Bruce Wark's first article featured Alex Fancy January 2016 in Sackville New Brunswick linked here:
ROBO: Bilingual Tintamarre comedy looks at love, machines and what it means to be human |
Photography by The Indie Media Eastcoast ... Sackville's rainbow walk with a pile of manure on it.
February 28, 2018
"Dear Editor,
It was exciting to hear Ekistics’ design plans for Entrance 506 at the presentation earlier this week.
The key to everything in their area design, as Ekistics spokesperson Rob LeBLanc said repeatedly during his presentation, is in “encouraging people to get out of their cars” so that they can see, read and do things that will tempt them to come into town. My concept of an Alex Colville Art Park as being a very important feature designed to do exactly that, tying it in through strategic signage within the park with the many places people can go within the town core to see his art, his studio, his home, and his celebratory plaque on the Sackville Arts Wall — was well emphasized during his presentation. Ekistics did a beautiful job of recognizing the historical importance of that park’s location overlooking the Tantramar River and the bridges, and the exciting possibilities inherent in connecting that area to Tantramar Heritage sites within the town core.
Rob explained how every feature of the area design was planned to create more walking (dog park, hiking trails and bike paths, Art Park, etc. ) The word “village” was used many times, in part to help people appreciate the design concept of bringing the store and business fronts up to the street, with parking behind, so that walking along the sidewalks or biking on the bike paths would be more pleasant. It was not meant to imply that this area would be self-contained.
Some folks are concerned that building a “self-contained village” will weaken the downtown core. Like Ekistics, I am convinced that there are numerous creative approaches to strengthening the downtown core. One of the most important is to create a strong and attractive “path” to the core that begins with vastly improved Trans Canada signage, with attractions that invite drivers to get off the TC, and with carefully-conceived strategies and imaginative business ventures that move some of those people up into the core.
I must admit I was surprised to hear Rob talking about building drive-through restaurants! It was not the time or place to get into an argument about drive-thrus, but there was a glaring inconsistency between Rob’s talk about getting people out of their cars, on the one hand, and talk of drive-thrus on the other.
Although a few entrepreneurs seem gung-ho to build drive-thru restaurants in that area, these would be inconsistent with the proposed area plan which emphasizes getting people out of their cars and into the two parks, onto the bike paths, foot trails, and sidewalks. We will continue to remind Sackville Town councillors of their earlier resolution against building more environmentally unfriendly drive-thrus within Sackville.
Warmly,
Janet Hammock
Sackville, NB" source: Planners recommend creating village near Sackville Exit 506 |
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