Old Strathcona Public Realm Strategy Part I - Contextualizing the Strategy (March 20, 2023)
...Lived experiences as a road to somewhere
Vlog Overview
My return to the academy (in 2014) to earn a PhD after 32 years of parks planning and operationalization of recreation and leisure services practice (1982-2014) uncovered many practice realities extensively studied by researchers. This dual lens allows me to share my lived experience as a planner - a unique inside (practice)/outside (research) perspective (and visa-versa) to bridge the two worlds. I will share park development policy and practice decision-making practice using an academic lens (i.e., institutional theory).
Each vlog, called Ice Sculptures, will have a short video presentation followed by some key takeaway notes. I will use lots of “I” and “me” to personalize my experiences, with lots of examples. My personality is such that I like to have fun, be a bit irreverent, hence some of my memes, bad puns and (weak) attempts at humour. My goal is to provide a level of nuance to seen and unseen aspects of decision-making processes. I have opinions or positions that may or may not be popular with my planning brothers and sisters, or elected officials. The vlog provides an informed perspective, but my perspectives and opinions based on my experiences studies. Those who know me may also recognize my perspectives may have evolved during and since my studies. (Yes you can teach an old dog new tricks.) Use my perspectives as you see fit.
Todays Ice Sculpture
Old Strathcona Public Realm Strategy Part 1 - Contexutalizing the Strategy (March 20, 2023)
The Old Strathcona Public Realm Strategy is a look at how best to utilize publicly owned land in Old Strathcona, looking at a mix of roadway rights of ways, public park lands and other publicly owned land. (https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/communities_neighbourhoods/old-strathcona-public-realm-strategy.)
The starting point for my commentary is the Old Strathcona Public Realm Strategy City of Edmonton web page. The strategy has two sub study areas: Whyte Avenue and the public lands north of essentially east of Gateway Boulevard to the Strathcona Neighbourhood. The strategy has cast a wide net to collect input and ideas, with a plethora or competing strategic directives and policies, and thus far have not landed on a final public realm (land use) concept for the area. The strategy is still out for public review.
I am concerned and left a bit unsettled, and was sure how to respond. I am simultaneously pleased, empathetic, confused and concerned about what I see. I am REALLY pleased because the administration claimed to be developing and reviewing land use concepts with the community, prior to making a land use recommendation to council. This does not always happen in Edmonton. I am REALLY pleased because I saw the potential to develop a holistic operationalized strategy to celebrate the historical and cultural heritages of the area. I am REALLY pleased to see extensive public engagement. I am empathetic because applying a diverse competing strategic directives to a site is challenging. I was confused by some of the data collection methods and techniques as well as strategic direction interpretation that appears in the 3 outcomes. I am SIGNIFICANTLY concerned by the conceptualization of the strategy from the drop, and the analysis undertaken thus far (i.e., A road to somewhere?)
I needed to go back to basics - the character and nature of the area. What was I missing… or what is the city approach missing? Maybe its me, or maybe its the city approach? Think David Foster Wallace:
There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”
To resolve those conflicting complex reactions, I reflected on my own lived experience. My lived experiences is a synthesized picture of my life, interests, culture, my practice and recent studies, all specific to Old Strathcona. For me, lived experiences provide a road to understanding the desired outcome, if not the strategy.
A Lived Experience of Old Strathcona
I love this part of town. I lived in this area for 2 years after moving to Edmonton in 1982. I remember the restaurants, the vibrant night life, the proximity to the river valley, all of which were like honey to a bear for 20 something single guys. My wife and I’s first date happened in a Garneau restaurant and later at O’Byrnes Irish Pub, both on Whyte Avenue. The House of Hanrattys (now closed) was a place we would meet on weekends for brunch. I lived on Whyte Avenue in Garneau and later in Strathcona just off of Whyte until we married in 1984. Some years later our second spawn left the nest and moved to his first apartment a couple of buildings west of my original Whyte Avenue apartment in Garneau. I would meet my first spawn at Steeps Tea (now closed) in the same building when she was attending the University of Alberta Fine Arts Program.
I ran my first marathon in 1995 in Edmonton (a.k.a. my first mid life crisis) with a work buddy of mine. We had trained all spring and summer in the river valley. The marathon route went through the Fringe Festival. I experienced “flow” for the first and only time in my life on the Fringe site. In my (later) leisure studies I learned flow is a state of mind when a person is totally immersed in the activity - kind of an out of body experience. In hindsight I don’t think it was coincidental it occurred running through the Fringe site.
My family moved to the suburbs in 1996, but return regularly to attend festivals, the Silly Parade (no longer operational) as well as places to eat and occasionally have a beer or two, or maybe three. My return to school in 2014 at the University of Alberta brought me back to the area on a daily basis. My passion for the area was quickly re-ignited. I especially love spending time on the U of A campus in the summer and often ventured down to Whyte Avenue.
