[Silence&Motion]

Heritage Park and Ft Calgary should have been the same development, we don't need 2 separate historical parks ion the city. It's too bad Ft Calgary couldn't have been kept and maintained like Ft Langley in BC, that area really surprised me how vibrant it was.

Why can't a city of over 1 million people support more than one historic park/museum? Most cities have dozens. The City of Toronto alone runs 10 historic museums, including Fort York (and that doesn't even include places like Black Creek Pioneer Village, which are not city-owned).

I see no problem in preserving the birthplace of the city of Calgary as a public space. Having a sleepy historical museum occupying the space as a placeholder is a much better use than bulldozing the entire area for some crass mega-development like a sports stadium or entertainment complex. Decades from now, when development has eaten up all of the empty lots in the area, the Fort Calgary property will likely be turned into a landmark urban park.

 

[googspecial]

I particularly enjoy what Winnipeg has done with their original fort, which was in the same state as Fort Calgary. Albeit, they have the benefit of real historic buildings adjacent to the park, the interactive landscaping is something that could be recreated here. With the addition of the current and renovated museum, it could really be a great space.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Up...de2199dd6c7aab8!8m2!3d49.8879881!4d-97.135319

If it ever happened that the East Village were expanded 1 block east into the park ( to "7 ST SE"/up to the edge of the fort's footprint) I don't think it would be a tragic loss to the green space. There's still the River Walk, the community garden/playground/dog run and the green space to the north of the current museum.

 

[Silence&Motion]

Though thankfully Fort Calgary is not adjacent to a 10(!) lane car sewer like Main Street.

 

[CBBarnett]

I just can't stand such a large public site with such poorly utilized space in the geographic centre of the city sandwiched between some of our best neighbourhoods and the amazing river pathway network. I am all for Fort Calgary remaining green, respectfully historic and in the public domain (rather than some mega-development of only condos or something); but it has to be useful. Instead of a hub for the surrounding communities it's an anti-node, rather than a place of connection and public gathering it's a barrier and desolate. A few weddings more a year doesn't change that, it has to be a bigger change to the site than just making the unnecessarily large parking lot fill up a few times more per year.

Fort Calgary has 20 acres to work with. Even without touching the re-created historic buildings you could do a hell of a lot more than have a muddy field for the occasional fenced private stampede party or a two-night a year Beakerhead event. A iconic redesigned urban park would be a great idea there, perhaps featuring a small urban-format recreation facility along 9th Ave in the SW corner. Anything to generate some more activity and utilize some of the corners of the park that never have seen any use apart from trees to drive by for commuters.