If only...

Today I was walking around downtown Lethbridge at lunchtime, thinking about what great potential exists here, what with the wonderful historic buildings built to human scale, and the cool little shops and coffee joints that eke out a living in the city's core - especially (hooray!) a brand new record shop on 4th avenue. Anyway, lunchtime is a good time to be downtown, because there are actually people out and about, enjoying the fantastic weather. One actually begins to suspect there there might just be a pulse quietly throbbing away under the surface of this otherwise comatose prairie town. As I walk along, I think about what might have been, had the city's administration not made a few glaring errors that have seriously handicapped more recent efforts to revitalize the downtown core and hopefully bring the people back.

Now, folks are going to think that I have some kind of weird obsession with the University, since 2 of my 4 posts mention it, but no, no I don't. It's a coincidence, I swear. Anyway, I would invite you, my gentle reader, to close your eyes and picture what downtown Lethbridge might look like today if someone back in the day had said:

"Gol' darn it, why should we build a university on the west side of the river, where there ain't nothing but grasshoppers and abandoned coal mines and a one-lane wooden bridge to get to it? Instead, how 'bout if we rip up some of them railway tracks and build us a university right downtown, right opposite Galt Gardens? Hell, someone's just going to build a dumb ol' mall there someday anyway. Let's at least put something of value there while we have the chance!"

In case that ficticious quote didn't make sense to you (hell, it barely makes sense to me, and I wrote it!), what I am suggesting is that if someone had had the foresight to put the University of Lethbridge where Park Place Mall now resides, Downtown Lethbridge would be a completely different place today. I imagine dozens of coffee shops and lunch places flourishing around the perimeter of Galt Gardens. I picture groups of students hanging out in the park, playing hacky sack, doing homework, whatever. I see at least one decent nightclub where young folk can gather to dance and drink (Please! One decent nightclub isn't too much to ask, is it?!). I envision an efficient and well-used public transit system (not much parking downtown, after all - and yes, that's a good thing!). I see students choosing to live and work downtown, because it's handy to school and to everything they need. Grocery shops, a bakery; maybe a good Indian restaurant - we could have all of this and more if there was a university downtown!

Other folks would start to move downtown, too, drawn by the human energy and cultural life that radiates from the University like a beacon of hope. Young professionals would no longer aspire to a 3000 sq ft house in the 'burbs, but instead choose to be where the action is. There would be concerts and festivals and community celebrations where more than 20 people show up. Buskers ply their trade on the street corners. Flâneurs discuss Neo-marxist literary criticism on outdoor patios while sipping Tsing Tao and smoking Djarum Blacks. Persons with developmental disabilities are out and about, caring for the gardens and abundant hanging flower baskets. Crime is rare, because, well, there are people everywhere. Because people know and recognize each other, they're watching out for each other. It's called community.

Well, this post is getting rather lengthy, but I think you catch my drift. If we could take the thousands of people that head across the river each day, and plant them downtown instead, we would see a radical change in Lethbridge's urban landscape. If we had built it, they would have come. Instead, we go to Wal-Mart to see people, while after 5 o'clock, downtown is all tumbleweeds and drifters. Come on Lethbridge, let's learn from our mistakes! When the University finally does fall into the river, you know what to do!