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Touch the Water Promenade / River Valley "Seawall"

Out of Towner said:
The City Of Edmonton should strongly consider allowing the Feds to designate and develop the river valley into a national park. The federal government has the resources to develop the valley into something well beyond what the city can do alone. Canadian national parks carry considerable prestige around the world and a designation alone would elevate the city's reputation and attract tourists to the city. Capitalize on the city's prime landscape and laid back feel. Lunch on the patio at the Hotel Macdonald and taking in the view of the river valley isn't that much different than sitting on the patio at the Banff Springs Hotel. Do the year round spa in the valley. Do an aquarium within walking distance of the convention center ( lots of inexpensive land in Boyle to get that area going). A national park on the city's downtown doorstep could kick start more of a tourist and residence related down town economy as opposed to an office high rise economy which Edmonton has trouble attracting and which is also on the decline in many North American cities.
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Pretty sure the City is largely on board with the idea, we were moving in that direction. The Province has made it pretty clear that they will fight anything like this in the name of "Alberta Sovereignty". I think the only reason the City and Feds have have backed off is that there are enough fights to be had and this one just isn't worth it atm. Hopefully, when/if we get a friendlier provincial government the idea will be back on the table.
 
SarcasticMarmot said:
Pretty sure the City is largely on board with the idea, we were moving in that direction. The Province has made it pretty clear that they will fight anything like this in the name of "Alberta Sovereignty". I think the only reason the City and Feds have have backed off is that there are enough fights to be had and this one just isn't worth it atm. Hopefully, when/if we get a friendlier provincial government the idea will be back on the table.
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perhaps if the mayor and council were not so adversarial, co-operation always works better than Sohi's constant attacks...
 
Habibfazil said:
perhaps if the mayor and council were not so adversarial, co-operation always works better than Sohi's constant attacks...
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Attacks?
Disagree. Sohi is respectful in his requests of the province and never gets into personalities that I can recall.
As mayor, I would expect him to highlight where provincial cuts have hurt the city and where funding discrepancies are evident - and he has done that.

Someone like Nenshi, in particular, and to a lesser degree Gondek have been more adversarial as mayors.

On council, Janz has been most adversarial. Even Knack has been publicly critical of the province this past year, which is not something he's done in the past. Speaks to the level of frustration.

Cartmell might be your ideal councillor, he is more critical of council. Doesn't say much about province.
 
When I think about the 'touch the water plan', I am still of the belief that it is a top 3 project for the city to bring more people to central Edmonton more often. This was my adventure today and while I waited until it was clear, the entire stretch was quite busy.

IMG_5954.JPG
 
Out of Towner said:
The City Of Edmonton should strongly consider allowing the Feds to designate and develop the river valley into a national park. The federal government has the resources to develop the valley into something well beyond what the city can do alone. Canadian national parks carry considerable prestige around the world and a designation alone would elevate the city's reputation and attract tourists to the city. Capitalize on the city's prime landscape and laid back feel. Lunch on the patio at the Hotel Macdonald and taking in the view of the river valley isn't that much different than sitting on the patio at the Banff Springs Hotel. Do the year round spa in the valley. Do an aquarium within walking distance of the convention center ( lots of inexpensive land in Boyle to get that area going). A national park on the city's downtown doorstep could kick start more of a tourist and residence related down town economy as opposed to an office high rise economy which Edmonton has trouble attracting and which is also on the decline in many North American cities.
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I support the urban national park for a number of reasons, including the Feds ability to do more than the city can with its constrained finances.

But we do not not lack for river valley park space near downtown and it does attract active people looking for various outdoor experiences.

What we do lack are amenities and other things nearby. The area west of Rossdale is chock full of empty lots, the power plant building has been vacant for a long time. To get to the natural area you have to go through a blighted kind of sterile area. Of course this is not the only blighted sterile area near downtown, it seems to be how we do it here. Then we wonder why more people are not attracted here.
 
IanO said:
When I think about the 'touch the water plan', I am still of the belief that it is a top 3 project for the city to bring more people to central Edmonton more often. This was my adventure today and while I waited until it was clear, the entire stretch was quite busy.

View attachment 589261
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Meh……YYC has a shallow trout stream that one is able to wade in safely without being swallowed up and dragged downstream. Ours isn’t like there’s……..I like our shit….our parks. We have the Murph and Hawerlak…..YYC has shitty parks….they should be wishing they had parks like ours…..not the other way around.
 
MacLac said:
Meh……YYC has a shallow trout stream that one is able to wade in safely without being swallowed up and dragged downstream. Ours isn’t like there’s……..I like our shit….our parks. We have the Murph and Hawerlak…..YYC has shitty parks….they should be wishing they had parks like ours…..not the other way around.
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Exactly! The usage of our river valley is exponentially higher than Calgary's, even downtown. Calgary has just a couple nice spots where people congregate, Edmonton's is massive and spreads people out.
 
TAS said:
Attacks?
Disagree. Sohi is respectful in his requests of the province and never gets into personalities that I can recall.
As mayor, I would expect him to highlight where provincial cuts have hurt the city and where funding discrepancies are evident - and he has done that.

Someone like Nenshi, in particular, and to a lesser degree Gondek have been more adversarial as mayors.

On council, Janz has been most adversarial. Even Knack has been publicly critical of the province this past year, which is not something he's done in the past. Speaks to the level of frustration.

Cartmell might be your ideal councillor, he is more critical of council. Doesn't say much about province.
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“Cartmell might be your ideal councillor, he is more critical of council. Doesn't say much about province.”
That’s because there is nothing good to say about the Ultra Conservative Priks.
 
Does the power plant building need to be saved? Saving heritage buildings is important but people can go overboard about it too. The power plant is really more of an eye sore than a building with architectural significance. Only somebody with lots and lots of time on their hands would head over to check it out. And they'd only do it once. The power plant building is basically useless. Get rid of it and put something like the spa that was talked about there instead.
 
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