Mountain Man said:
Does this even really need to honour the 2nd Chinatown considering most people have no idea about it? A plaque or mural seems more than appropriate to me, but Terry Wong seems mad and wants to stop the project about it apparently.
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I think Terry Wong may be a plant by the CCP. We should get CSIS to investigate.
 
Put a plaque somewhere and move on. I don’t mean to sound insensitive to Chinatown’s history, and I think it would be nice to put a plaque or something there, but there’s very little in the way of ties from that building to the Chinese community. My wife, who’s of Chinese descent had no idea, and doesn’t care much about it. Same for her relatives.
This is a non-issue, and it is for the Chinese people. The gesture of marking it somehow will be nice, but I don’t believe it needs to be much more than that.
 
Couple of thoughts
  • I get Wong's concern that one has to go to the back alley to find out about the history, assuming it's even noticed. Seems like a way to rectify that would be to have a sidewalk facing plaque(s) that directs people to a much larger alley mural.

  • The argument that no one knows the history and therefore don't care and therefore who cares never holds much water with me. This city has been bad at promoting its history so you end up with this feedback loop of lack of knowledge of city's historic sites -> lack of care -> tear more down -> lack of knowledge of city's historic sites etc. As an example there is a modest home in the beltline that was the childhood home of the man who created the design of the Canadian flag. It should probably be a national historic site to be honest, but most people probably have no idea and that lack of knowledge isn't a good reason to demolish it.
 
It's strange to me that there's a larger push to commemorative a short-lived commercial strip (click on 1901-1910) than to retain an actual historic artifact, a physical building. Kind of feels like if there was a plan to replace the 600 block of 11 Ave SW with skyscrapers, and the main thing people talked about was the lack of recognition of the historic Electric Avenue.
 
JoeUrban said:
  • The argument that no one knows the history and therefore don't care and therefore who cares never holds much water with me. This city has been bad at promoting its history so you end up with this feedback loop of lack of knowledge of city's historic sites -> lack of care -> tear more down -> lack of knowledge of city's historic sites etc. As an example there is a modest home in the beltline that was the childhood home of the man who created the design of the Canadian flag. It should probably be a national historic site to be honest, but most people probably have no idea and that lack of knowledge isn't a good reason to demolish it.
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I agree. There is a fair amount history through the years of Calgary that gets lost in the shuffle. It's hard to keep track of it. It's good to have some nods to the past, but they shouldn't be a show stopper unless it's something major. I think a plaque or some Chinese writing in the concrete sidewalk would be good.
 
badc0ffee said:
It's strange to me that there's a larger push to commemorative a short-lived commercial strip (click on 1901-1910) than to retain an actual historic artifact, a physical building. Kind of feels like if there was a plan to replace the 600 block of 11 Ave SW with skyscrapers, and the main thing people talked about was the lack of recognition of the historic Electric Avenue.
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So this strip was "Chinatown" for 10 years? screw the plaque, just build the building. lol
 
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