I am drawn by people, watching inter-generational and culturally diverse groups interacting, children laughing, squealing and sometime shrieking, watching performances, listening to music, tasting different kinds of craft beer, sometimes all at the same time or in close proximity to one another. Sometimes this happened in quiet small scale corners, and sometimes in larger performances on a closed street outside the farmers market, etc., where people would crowd around performers in a circle. Performers would be local, national and international, stopping in Edmonton as part of a circuit.
Old Strathcona can be a welcoming community, home to rainbow crosswalks and other signage showing support for the LGBTQ+ community, and the Pride Parade. There are multiple places where signs and advertisements can be posted. I have also seen numerous theatre events and speakers notices, with both unwelcoming white nationalist posters and competing anti-white nationalist posters. Sexual minorities have been targeted in this area. The posters, activities and opportunities represent another underlying struggle in our society, and the arts help us all flag and understand issues, and hopefully find ways to support those left behind in our society today by reasons of their gender, income, illness or disability.
Boyle Street Community Services have taken notice and are seeking to establish the Strathcona Health Hub south of Whyte Avenue to address the drug, drug overdose and homeless population issues in this area. Its potential opening has been quite controversial in the community. The presence of homeless folks remind us that some in our community have been left behind. Those that suffer from addictions and mental illness are part of our community.
I am intrigued by our past as I wander through the area. Tipton Park provides a living history of how we planned and operationalized our park spaces in the past. The park was assembled before the Joint Use Agreement and as such it was a stand alone public park with no school entirely surrounded by roadways, maximizing on-street parking for park use. The playground in the picture was built by a community group (i.e., the Gyro Club) who were frustrated because the City was not building play spaces for children quick enough. Tipton Arena is a shell arena. It was once an outdoor rink. As the demand for indoor hockey grew, the parents of boys desired indoor ice. They successfully petitioned the city in the 70s to allow them to enclose outdoor rinks into single sheet indoor arenas and ultimately with ice plants, but with limited parking for vehicles. Since the 80s the City nows build twin indoor ice sheets co-located with pools and fitness centres, and soccer fields. As such the amenities here represent how parks planning and operationalization of services have evolved over time. Park lands tell a story of the history of the community, and the values it holds.
There are numerous plaques interpreting the architectural heritages at the Strathcona Hotel, Edmonton Public Library Strathcona Branch, Richards Block, Edmonton Firehall Number 1, etc. These plaques take us back briefly to a simpler time. History is also seen in how we celebrate our past by naming our public lands. “Big Miller Park” is located outside the Yardbird Suite, where the iconic jazz musician Clarence Miller played. “End of Steel Park” pays homage to our railroad history. “Light Horse Park” celebrates our military history, particularly the South Alberta Light Horse Regiment. It also includes a statue and interpretative signage celebrating Ann Frank.
Festivals descend upon this area - the Fringe, Street Performers Festival, Jazz City, Skirtsafire, Ice on Whyte, The Works, etc. drawing local festival volunteers, individuals and families, tourists and performers. I watch, listen, laugh and drop money in open guitar cases or pails, while buying food truck fare. I have watched protests during festivals, including the human rights abuses occurring in China and our own abuses (i.e., missing and murdered indigenous and metis women). The ability to protest in our public spaces is an important function. It allow those to speak who may have been silenced. After all, a crowd is already gathered. There are community NGOs like the Strathcona Community League that offer multiple programs and support to the community.
The Fringe Theatre Festival is particularly large and significant that started in 1982. It grew in prominence over time, and made the area a destination place for locals and tourists alike. It is hosted at multiple sites in Old Strathcona. The shows are all original. I am always struck and inspired by the boundless creative energy of the arts world (i.e., music, print artists, sculpture, theatre), even if I don’t understand it fully. Artists struggle with their expression, and the inadequate value attached to it. It is clearly celebrated in this area but the artists are still left to beg for funds (e.g., ticket sales, art sales, buskers) to continue their journey, their education and their entertainment of us.
