When sign design goes awry

I'm sure I can't be the first person to have noticed the Pimpark sign near the corner of Broad and 11th, though I'm not sure if Pimpark noticed it when they were designing this sign (or the logos on their website, for that matter).

Pimpark.

Perhaps it's a reference to the ever-popular 'Pimp my Ark' chapter of Genesis wherein Noah totally puts a 52-inch plasma TV in the back of that shit ... for the unicorns, you understand.

Or maybe it simply proves that no matter how cute a company's pseudo-manga-inspired mascot is, no one is above a freudian slip.

Nonetheless, legend has it that if you stand near this building and listen closely on Monday mornings, you can hear a voice in the wind asking "Where my money at?"

Oh Happy Day

This is what's going on on my little bit of Albert street:

Not only a new Japanese/Korean restaurant but a Karaoke place! If it gets even a portion the lost crowd from the Plains Hotel it should be good and weird. Juba Grocery seems to be hanging in (and have very good hours, so shop there and keep it going!). The Chamber of Commerce seems to be putting more windows in. Maybe it will help them see more clearly.

Will keep you posted. Karaoke!

Downtown Plan Update

I'm writing this while listening to a CD called Worser by the indie Canadian supergroup Duplex. It's just been released on Mint Records as a folow-up to 2006's Ablum, and I'm reviewing it for the Sept. 24 issue. I like it, even though it's aimed at "small people" a.k.a children. But because Vedda Hille, Geoff Berner and other indie stalwarts are behind it its uber-cool. There's a hard-rocking song about the noble gases (Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon and Radon), and another bouncy-tune called Orange Popsicle. So overall, pretty hip stuff.

Not hipster hip. Legitally hip.

Earlier today, I attended a 10:30 a.m. news conference at city hall where civic officials finally unveiled the long awaited Downtown Neighbourhood Plan. I'd picked up a hard-copy of the 260 page document (on-line version here) on Thursday. Skimming it last night, a sentence leapt out at me on page four of the Introduction. "Great places are not created by accident."

That got me thinking. Regina has just gone through a complex two year process involving input from numerous experts in multiple fields of urban planning and development. Some were paid by the city, hundreds of others volunteered their time. All focused on the problem of how to revitalize the downtown which for a good 40 years has basically been hung out to dry by city powerbrokers enthralled with relentless suburban expansion.

We've seen the results on a far grander scale in cities like Detroit and Buffalo. Most right-thinking Reginans don't want that here. For maybe 10 years, the city has been taking tentative baby steps to revive the downtown. Now, it's decided to fully commit itself. Paul Dechene will have more on the plan's details in our Sept. 24 issue but it's pretty comprehensive, with sections governing the creation of public space in the downtown, the type of architecture and design that will be allowed, the integration with surrounding neighbourhoods, the regulation of parking, and all sorts of other things.

"Great places are not created by accident." When I read that I thought, these days, that's definitely true. But what about with much older, and truly great cities like London, Paris, Rome and Athens. Did city fathers there go through exhaustive planning processes like the one we just did, or did things happen more organically (and intuitively) back then?

People didn't have cars, remember. They mostly walked. That limited both the distance they could travel, and the amount of stuff they could carry. Without steel-frame technology, light construction materials and elevators, buildings could only be so high. The neighbourhoods that developed, therefore, were all human-scale. People could interact, and together, forge a great base upon which to build an even greater city.

Built in a much more technologically advanced age, cities like Regina have too often failed in their growth and development to be people friendly. The Downtown Plan that Office for Urbanism devised tries to correct that by shifting development priorities in the downtown so that people are able to interact more comfortably there. It's nothing radical. It's already happening a bit Monday to Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. But at night and on weekends, things are pretty bleak. Some positive things have been happening in the last few years, admittedly. But there's still a long way to go.

