As most of you know, I have been highly skeptical about the capacity and/or willingness of our city council and its administration to take on the challenge of developing St. Albert beyond the pretty little town status that it has fallen into. We are a city in name only with a cramped geographical boundary and a persistent reluctance to develop the industrial capacity or population size to deserve that designation.
This is not a new matter. No significant action has been taken on developing our downtown since Mayor Richard Fowler, along with leading unelected citizens, promoted and then built St. Albert Place and went on to create a centripetal Red Willow Park system. We have bench sculptures that are now approaching 20 years of age and public wall paintings that have been allowed, until very recently, to deteriorate to the point of destruction. I understand, however, that the wintertime practice of piling snow on and around Lois Hole’s sculpture in front of city hall will cease. So there is some reason for mild optimism.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have plans. Our city is widely known in the municipal development and construction community for our plans. We love consultation and hiring consultants to produce reports. But it stops there. Except for window dressing, St. Albertans seem content with having a city government committed to keeping St. Albert as an attractive village.
And so we debate with gusto purchasing up-scale coffee at the under-built Servus Place. And this project, along with a new garbage can system, has the markings of being the highlights of this council’s tenure.
Meanwhile the world is passing us by.
I just got back from a flying visit to Thailand, China and North Vietnam. The world is changing quickly and we are about to be overtaken by folks with vision and willingness to modernize their cities. Bangkok and Beijing are now at world-class status. An aggressive mix of public works and private entrepreneurship has brought these cities architecturally cutting edge buildings, banks of high-rise apartment buildings, streets filled with cars instead of bicycles and scooters, and unsubsidized Starbucks outlets. Shanghai and Hong Kong are in the same position.
Vietnam isn’t there yet, but is on the way. Hanoi has become a manufacturing hub for Japanese and North Korean businesses as this city can produce goods cheaper than their home countries and so compete with Chinese manufacturers. (Think U.S.A. and Mexico). I reckon that when Vietnam has caught up, the manufacturing jobs will be decanted to Africa. It will probably start happening within 10 years as there were Kentucky Fried Chicken and Oreo cookie billboards erected at strategic crossroads.
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t big problems on the horizon. The miracle of China is not without huge risks. China has invested heavily in public works infrastructure needed to support a modernized urban society. That huge workforce is now redeployed to privately funded commercial and residential real estate developments. There are signs that the system is overextended. Finished buildings are sitting empty while folks wait for prices to drop. Credit is drying up as the Yuen’s value increases and exports are losing their price competitive edge. And global purchasing markets are stalled.
Will China catch the American real estate bubble disease?
Maybe. But it sure beats standing still.
Alan Murdock is a local pediatrician.
