Willow AustinEarlier this month, an article on CBC News announced the City of Edmonton is planning on designing and building a restaurant in Louise McKinney Riverfront Park, located just a stone’s throw away from the Shaw Conference Centre. Naturally, as with all developments that relate in any way to green space and our prized river valley, the decision wasn’t taken too nicely by many Edmonton dwellers and environmental enthusiasts.
Comments under the article call the idea “ridiculous” and “frivolous,” in spite of the fact that the idea of dining al fresco (or al river valley, to be specific), is part of the city’s bigger plans to renovate and enliven the park altogether. People are thinking about its well being — keeping it clean, quiet, and naturally beautiful — and imagining that the restaurant would only consume it. They could be right. But the way I see it, they’re just being pessimistic.
The proposed restaurant is just one of several additions that are in the works for Louise McKinney. Although the city has yet to reveal formal details, a new outdoor plaza, enhanced landscaping and improved staircases are also included in the blueprints. What’s more, planners will be figuring out new pathways for the public to access the river and its shores, in the hopes of making it more useable. Now if only they could make the water look less like the colour of split pea soup. And in case you didn’t know, the development plans for Louise McKinney stem from The River Access Strategy: a long-term project with a timeframe of 10 years that’s working towards building infrastructure and various amenities that will benefit the entire river valley and encourage families, couples, single gents and ladies, dogs, and everyone in Edmonton to visit and enjoy.
Basically, the city not only wants, but needs, people to become excited about the river valley again and to have reasons to visit it that don’t include the word “5K,” because let’s face it, not everyone is a runner, jogger or walker, even if everyone should be. Some people just like to eat, socialize and experience the outdoors from a patio, so why not make that an option in the river valley and give people an extra three reasons or so to go? Plus, when you have one of North America’s largest metropolitan green spaces right in the heart of the city, it’s a shame to ignore it and leave it underutilized. Thus, the restaurant could be a worthwhile addition to Louise McKinney, just as long as it’s done right.
If you’ve ever walked around Louise McKinney, then you should know that it already houses amenities that are open to the public, so the park has experienced construction before. The existing amenities include the Millennium Plaza/Shumka Stage, a meeting place and venue for outdoor music and dance performances, the Oval Lawn, another area for recreation and special events, a Chinese garden and gazebo, a winter shelter with washrooms, and finally, the Urban Green Cafe, currently the only cafe in the river valley whose menu includes coffee, teas, snacks and various seasonal treats. The park already balances a manmade environment with its natural environment, and has proven to do so by not harming the latter. Even when the park played host to public events such as What the Truck?! and Blink: Urban Picnic in recent years, maintenance and protection of the green space were on par. Adding a permanent restaurant to the landscape shouldn’t cause any further issues.
But if there’s already a cafe in the river valley, it’s natural for some Edmontonians to question whether we really need a restaurant built there too, and how much business it would see. The city plans to lease out the restaurant once construction is complete, just as it did with the Three Bananas Cafe on Churchill Square. However, it can be argued that the Three Bananas Cafe hasn’t been a successful business, considering how it doesn’t receive much, if any, attention from the downtown denizens, media and general word of mouth. On Urban Spoon, although a number of reviews mention that they like the food, an equal number also complain about its poor service. For such an extremely centrally located cafe, you would expect it to have the same amount of traffic, praise and reputation as other local coffee shops like Credo or Remedy.
Let’s hope that this restaurant in Louise McKinney will have better luck and that the city will take more care in choosing a lessee, because if it doesn’t, then it will just end up another waste of prime public space. Looking at the Urban Green Cafe, again, it’s not a place that you hear much about and it definitely has room for improvement. But the arrival of a restaurant will assist it and together, they’ll be able to attract more visitors to the park after work and on weekends. All in all, Louise McKinney Riverfront Park, being a quality space itself, needs a quality restaurant. For that restaurant to secure its future and become a landmark in the river valley, quality is all that it should be looking for, because that’s what keeps people coming again and again.
