TIME TO SEE THE LIGHT

For a city overtaken by long, dark days every winter, it’s taken Edmonton a long time to discover that the blackness of night doesn’t have to be a depressing cloak of darkness but could instead offer a blank canvas for creativity and colour.

Only five years ago, our river valley was a cheerless and uninspired place at night. Our bridges were lit by utilitarian street lights for the benefit of only the motorists and pedestrians who happened to be using them.

Utility over style: no one cared what these important landmarks looked like to the observer from afar. Think what Paris at night would look like if the Eiffel Tower was lit like that.

Since then — to the credit of forward-thinkers who ignored the grousing of killjoys — a fundraising campaign outfitted the immense black steel skeleton of the High Level Bridge with 60,000 programmable lights whose vivid patterns and colours can change with the city’s mood. Just down river, the new Walterdale Bridge now complements its venerable sibling with its more subtly radiant and graceful arch.

It’s no coincidence that these two spans, once shrouded and forgotten at twilight, are perhaps Edmonton’s most photographed nighttime landmarks.

Downtown, too, is finally taking steps to go from gloomy to glamorous. Once, only the Christmas lights festooned from lamp posts or the room lights left on by office workers staying overtime offered any luminescence to a drab core.

Now, a growing number of office buildings such as the ATB Place and the WSP Place dress up the skyline with neon highlights. And speaking of neon, the outdoor Neon Sign Museum turns what was a nondescript strip into a glowing showplace.

There’s now a pitch to light up Edmonton’s tallest tower with digital signs. According to the project proposal, the 69-storey Stantec Tower will feature digital signs on the exterior that will celebrate community events like Pride or Canada Day and project corporate advertising.

You had us until “corporate advertising.” Brightening the downtown with radiant public art is commendable; Flashing ads for pickups and cellphones from on high like a really tall roadside billboard is just tacky.

We’ve only recently come to grips with the fact that Edmonton is a winter city and we might as well celebrate the cold and snow instead of run from it.

In the winter, with our short days, we’re also a city of darkness. Let’s start celebrating that too with displays of light and colour.

But in lighting up the city, we need to think Paris, not Las Vegas.