Dear editor:
I would like to add my voice to the comments lately about Cochrane’s downtown.
It showed an astounding lack of creativity to put a bland, homogenized big box complex in the prime site of a town that likes to think of itself as a tourist attraction.
Councillors, you had all the opportunity in the world when the Domtar site was fixed, to create something unique and culturally appealing. You retreated to the lowest common denominator and squandered one of Cochrane’s best resources. Now we will look just like Okotoks and Airdrie. You could have put the area aside for an arts centre, parks, a ball diamond, the Farmer’s Market, and many other things. Big box stores are uninteresting to me, but they are practical. You could have put the new one further west near Heritage Hills. Did anybody think of that?
Everybody seems to think that development is inevitable. I was in downtown Toronto last year, where I had gone to school in the ‘70s. There was a plaque on the corner of Spadina and Bloor commemorating a 1971 decision not to put an expressway through the city. The Spadina Expressway had been approved, it was ‘inevitable,’ but local citizens appealed. They lost the first appeal, they lost the second appeal, but they persevered and at the 11th hour, the provincial government stepped in and they won the third appeal.
Looking at that area today, it is charming, attractive and flourishing. Yes, the houses are old and some are dilapidated, but it has retained its uniqueness and character and represents a vital piece of Toronto history. There would have been an eight-lane expressway there if people hadn’t had the guts to push back.
So to not develop is not the end of the world. You can’t blame developers for wanting to make money — everybody wants that — but that should not be the driving vision of a place where people live, where ‘living’ is so much more than shopping.
Finally, fix the infrastructure first! It now can take 10-12 minutes to get down Cochrane hill. I feel Cochrane is becoming less attractive as a place to live all the time. I never tell anyone to consider moving here anymore — unless you really love to sit in your car.
Mary Wallis
