Editor: Recently it was Joni Mitchell’s 75th birthday. Forty-nine years ago she sang, in Big Yellow Taxi: “We take paradise and put up a parking lot.”
I think of that song every time I drive by the clear-cut that goes from the curb at Cougar and Squirrel streets to Mount Norquay Road along the train tracks. I live a few blocks up the road in the neighbourhood.
It wasn’t until the tree removal that the whole scope of the enterprise hit me.
I was upset for days; I feel empathy for the residents whose backyards face this strip; I feel concern for the wildlife that lived and passed through there; I mourn my memories of walks through the forest there on my way to Fenlands.
That strip of forest, a lovely unofficial parkette, is gone for good.
Oh I know now that there’s no going back, but I want to clarify something about this development.
Yes, it will allow five hundred cars to find parking in Banff. But let’s be clear, this is not simply a selfless philanthropic act designed to benefit the citizens of Banff; it is a Band-Aid solution to a growing automobile congestion problem; it is a manifestation of capitalism; it is the vision of a privately held company looking toward future profits.
To be fair, the company does have a large “transformative vision.”
But the train station development will bring air pollution, noise, and a harsh metallic gleam into what was once a lovely forest sanctuary and a relatively quiet neighbourhood; it will bring automobile exhaust fumes closer to the young lungs of the daycare centre and the elementary school; it will unsettle the residents unfortunate enough to have it in their backyard; it will degrade the quality of my neighbourhood.
It is not at the edge of town; it is in town.
I wonder if the principals of Liricon, or the Town managers, would like to have all this pavement, pollution, rubber and metal in their backyard?
While I agree with Liricon’s proposal for intercept parking for all Banff visitor vehicles without hotel reservations and the implementation of resident parking passes, this does not have to be tied to the Liricon vision. And if only these vehicles will be allowed in town, where will the rest of the visitor cars park?
If traffic is not troublesome enough now, imagine what it will be like once the gondola to Norquay is built by the train station, and the traffic is doubled, tripled, etc.
I believe that with aggressive, consistent and creative negotiation with Parks, the Town could have achieved intercept parking outside the town in an area already clear.
Parks Canada has a history of making concessions – for example, overflow lots in Lake Louise, and a retail attraction for Brewster/Pursuit on the Icefields Parkway.
Now, for what we have accepted at the train station, I hold the Town administration and councillors responsible. I hold Liricon corporation responsible too.
I blame myself for not being more vocal and resistant right from the beginning. But now we all bear the burden of this scarring development. I urge Liricon and the Town to find a way to return quality of life and nature to my neighbourhood.
As Joni sang in 1970: “Don’t it always seem to go
“That you don’t know what you’ve got til its gone.”
Steven Ross Smith,
Banff