With this plan, Regina has a chance to get there. It worked in Portland (Wikipedia). It can work here (on a smaller scale). But the committment has to be there. The downtown is Regina's heart. It's a showcase for the city. When people visit and stay at a downtown hotel, it might be the only area of the city that they get a really good look at. Right now, downtown Regina does not exude a "happening" vibe. It's got tons of potential. But it needs some help. And that's what this plan is about. Hopefully the political, economic and civic will will be there to see it through.

The Mysterious New Downtown Plan

No, my mood has not fucking improved since my Six in the Goddamn Morning of earlier today.

Not helping matters is I've discovered an interesting tidbit about the Downtown Neighbourhood Plan deliberations slated for a week from today (which I mentioned in Point 3 of said Six in the Goddamn Morning).

The city sent a notice out yesterday informing some folk that the plan would be discussed at a special meeting of the Regina Planning Commission.

Here's a quote from that notice:

"Please be advised that the Regina Planning Commission will be considering the above report at a special meeting sheduled for Friday, September 18, 2009 at 11:45 a.m., in Henry Baker Hall, Main Floor, City Hall. You are welcome to attend this meeting. The agenda will be made public at 11 a.m. on Thursday, September 17 and you will be able to access the report and Regina Downtown Neighbourhood Plan on the 17 by visiting www.Regina.ca>City Council and Committees > View meeting calendar, agendas & decisions > Sept 18 Regina Planning Commission. The website will also reflect the changes that have been made to the Regina Downtown Neighbourhood Plan since it was released in May 2009."

You read that right. The plan will be released a mere day before the meeting at which it will be discussed.

Now I was always under the impression that, as reliably as daybreak following night, taxes coming due in April, hangovers following a Friday "editorial meeting", reports to be considered at RPC one week were released on the Friday before the meeting. I thought that was the whole reason behind this four month delay: people needed more than a week to read the plan.

This time around, we're getting 24 hours to go over what's been changed. (The changes, by all accounts, inspired by concerns coming mainly from the development community.)

Granted, the bulk of the plan has been available for months so it's time to get things moving along. But still.... a day to go over the final draft and sort through any changes? Why the break with tradition? Why isn't the modified version online right now so that those of us with a few other commitments in our lives can have a chance to go over the new version before the meeting?

(And, by the way, if you have any questions about the final draft once it's released, you can apparently contact the city's senior planner with them. That'd give you about seven hours of work time to read the thing, grok the changes then get him on the horn.)

You can still download the original version of the plan on the city's website. By all accounts, most of this will still be valid a week from now. (I'd like to say that for certain, but obviously, I can't.)

And keep in mind, where it says in that memo I quoted from, "You are welcome to attend", that doesn't just refer to people who get a notice. Anyone can speak before RPC. That includes you. All you have to do is show up before the meeting and put your name on the list of speakers.

More on this when, and if, we get anything.

RPL Open House

I'll confirm the details tomorrow, but an open house is scheduled at Central Library on Aug. 19 between 1-5 p.m. I think to solicit more input on the proposed downtown expansion. If you're interested in the issue, it would probably be worth attending.

Steel and Glass

On the surface, I can't share the unhappiness Carle Steel feels towards the probable demolition of The Plains Hotel, (prairie dog) in advance of another building that will make Regina's downtown even more resemble the set of a cheap and bad science fiction movie. (Chamberlin) The Plains doesn't have as much historical value as a building, and as a business, the major loss will be the loss of another stage for local bands.

First of all, so much of Regina's downtown has changed over the years that there's, unfortunately, little left to preserve. (Skyscraper.com's forum on Regina Through The Years.) For example, the old gingerbread house City Hall was, depending on who you talk to, either too small for the city's growing bureaucracy or was incompetently designed – with, amongst other things, a poorly designed foundation – from the get-go. But what replaced it – the Midtown Centre/Galleria/Alvin Hamilton Building was fugugly, and most of the time empty. Much of the Scarth-Cornwall area between 11^th Avenue and Saskatchewan Drive was in decline in the 1970s and 1980s, but the Cornwall Centre has been, at best, a giant step sideways, doing little to stop the retail flight to the suburbs, first to the malls and then to the big box stores.