My haunts in Old Strathcona and Whyte Avenue include coffee shops (e.g., Second Cup, Starbucks, Remedy, Tim Hortons) retail shops (e.g., Track’N’Trail, When Pigs Fly, Running Room, Redbike, Army and Navy, Paint Spot, Al Hambra), restaurants (e.g., Chiantis, Friends, Julios Barrios, Boston Pizza, Simit House - now closed, Sugarbowl, High Level Diner, Marble Slab, Yiannis Greek Taverna), bars, pubs and clubs with live music (O’Byrnes Irish Pub, Hudsons, the Commercial Hotel, Old Strathcona Hotel, Yardbird Suite), the historic Garneau and Varscona Theatres with their old movies and productions. These are not a complete list, nor are all still open, and I don’t have a regular schedule to visit them. But they represent an amazing diversity of opportunities that I can pair my festival, art or music experience with a culinary or social drink experience, and visa versa. I am particularly drawn to opportunities and experiences provided by local volunteers and entrepreneurs such as our festivals, Meat and Next Act restaurants, the Strathcona Farmers Market, Food Trucks, and When Pigs Fly - my local source for puzzles. It is this diversity of opportunities and experiences that draws me back, particularly during the summer and in festival season.
My practice and studies revealed the area was planned prior to the 60s in an era that did not have the same planning rules and regulations that exist today. The good news is that despite this, two good things have happened over time that created the Old Strathcona Experience. First, the area enjoys an extensive inventory of multi-family low and high rise apartment and condominium housing with more on the way, along Whyte Avenue, as well as parallel streets north and south to feed the festivals. The desired regional density targets appear to be already met in the area, certainly compared to other areas of the city. Light Horse Park, Dr. Wilbert McIntrye Park, the Big Miller Park, End of Steel Park and the Strathcona Community League site are their backyards, particularly those in multi-family units.
Second, as described earlier, a confluence of state and not state actors over time have developed a vibrant and growing assemblage of culinary, music, retail, theatre, music, and festival opportunities appealing to a broad range of both local and tourist populations (i.e., cultural institution). These opportunities are not limited to the study area boundaries (e.g., High Level Diner), but the folks who enjoy the cultural institution are not boundary focussed. This institution grew organically and has been operationalized with and for the community, facilitated by elected officials and administrators.
My studies revealed something else pervasive in North America, including in Alberta - neoliberal policy regimes. There is a plethora of research on neoliberal policy that privileges economic over social and cultural outcomes (Doll and Soss 2014; Gilbert 2013, 2015). Neoliberalism is a political approach that favours free market capitalization, deregulation, and reduction in government spending. Neoliberal policy results in minimizing public engagement (surplus schools, district planning), reducing standards, and expediting processes. (e.g., oil and gas, health care in Alberta). Implementation of neoliberal policy has sold public lands for private use (purportedly) to meet sustainable city goals in Edmonton (Ice Sculpture November 1, 2022 - Social Actors in Parks: Linking Land Use Planning and Park Services Operationalization) and elsewhere (i.e. Calderon and Chelleri 2013).
How can I summarize my lived experiences within the context of the on-going public realm strategy? The Old Strathcona vibe and experiences draw me to the area. Its the sometimes quiet, and sometimes busy overwhelming noisy sensory experience all set within a grass roots historical and cultural area of programs delivered by volunteers and paid staff. Festival season is full of weird and wonderful performances by crazy creative awesome artists of all kinds, with a backdrop of different kinds of captivating visuals, sounds, music and salivating food smells. The public realm does not draw me here - the experiences do. Borrowing a concept from economic interests, this area is a historical/cultural district. This district has been built by multiple state and non-state social actors, led by grass root community members (i.e., an institution). A strategy revisiting this program should focus on the district and institution itself.
Part I, this Ice Sculpture, described my lived experience to contextualize my response, thus far, to the strategy. Part II (March 21, 2023) will interrogate seen and unseen aspects of the study the trouble me, as well as what I think has worked well. Part III will provide where to go from here insights.
References
Calderon, Camillo and Lorenzo Chelleri. “Social Processes in the Production of Public Spaces: Structuring Forces and Actors in the Renewal of a Deprived Neighborhood in Barcelona.” Journal of Urban Design 18, no. 3 (2013): 409-428. doi: 10.1080/13574809.2013.800449.
Dahl, Adam and Joe Soss. “Neoliberalism for the Common Good? Public Value Governance and the Downsizing of Democracy.” Public Administration Review 74 (2014): 496-504. doi: 10.1111/puar.12191.
Gilbert, Jeremy. “What Kind of Thing is Neoliberalism?” New Formations 80/81 (2013): 7- 22. doi:10.3898/nEWF.80/81.IntroductIon.2013.
____________ “Disaffected Consent: That Post-Democratic feeling.” Soundings 60 (2015): 29-41.
Hall, Nathan, Jill L. Grant, and Ahsanul Habib. “Planners’ Perceptions of Why Canadian Communities Have Too Many Plans.” Planning Practice & Research, 32, no. 3 (2017): 243-258. doi: 10.1080/02697459.2017.1279918.
Parks are Like Icebergs - November 1, 2022 Ice Sculpture - Social Actors in Parks: Linking Land Use Planning and Park Services Operationalization
Photos courtesy of the Street Performers Festival web site