Definition of panacea. : a remedy for all ills or difficulties : cure-all.
The Riverlands is often being touted as the cure-all for our city’s ills. It will bring businesses to Red Deer. It will stem the exodus of our residents, reversing the decline in population. It will put Red Deer on the map. It will bring people downtown.
23 acres will save Red Deer from it’s current decline, it may help, but only if seen as a portion of the solution.
Concentrating on one area of Red Deer is detrimental to other areas in Red Deer. Pulling businesses from the north side to downtown will only hurt the north side businesses that cannot move downtown, like Parkland Mall. It punishes the residents who live on the north side because they will have to travel further to do business.
The city will say that the Riverlands will allow residents to live, work and recreate in their neighbourhoods. But that is not important, if you live north of the river.
The North is not some enemy, some disease that needs to be fought or contained. Why not allow one third of our city to live, work and recreate in their neighbourhood? You also determined that there should be an indoor ice rink for every 15,000 people. Apparently that also does not apply, north of the river. They have 1 for every 30,000 residents while the south side has 1 for every 10,000 residents.
The city will not plan for a high school or another swimming pool north of the river even though they expect the population will hit 55,000 residents. What family will plan on moving to the north side if they see that they will have to commute across the city for every necessity of life, like going to high school?
The Riverlands, will be a nice extra, but it is not a nice necessity, and that is where the city is failing. The money that went into re-aligning the traffic, could have paid for a high school for the north side communities. Investing in sports tourism, incorporating areas like Hazlett Lake. Building a competitive aquatic centre might attract more tourism dollars than a 20 million dollar footbridge for Riverlands residents.
The problem is that the city has blinders on when it comes to the downtown. A restaurant owner moved out of downtown, because he felt that he was out of the small group that controlled the decision making for downtown. He moved to the outer suburbia, or enemy territory.
He, like myself may be dismissed as cantankerous old men, ignored by the media and decision makers. But if one was to take all the symptoms, the trends, and events together and try to establish a commonality, then we might agree and find a way to reverse this decline.
Businesses leaving, 975 residents moved out of Red Deer, 777 residents moved out of the north side of the river, increasing unemployment, 10% vacancies, increasing crime, and bad air, will not end because the Riverlands is being developed.
There is no panacea, perhaps it is time to reconsider other options, too. Let us start listening, seriously, to a larger group. Find out why Blackfalds grew by 700 residents while Red Deer shrank by 975? Why is Gasoline Alley becoming a powerhouse while our downtown needs subsidization?
In 1970s, Parkland Mall made Red Deer a shopping destination for Central Alberta, 40% of the population lived north of the river, then we abandoned the north. The last school was built in 1985, the last indoor ice rink and pool was built in the 1980s, now they are neglected still 3 decades later. Only 30% live north of the river, today.
Could this have contributed to the decline of Red Deer? Possibly but no one wants to talk about it. Perhaps it is time we did? Maybe, being nice, ignoring the problems and putting all our eggs in the downtown basket, is not part of the solution but is part of the problem?
Forget the idea of a panacea, and start a real discussion, and the real solutions might see some daylight. Time to take the blinders off. Thank you.