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Doomed water park gave Katz watershed moment

By: Gordon Sinclair Jr.

Posted: 05/17/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press Cat lover Darcy Canty with Kiki (right), Jinxy (left) and Sylvester.

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- Water park to Asper park?

Mayor Sam Katz caught the city by surprise Wednesday when he suggested a park might be the proper use for the controversial city-owned parking lot across from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

And, it's across from the ballpark where his Winnipeg Goldeyes play.

Dare I say it?

Bravo, Sam.

Rarely have my old friend and I agreed on anything during his tenure as the leading voice on city council, but this time we're on the same song sheet, even if I might quibble about naming the proposed park after Izzy Asper. Not because the media mogul and philanthropist doesn't deserve the honour, but when the neighbouring human rights museum is completed, it will be a prominent reminder of Asper's vision.

But naming what is still only a dream isn't what's important now.

Selling the idea, and then transforming gravel into green space, is what's important.

Maybe I'm just dreaming, too, but there's something else that could be important here. Sam seems to be in the midst of an epiphany. To me, his talking about a green park where a water park was going to be built suggests that, as his eighth anniversary as mayor approaches, Winnipeg's chosen leader may be realizing a city is about more than bricks, mortar, money and growing the tax base.

That it's also about what our civic and provincial forefathers envisioned when they the gave the legislative building a proper reverence and magnificent setting by surrounding it with acres of lawn, trees and eventual statuary. It's about doing in the present what our children will be proud of in the future.

Again, maybe I'm reading way too much into one remark, but it was so remarkable I can't help but be hopeful. The mayor's suggestion might even lead to what I suggested a couple of weeks ago when I wrote the leadership of the city, The Forks and the museum sit down together and talk about what to do with the blank canvas that is presently two adjoining parking lots; one city-owned, one Forks-owned.

Whatever happens, Jim August, CEO of The Forks North Portage Partnership, has the basic idea about how to do it.

"What's important," August told me Wednesday, "is we do it right. Don't look for the cheap way out. And we should take our time."

We've got the time now.

And we got that time, as Sam Katz well knows, because the people spoke up and city council listened.

Who knows, this could be remembered as a watershed moment.

Or, better yet, the water park-shed moment that signifies a more thoughtful civic development.

Well, we can dream, can't we?

-- -- --

SPEAKING OF HOPE... I have an update on Kiki the cat, whose owner Darcy Canty, contacted me because he couldn't afford to euthanize his old and sick cat. Thanks to one of many Free Press readers who responded, Kiki is going to visit the vet today.

But she may not be put to sleep. The vet will examine Kiki first, in the hope she might be treated.

There's more good news where that came from. Kiki has a couple of roommates, Jinx and Sylvester, and they're going to be treated at the vet, too.

Jinx and Sylvester are rescues from the inner-city street where Canty lives. One is already neutered and the other is destined to be next week.

Canty, who lives on a fixed income, borrowed more than $200 from a friend to have the one "fixed," a loan he says he's still paying off.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 17, 2012 B1

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