For the last 34 years, I have been biking from my home in the West End to Bell Park.
The halfway point (about 1.5 km) corresponds to the corner of Elm Street and Elgin Street, where the School of Architecture now stands.
I then continue up Elgin to the Nelson Street Bridge, cross over, then proceed leisurely downhill to John Street then Elizabeth Street, et voila, Bell Park. Easy, right?
Now I'm being told by our poor, beknighted council that in order to induce bicyclists from oh, say, Dowling to travel the aforementioned route, we need to place chalk markings to keep bicyclists from becoming disoriented together with a flower garden (otherwise known as “soft scaping,” I think), all for the bargain basement price of $3.5 million.
Presumably, these same bicyclists will stop en route to buy gourmet coffee, candy and deli sandwiches, while on the return trip, stopping at the no-longer-cash-strapped Sudbury Theatre Centre for a new rendition of James Hilton's Shangri-La.
My interpretation/exaggeration of the proposed Elgin Street Greenway is beginning to sound like a sci-fi epic gone hopelessly over budget — $3.5 million over budget, I might add.
Peter Desotti
Sudbury