The historical aspect of the Scarth Street Mall was ruined by the building of the Twin Towers on the site of the old McCallum Hill building and across the street. Losing the Capitol Theatres was a stake through the heart of downtown Regina's entertainment community (the life insurance company Premier Devine bribed to move into the city couldn't find office space somewhere else?). And while it was better to knock down the closed Met and Broadway Theatres along Broad Street than leaving them vacant (wish there were plans for more than parking lots …), the Broad Street Crossing and Wingate Inn have to rank as the most disappointing, if not the ugliest, pieces of architecture in Regina. And considering all the ugly architecture I've outlined, there's a lot of competition for that …. ummm, 'honour.'

That's the real reason why I'm fearing what's going to be built on the site of the Plains is going to be a disappointment. And you don't need to be Howard Roark (Wikipedia) to realize that. It's also the reason why I think the projected new city central library will either never get off the ground or in the end will be an ugly compromise that will satisfy no one, and the proposed new domed stadium for the Riders will be such an eyesore that within 15 years it will be blamed for the team's decline and the object of an expensive renovation project to bring it up to the standard that they promised to build to in the first place.

This project will almost certainly be downscaled, with whatever aesthetic touches outlined in the proposal thrown overboard in the name of cost cutting, and thousands of Reginans will go to work cursing another ugly steel and glass monstrosity that was erected because City Hall saw dollar signs instead of a community plan.

Oh yeah. His Worship will be calling for another construction boom ... (CJME)

I Couldn't Make This Stuff Up If I Tried

Yes, that is the navy, washed up on the doorstep of the Regina Chamber of Commerce.

My theory: The navy (hired by the business lobby) is looking for a place to set up near the Plains Hotel to defend the condo developers as they tear it down for absolutely no fucking reason.

GAH!

That's it, I'm Moving.

Can't. Write. Too. Angry.

Word's in that the Plains is to be demolished for condo/hotel complex. (LP)

Come on. The Plains? Like there aren't acres and acres of surface parking that they could have chosen from? Really?

Really?

Photo filched from Guy D/Regina in Pictures

RPL Update

Things have been kind of quiet with respect to the central library expansion since the initiative was first announced this spring. Until July 31, the RPL has this on-line survey operating to gather further input.

Victoria Park Redesign

Mayor Pat Fiacco and posse announce City Square project

Big changes are in store for Victoria Park as the city takes the first step in its long-awaited and much-anticipated initiative to revitalize the downtown by transforming the park into a City Square that will serve as a focal point for community activity in the downtown. Together, the feds, province and city are ponying up over $7 million to realize the vision first articulated by Office for Urbanism during public consultations to develop a Downtown Neighbourhood Plan (DNP).

Progress on the DNP has lagged somewhat in recent months. In August, the plan is expected to go before the Planning Commission and City Council. But with a municipal election set for October, critics are worried that further delays are inevitable. Still, the tri-partite commitment to the City Square project is definitely a step in the right direction. Under the plan, 11th and 12th Ave are to be converted to two-way streets, with the latter capable of being closed to traffic between Lorne and Scarth to accomodate festivals and other special events. Steps are also being taken to curtail summer turf wars in the park.

As well, the Scarth Street mall might be opened up to traffic. Sacrilege? Not really. Unlike now, downtown Regina is to become uber-pedestrian friendly, so vehicle speeds will be limited to the 30 k.p.h. range, sidewalks will be widened and plenty of safe and convenient pedestrian crossings will be established.

Further details (albeit of poor graphic quality) are available here (City of Regina). Look for more in our July 2 issue.



















The public discusses proposed changes. Some are excited, others complain about downtown parking.



















Model of the new-look Victoria Park.



















Grimace!