Dear editor,
For reasons that are beyond my comprehension, huge numbers of people are drawn irresistibly to shopping malls and box stores.
If these shopping outlets were not available in the Comox Valley there are those who would actually drive to Nanaimo to do their shopping.
For decades Courtenay councils have catered to demands for these kinds of commercial developments and we are now seeing the results; a fragmented social fabric and hidden economic costs, which include the deterioration of the downtown core.
That is not to say that the downtown has been entirely neglected. We have seen imaginative renovations of the Sid Williams Theatre and Courtenay Museum as well as the construction of a wonderful library and art gallery. The downtown has many of the best restaurants in the valley and a vast array of quality products and services are available at fair prices.
What the downtown lacks is a genuine outdoor gathering place. It's too late to incorporate a "town square" or "zocalo" concept into the street design, but what if the old Palace Theatre property were acquired and used as a site to construct an outdoor performance centre.
An additional outdoor venue would be welcomed by all sorts of performers and groups including the CYMC. And it would certainly draw crowds to the downtown area on a regular basis.
A few years ago I was visiting the town of Oakville, Ontario where a performance venue had been built on an empty corner lot on their main street. At the time, they were hosting a weekend jazz festival which drew thousands of people to the town centre from all over the region. Their downtown core seems to be thriving despite an abundance of malls and box stores in the area.
Is this something that could be undertaken by the City of Courtenay? Would our service clubs and the Downtown Merchants' Association get behind a project like this?
Erik Taynen,
Courtenay
