Cochrane’s mayor says people need to be cautious in their support of a new video promoting Historical Downtown.
The promotional video - including a seven-and-a-half minute “documentary” and a two-minute promo video – premiered last Wednesday at the Cochrane RancheHouse. The video proposes several ideas to help “boost” and “promote” tourism for Historical Downtown.
“They need to understand the bigger picture before they throw their support behind this idea because it definitely comes with consequences,” said Ivan Brooker, Cochrane mayor.
Some of the tourism increasing ideas included, permanently or seasonally closing down Main Street in Historical Downtown for pedestrians, horses and wagons; building new facades for “out-of-character” buildings; and build a convention centre and transit station adjacent to Historic Downtown, across the railways tracks with a pedestrian overpass.
“I am pretty excited, it is an awesome movie and people are excited about it,” said Tim Davidson, Historic Downtown business owner and the driving force behind the video.
Brooker said personally he would not support closing the streets in Historic Downtown for pedestrian-only traffic.
“We already have traffic issues in downtown, we already have parking issues in downtown,” Brooker said.
“I was a business owner too, and if people can’t park in front of your store, guess what, they are going elsewhere.”
The “documentary” required a full day of shooting and took place in Historic Downtown using people from the community and surrounding area as actors and extras.
“While there has been some negative feedback, that is what we want to deal with,” Davidson explained.
The full video is available online at cochrane-online.ca. The two-minute promotional video will not be available until a later date.
While the mayor agreed there were some aspects of the video he did like, Brooker said he is cautious about the plan.
“We do want to support the downtown so in some respects I am very supportive of the plan but not all of it,” Brooker said. “It is great to want to support the local businesses, we just have to be careful about how we go about doing that.”
