Nothing seems to penetrate the bubble surrounding St. Albert. Although I’m not particularly sold on pro-Skrillex commentators, I can agree with one point that they’re making. And that is St. Albert is not the most welcoming of places.
Nolan Crouse has pledged to control the aging population issue, yet he is bent on stopping diversity and new opportunities in its tracks. All the while there are those like Trevor Norris who chalk up events like Skrillex as “… festering cesspools of drug use.” I wonder if they share a common disdain when those outside St. Albert label everyone in the community as snobs?
Bottom line is, these people focus too much on the negative. Many of these events that St. Albert turns down are unique economic and social opportunities. A competitive advantage if you will. Or maybe they’re “… festering cesspools of drug use.”
Let me put it in terms that city council may understand. I could focus on the fact that, as little as St. Albert’s commercial district really is, it continues to defy its irrelevance in light of the Anthony Henday opening to make the rest of the Capital region more accessible! See? I’m turning a negative into a positive!
Now if a major reason why Skrillex is being turned down is because St. Albert lacks a security presence, then I wonder how Gibbons gets away with Boonstock each year? Or how Edson is now looking to be the place to host the Skrillex event?
Maybe Norris’ stereotype of Skrillex events as “… festering cesspools of drug use,” is a fair argument. I’ll just give Norris the benefit of the doubt as he knows for a fact that Skrillex would attract a similar amount of overdoses as the Edmonton Elements concert, if not more. Which, in the grand scheme of things only affected a very marginal amount of the concertgoers. But who am I to argue with an expert?
Stopping Skrillex will not solve drug use problems. And if that’s also city council’s beef with the event, then maybe they should own up to it. Well, then again, they would sound like a broken record as these days it seems everything introduced to St. Albert is “… festering cesspools of drug use.”
St. Albert needs to buck up. Because “the times they are a changin’.”
Lee Pasternak, St. Albert
