One of our primary concerns on this blog has been the beautification of Cranbrook. We want Cranbrook to be more than a drive through City. Architecturally Cranbrook can be somewhat lacking with an over abundance of strip malls with little landscaping. No doubt things are improving but interestingly, Edmonton, also awash in strip malls has launched a contest to retrofit strip malls. Calling upon designers and architects the contest is named "Strip Appeal". Generally strip malls have fallen out of favour and have been replaced by the Big Box stores. In Edmonton not only are strip malls struggling to maintain tenants but but they take up a lot of room while being very low density. That said they provide inexpensive retail space for many businesses. Many of the submissions to Strip Appeal are basic such as street scaping, better lighting, or converting them into a hip urban shopping centres. Some of these ideas could be transferred here. There are ways to make our "strip" more appealing and to help our businesses prosper.
To read more about strip malls and "Strip Appeal" go here
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/13/canadas-strip-malls-crumbles-toward-extinction/
and here
http://www.strip-appeal.com/
Thanks for the article and link. Maybe the Chamber of Commerce could promote and fund a "Strip Appeal" contest?
ReplyDeleteHow would the Chamber fund such an initiative and what specific benefits would Chamber members see? The article also suggests that the redesign of strip malls is more than just a beautification project. The renovations could be very costly and thus would have to lead to higher revenues for the property owners. Is there a demand for redeveloped properties when our strip malls are currently full. If CLC's proposition is to beautiful Cranbrook, the best course of action might be to approach the city for additional funding of those types of projects or to help businesses off-set the cost of improvements.
ReplyDeleteThe Chamber is a member-driven organization with a volunteer board of directors. Funding is achieved through membership dues, fee for service contracts and fundraising activities. As such, there is no capacity to fund such an initiative. I appreciate that this might not be fully understood by individuals in the community. Thank you ALBA for considering the Chamber. Please feel free to contact the staff for a more thorough explanation of the Chamber's role in Cranbrook.
Sean Campbell
President, Cranbrook & District Chamber of Commerce
Just for the record the chamber has been advocates for beautification for over the last decade. Including the construction of harmony park which took a vacant city lot across from the railway museum and converted it into green space with fountains benches and lighting. The work was completed in partnership with the sunrise rotary club and the city. The chamber was also the first to commence the strip garden beds and that project was taken several steps further by communities in bloom and our garden club.
ReplyDeleteI think you are overstepping bounds by inferring that strip mall owners should beautify. We have seen numerous business upgrade, renovate and beautify but the economy dictates when they can do that. Not necessarily a contest or promotion. I suggest that you pick up a document called "advancing Cranbrook revitalization". It is essentially a document that addresses beautification issues in our city. Once you read it you will see how much progress has been done
Ideas are great but picking up a shovel, or raising money through the community for projects is a far better way to advance beautification. Look at the contributions made from the business community with the last major "arches" project.
There have been numerous volunteers, business groups, citizens who have been volunteering long and hard for beautification initiatives
I am aware that many people have worked on beautification projects in Cranbrook including Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook who have been involved in several such projects. This does not mean that getting a new idea fron another community is a bad idea. This is something they are trying to do in Edmonton and our interest is to make people aware of it here in Cranbrook not to tell owners of strip malls what they should do. Maybe you should read the National Post article. While progress has been made it certainly does not mean new ideas should not be employed to help Cranbrook continue its beautification progress.
ReplyDeleteIt is not a bad idea at all to get ideas from other places. It seems that the Chamber of Commerce here gets defensive very quickly when others make positive suggestions. You are not suggesting at all that beautification projects have not been undertaken in Cranbrook. They have and the work by Communities in Bloom is much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteWhile we are looking at beautification perhaps it could go hand in hand with economic development initiatives --- and get occupants for the former Legion Hall and Shell station on the Strip, the old Super Valu store downtown and the Mitsubishi Motors site on Victoria -- for starters.
ed,
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the tone of my reply was defensive. After reading the referenced articles, I wanted to express that the Chamber has limited resources by nature of it being a non-profit organization and that projects must be carefully considered to maximize member and community benefit resulting from our efforts. I offered an alternative course of action and explained our position, thanking ALBA for his or her consideration. I am not sure who "anonymous" is but, while I appreciate that they have chosen to highlight some of the Chamber's work, they do not officially speak for or represent the Chamber.
Sean Campbell,
President, Cranbrook & District Chamber of Commerce