Holy Shit! A Million Dollars?

Thanks to Emmet for this one. The City of Regina is going to spend ONE MILLION DOLLARS to make Regina’s downtown more appealing. Let’s just put that into perspective. Basically, our good buddy Pat Fiacco is going to spend the equivalent of four modest homes on phase one of the revitalization project. That’s four 900 sq. ft. homes. Old, run down 900 sq. ft. homes. The goal?

“The WOW project is about taking 12th Avenue between Lorne and Scarth Street and turning it into an urban square, turning it into a dynamic urban space that is beautiful and also can be programmed on a regular basis to be a great meeting place.”

A fucking meeting place? What? Here’s an idea, stop selling property to Impark to hold and pay next to nothing on in tax. Got a parking problem downtown? Hey! I’m no genius, but if space is at a premium, um, build up. They have these awesome things called Parkades. Have you heard of them? They hold a lot of cars. What you do is take the size of one flat Impark lot and then build up and it’s like having ten or twelve of those lots in the space of one lot. They’re really neat. They have them in other cities I hear. Want another idea? Stop moving everything to the outskirts or town. Open some lots downtown and allow people to build homes. That would be awesome. Make the lots affordable and don’t place any restrictions on what you have to build. I have a few ideas for a house I’d like to build somewhere up Scarth. Could we do that? Here’s the thing with that. In other cities, young people like to live downtown because it’s close to the action. Maybe get some action downtown. Let young people open businesses that could be tax free for five years. Get them going on Hamilton. Have you been down Hamilton lately? It’s the land that time forgot but it doesn’t need to be that way. They got that comic shop down there, you could put a wicked video store there, some pub style restaurants like The Drum and Monkey, something else that might attract young people. Maybe get Dave down there with a store front and attract people into living down there. Not to point out the obvious, but look at O’Hanlon’s. People will go downtown if there’s something to do but give them more during the day. How about a bookshop? Someone open a bookshop down there. Buzzword is gone but it was a great store. No one wants an outdoor meeting space. Sure, it’s pretty and nice outside but parks downtown always turn into a meeting place for junkies and derelicts. I’m not saying there’s no room for junkies and derelicts downtown but, you know, just be prepared for that. Oh, and one more thing. Talk to someone, anyone. Maybe a brand consultant or a focus group or something and ask them if they think The WOW Project is a good name. Ask them if The WOW Project generates excitement to anyone other than four year olds. I mean, I could name my shit Awesome Logs but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still shit and that it’s not awesome. Oh, and while I’m ragging on Regina, dump that “I Love Regina” campaign. It’s kind of been done and… this ain’t New York and whoever designed that logo ain’t Milton Glaser.