Well, it is still summer and the living is easy which is a much nicer way to view life when you
get up in the morning than House Stark’s motto Winter is Coming though inevitably winter will be here soon
enough. Summer walks are
definitely a great way to reacquaint yourself with your neighborhood and over
the last few days I’ve been up and down the Junot Street corridor off of which
I live to observe the state of developments.
As many in the neighborhood know, the City of Thunder Bay is
planning to reconstruct the Golf Links Road/Junot Avenue corridor between the
Harbour Expressway and Walkover Street.
The road will be widened to four lanes and there are plans to improve
sidewalks and bike paths as well as municipal servicing. Indeed, some new sidewalks are going in
as I write. This is also all
related to plans for additional density development as the area continues to
grow as a central residential and commercial area. An open house was held in April to solicit input on land use
in the area with suggestions ranging from the proposed new events centre to
industrial use to a mining innovation centre.
Of course, development proposals and actual development are
already underway – sort of. Condominium
construction appears to be stalled at the Thunder Bay Golf Club on Junot aside
from a rather large pile of dirt.
Hotel construction on Junot is proceeding well with the Days Inn there
completing yet another lengthening.
One wonders if the plan is to make it into the world’s longest hotel as
a tourist attraction.
The controversial new EMS Station is now open and still
causing controversy given the new 75,000 dollar sculpture that was recently
unveiled. Of course, that piece of
art is quite the bargain compared to the waterfront beacons, which ran nearly
one million dollars. The EMS art
piece is much smaller and does not have whispers emanate from its base. Indeed, being so small is probably why
all the trees and brush were cleared from the other side of the street prior to
installation – to afford the houses there a better view of both the new EMS
station as well as its new art work.
The desire to develop this part of the City has been present
for some time given the past attempt to put in a new Tim Horton’s/Hotel complex
in the same area that sparked enormous neighborhood opposition. Wooded land in the city does not
generate tax revenue as well as residential, commercial or industrial
land. As a result, the wooded area
across from the EMS station was apparently sold off for residential building
lots with at least one municipal councilor on the evening news saying how it
was a prime residential area. That
was of course quite amusing given that the original location of the EMS was
further up the street where the residents of the prime residential area there chased
it off. In some respects, this is
actually a clever strategy as once the EMS station is built, only people who
want to live across from it will actually build there – with the exception of
the homeowners who used to have trees as a buffer.
Given the ideal location of this land, we can no doubt
expect many of our local politicians and notables to erect their homes
there. Perhaps we can be
innovative and erect a new public centre in the spirit of our 55 Plus Centre –
the Politician Plus Centre where current and past local politicians can go hang
out and engage in creative discussions and activities or perhaps rent cheap
accommodation in a prime neighborhood as a reward for their years of service.
However, winter is coming and with winter will come a
reengagement with issues and debate for City Council. While it is fun to debate bike lanes and tanning salons in the
summer, I suppose they will need to deal with questions like what actually
caused the water treatment plant to fail during last spring’s flooding. Perhaps, we will also find out what is
going to happen with the plans for the events centre or if we will indeed see
hotel and condominium construction begin on the waterfront this year. If we do not get answers, I
suppose we can all go to the waterfront and ask for guidance from the
whispering beacons.
