Walking past Grand Parade, er, I mean, Celebration Square this evening, I noticed they’ve set up the stage for all the noon concerts scheduled for the next couple of weeks.
I have no idea how many people will attend these shows, but any more than a couple of hundred, and they’ll be stretching their necks this way and that to try to get a glimpse of whoever’s on the stage, because the new Fallen Peace Officers monument is crammed right up against the stage.
It’s really too bad, but can we all now acknowledge that councillor Dawn Sloane was right? The placement of the monument in the middle of the block has utterly destroyed Grand Parade as a venue for large concerts. To see what we’ve lost, consider this photo of one of the pre-monument New Year’s Eve concerts:
Send us your Canada Games pics and vids; email ourgames@thecoast.ca.
This article appears in Feb 10-16, 2011.
Is this made of actual stone or is it like all the other decorative trim on new downtown buildings and made of styrofoam stucco’ed over to look like stone? If the latter, it could and should be permanently moved to the side. If it is real stone, it should still be moved, but might take some time.
In another few years, the parade will be completely filled with cenotaphs, plaques, obelisks, arches, megaliths, and totem poles. That single acre is simply too small to serve as the venue for every ceremonial and commemorative purpose in a city of this size.
Bo Gus – it is made of stone. Same material as the people who approved the self aggrandizing mini Arc de Triomphe.
And it is more prominent that the memorial to people who died in 3 wars.
Maybe Canada Games security guy Worrell is worried Al Qaeda flew into town to blow it up.
I called that one as well when the first article hit the papers a couple of years ago. Totally stupid location. The decision-making process was despicable. The people who agreed to this are complete idiots.
They really didn’t think this through, did they? When I first saw where they were putting it, I thought, “are they no longer going to have concerts or large gatherings here?” Because, the placement of this memorial is so bad. Considering how many people it takes to make a decision about these sorts of things, you’d think at least one of them would’ve stopped and said, “wait a minute, how will this affect public functions in the square?” Seems, that’s not the case.
The Obelisk of Vanity does far more than obscure sight lines for concert events. It is an ugly eyesore that completely disrupts a valuable public space.
As a monument it is devoid of visual appeal, says nothing of what it’s nature is, and is woefully misplaced and serves more as an obstruction than as a memorial.
If the police want respect they can earn it, and not by placing an obnoxious “self aggrandizing mini Arc de Triomphe”(nice 1 TDF, thnx) in the public’s way.
The bumbling continues…
Maybe the folks at city hall are trying to fill up all the available open space so as to avoid any future public protests like those we have seen in Tahrir Square the past couple of weeks. If so, then I would really like to see an equestrian statue of a fiddle-playing Peter Kelly (in the spirit of Nero, but with a visual reference to Marcus Aurelius), A twenty-foot high marble lobster, a 1:2 scale replica of Theodore Tugboat, and the deck chairs from the Titanic…
I believe we need this memorial, like we need another tax increase.
THere is absolutly no one guiding this city. There hasn’t been anyone in quite some time. The good of all is again & again stepped on by the wants of the ‘Connected’
But after all this is Nova Scotia… I’m surprised the politicians are no longer passing out bottles of spirits & nylons to the electorate on voting day !
The police union was so desperate to bump up the number of names on the arch, now at 21, they decided to add the names of two men who died whilst on military service in WW 2.
The monument does not tell how a person died but I Googled the names and then cross referenced the names with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
I suggest we place a munument outside the police HQ and dedicate it to all the murdered ladies of the night and the word ‘ UNSOLVED’ underneath most of the names. Apparently the ladies risk their lives every day they go to work.