A Central Park for The Forks

Many years ago, when I first heard the rail yards were going to be cleared, I envisioned a magnificent central park in the heart of my hometown at The Forks, one of the most historic locations in Western Canada.

Here was the opportunity of a lifetime -- of many lifetimes. I saw a Stanley Park, a Hyde Park, a Bois de Boulogne, a Lincoln Park, a Jardin des Tuileries, a Golden Gate Park, a Queen's Park, a Central Park.

I've been to a number of these special places; these city oases. I've watched them fill with people vacating city offices at noon for a rejuvenating hour of respite. I've seen thousands of people disgorging from buses and trams and fanning out onto lawns and into gardens on warm summer weekends. I foresaw the same happening at The Forks.

When I was studying landscape architecture back in the '70s, I came across a reference to Central Park in New York City in a book on how cities use zoning to stimulate redevelopment. Central Park had paid for its construction and ongoing costs thousands of times over by the taxes generated on property adjacent to and close to the park -- highest property values and taxes were right next to the green space and got progressively lower the farther from the park a property was located.

Zoning allowed an "anything goes" adjacent to the park -- the sky was the limit. I had naively expected a similar situation to happen in Winnipeg; the redevelopment of our downtrodden downtown spurred by the development of a huge green garden on the former rail yards.

Alas, it was not to be. First came the adaptive reuse of a number of the old, historic railway buildings into The Forks Market and the Johnson Terminal. I could accept that, as any park area can use some on-hand services and attractions. The plethora of parking lots I saw as temporary aberrations while park designs were being developed. The Parks Canada development at The Forks National Historic Site was certainly a step in the right direction; as was the River Walk.

Then development at The Forks went right off the rails. Sam Katz's baseball field, the Inn at The Forks, the radio station -- all should have been developed on the west side of Main Street, providing much-needed redevelopment there. The Forks was starting to get cluttered with commercial enterprises that had no place there. The way it's going, the urban fabric within The Forks will soon be no different from what's already across Main Street, and what, I ask, is particularly special about that?

The one bright note was the siting of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights at The Forks close to the river, St. Boniface, and the walking bridge.

Although some see this as another inappropriate building at The Forks, I see it as an acceptable use of parkland for so noble an ideal. With views to the museum from a number of approaches, this building will become the crown jewel of The Forks -- a historic building with a historic theme in a historic place. Symbiotic. I applaud the thinking which located it.

And then what happens? The area is to be sullied with an undersized water park and an unnecessary hotel, right within the viewscape of our magnificent museum. Oh the humanity!

The Forks may be burdened with some sort of legalese that says it must pay for itself. Wouldn't The Forks more than pay for itself if Winnipeg adopted a similar approach to New York? What's a single apartment in a highrise facing Central Park worth? Millions.

What are the taxes from all these apartments? Hundreds of millions.

It's not about a water park, or hotel, or another private commercial venture; it's about what is considered to be appropriate development at this wonderful location. I see, now that the water park hotel proposal has met a well-deserved death, the city brain trust is trying to come up with another idiotic idea for Parcel 4.

Why not create a fantastic park? Organize an international design competition -- what a way to put Winnipeg on the map and to complement the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Use the $7 million to pay for it -- the money obviously is burning a hole in city council's pocket.

If the City of Winnipeg keeps packing The Forks with really bad stuffing, it will surely kill the golden goose.

Richard Hurst is a landscape architect.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 18, 2012 A13