The Market Square - Taking The Long View 22
The Market Square, the Town, and the Planet
Published in the Stratford Gazette, 21 Nov 2013
Last month I wrote about the Stratford tradition of choosing quality. I dealt with the creation of the parks system and with the referendum in which the townspeople voted to protect it in the face of the CPR’s plan to put railway tracks and freight yards there. I wrote about the selection of Walter Allward, Canada’s most important monument sculptor, to design the war memorial.
I mentioned the decision that the Festival should concern itself with serious theatre. When Tyrone Guthrie told the committee planning the Festival that they could make more money staging “girlie-girlie” shows and light music, he was turned down flat. “We want to do something of significance,” Harry Showalter told him. Barbara Reid and Thelma Morrison, narrating the story of the creation of the Festival in A Star Danced, write about Stratford’s “essential seriousness of purpose.”
All of those decisions showed Stratfordites, both the townspeople and the mayor and council, taking a long-term view. Much has been said and written about the idea that in politics the longest view that anyone ever takes is the vista to the next election. But the people in office at those points in Stratford’s history – at least enough of them to create a majority – were able to see way beyond the next election. And the townspeople were able to look beyond immediate economic gain to the longer-term well-being of the community, and the quality of life for its residents.
The project of revitalizing the Market Square puts us again in a situation of having to make decisions – not just the single decision to undertake the revitalization but, following from that, the many decisions about how the space is going to look and function. This is a multifaceted project, and it will affect the whole of the downtown core. If done well, it will transform the area into a people-magnet. There will be people strolling, sitting, shopping, eating, and drinking. Merchants will vie for retail space, and other individuals and groups will want to locate in the upper floors of the buildings around and near the Square. The whole town will benefit, both commercially and in the quality of life.
The new Market Square will have to be beautiful. It will have to be comfortable, with amenities such as trees for shelter and visual pleasure. It will have to work as a venue for activities of many different kinds. All of this involves a large vision and careful long-term planning.
We are all going to have to make decisions about the future of the Market Square, and they will have to be far-sighted decisions. We will have to look over the horizon, as past generations did.
We know from the people who already admire the Square with its historic buildings – people like Rick Haldenby of the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, and Ian Panabaker, corporate manager of Guelph’s downtown renewal – that we have a very good basis for creating a quality urban space. The historic downtown is a treasure. Those handsome buildings are a gift from the past, and Stratford – unlike other cities which demolished its historic buildings – chose to keep them. We are now benefiting from those decisions.
It’s worth remembering, too, that the revitalized Market Square will not be an entity in itself; it will be part of the whole package, together with the parks and the theatre and the whole historic core of the city. When you start with a package like that, everything added to it means more than it would mean by itself: it becomes part of a larger whole.
The time for decisions is coming closer, and we will all have the opportunity to choose to make the Market Square into something that will mesh well with the city’s historic downtown core, its world-class parks system, its renowned Shakespeare Festival. We will have a chance to add to the overall beauty and significance of this very special city.
Brandis has lived in Stratford since 1996 and is a full-time writer. She is the author of a number of books –visit Marianne's website
Published in the Stratford Gazette, 21 Nov 2013
Last month I wrote about the Stratford tradition of choosing quality. I dealt with the creation of the parks system and with the referendum in which the townspeople voted to protect it in the face of the CPR’s plan to put railway tracks and freight yards there. I wrote about the selection of Walter Allward, Canada’s most important monument sculptor, to design the war memorial.
I mentioned the decision that the Festival should concern itself with serious theatre. When Tyrone Guthrie told the committee planning the Festival that they could make more money staging “girlie-girlie” shows and light music, he was turned down flat. “We want to do something of significance,” Harry Showalter told him. Barbara Reid and Thelma Morrison, narrating the story of the creation of the Festival in A Star Danced, write about Stratford’s “essential seriousness of purpose.”
All of those decisions showed Stratfordites, both the townspeople and the mayor and council, taking a long-term view. Much has been said and written about the idea that in politics the longest view that anyone ever takes is the vista to the next election. But the people in office at those points in Stratford’s history – at least enough of them to create a majority – were able to see way beyond the next election. And the townspeople were able to look beyond immediate economic gain to the longer-term well-being of the community, and the quality of life for its residents.
The project of revitalizing the Market Square puts us again in a situation of having to make decisions – not just the single decision to undertake the revitalization but, following from that, the many decisions about how the space is going to look and function. This is a multifaceted project, and it will affect the whole of the downtown core. If done well, it will transform the area into a people-magnet. There will be people strolling, sitting, shopping, eating, and drinking. Merchants will vie for retail space, and other individuals and groups will want to locate in the upper floors of the buildings around and near the Square. The whole town will benefit, both commercially and in the quality of life.
The new Market Square will have to be beautiful. It will have to be comfortable, with amenities such as trees for shelter and visual pleasure. It will have to work as a venue for activities of many different kinds. All of this involves a large vision and careful long-term planning.
We are all going to have to make decisions about the future of the Market Square, and they will have to be far-sighted decisions. We will have to look over the horizon, as past generations did.
We know from the people who already admire the Square with its historic buildings – people like Rick Haldenby of the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, and Ian Panabaker, corporate manager of Guelph’s downtown renewal – that we have a very good basis for creating a quality urban space. The historic downtown is a treasure. Those handsome buildings are a gift from the past, and Stratford – unlike other cities which demolished its historic buildings – chose to keep them. We are now benefiting from those decisions.
It’s worth remembering, too, that the revitalized Market Square will not be an entity in itself; it will be part of the whole package, together with the parks and the theatre and the whole historic core of the city. When you start with a package like that, everything added to it means more than it would mean by itself: it becomes part of a larger whole.
The time for decisions is coming closer, and we will all have the opportunity to choose to make the Market Square into something that will mesh well with the city’s historic downtown core, its world-class parks system, its renowned Shakespeare Festival. We will have a chance to add to the overall beauty and significance of this very special city.
Brandis has lived in Stratford since 1996 and is a full-time writer. She is the author of a number of books –visit Marianne's website