Rick McIver wants to be clear. He won’t be putting on his Birkenstocks, and bringing his own coffee cup to the Bow River Flow on Sunday. Actually, he won’t be there at all. The city councillor who would be mayor is a critic of the event .
Actually, it’s not the event, McIver says, but the Memorial Street closure that has Rick McIver rankled. Flow runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Area councillor Druh Farrell proposed the idea of the street closure to allow for cycling earlier this year.
You’d think she suggested killing all male boys under the age of two. Some of her own neighbours were outraged. The Kensington Business Redevelopment Zone people and community association recoiled.
Obviously, I’ll never be an alderman or mayor — I thought the idea was great. I went to school and worked summers in Ottawa where the road is shut Sundays for cycling along the Rideau River. No car fumes. It was glorious. Why not us?
Here in Calgary, streetfarians took up the cause (the not for profit Arusha) met with community members and managed to get many area businesses on side to celebrate the idea. The Bow River Flow ends with a free movie —the hockey dustup Slapshot at 4:45 pm, at The Plaza in Kensington.
There you’ll find a road hockey tournament held on the tennis courts at the U of C Saturday at 11 am. Each of the 22 teams donate its $50 entry fee to charity. Also outside Saturday is QuickDraw Animation’s street festival in the parking lot beside its 11 Ave SW offices.
Called UrbanBurn2, the 7 p.m. family event features new work by young artists, a workshop on cameraless animation, and displays of animations by young artists. Calgarians like our street festivals. Just don’t block any real streets for them.
