over the past several years attests to that. It may even
be a boon the arts scene: the High-Performance Rodeo, for
instance, a yearly celebration of experimental theatre – the
Globe and Mail calls it “a
hearty chuckwagon breakfast of theatre, dance,
poetry, puppetry, music, radio drama, video art, spoken word
and other cultural repasts” – has become increasingly popular and ground-breaking.
But, on the other hand, there are probably just as many people
who find Calgary’s sense of frontier spirit rather alienating.
It has a tendency to feel placeless, something emphasized in
its largely soulless downtown core and the monotonous suburbia
that engulfs virtually all of the city.
I come from the latter camp, which is why I left Calgary after
having grown up there. But even then, there is enough of
interest in the city to make for a photoessay – which,
incidentally, is February’s feature.
Calgary (whose
title, I should add, is breathtakingly original) is a
collection of photos I took over a week and a half when I
returned to the city in late December and early January. It
isn’t exactly comprehensive, since I chose to focus on two
themes: the small-townish inner city neighbourhoods and
Calgary’s vibrant, burgeoning Chinese community. Between this
feature and last month's
Winnipeg photoessay, I'm sure you will have all had enough
of Western Canada by the time this month is over. But don't
despair! Look forward to a gorgeous collection of Havana
photos by Colin Kent and an equally impressive photoessay on
Chicago in the coming months.
Discuss this post on our discussion forum
Head over to the archives for
last month's posts
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