This column should put me on the map
The Scotties curling tournament was a big success in St. Catharines. No big surprise there. Indeed, Mayor Walter Sendzik had predicted as much in December 2015 when St. Catharines was revealed as the host city.
Sendzik said media coverage of the tournament is “really going to put St. Catharines on the map.”
Mind you, this is the same guy who said two years ago the renaming of Municipal Beach to Sunset Beach “is an opportunity to put St. Catharines on the map.”
He’ s not the only local booster who likes to dabble in cartography.
When a $3-million federal grant to the Niagara Interactive Media Generator (nGen) was announced in 2009, St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra said it would lead to “the type of stuff that’s going to put us on the map of North America.”
But the city’s increased prominence in atlases wasn’t tied solely to major announcements or events.
In 2007, a new plan to crack down on graffiti prompted Coun. Andrew Gill to assert it would “put St. Catharines on the map as one of the national leaders in the fight against graffiti.”
Still, it’s the boffo stuff that gets people talking.
Who’ll ever forget the massive canal reclamation project behind St. Paul Street pitched by the downtown association in 1999?
In seeking city council’s support for the concept, association boss Carole Nixon said the project would not only “serve the community, but it will put St. Catharines on the map for tourism.”
Good thing the canal project bombed because it allowed for the canal-valley development of the Meridian Centre which hosted the Scotties which, you may recall, put the city on the map, too.
Other Niagara municipalities share this need for geographical recognition.
When an ultimately phantom $319-million redevelopment of the Prudhommes Landing property was proposed in 2006, local chamber of commerce boss Cathy McNiven said: “Basically, it will put Lincoln on the map and it may become a destination area in the region.”
A less-flashy event in the town has consistently tried to catch the eye of cartographers as well.
“This is a big thing,” said co-ordinator Barb Stones of the Beamsville Strawberry Festival in 2007, “and has helped put Beamsville on the map.”
Hey, don’t knock the little stuff. Former Thorold Mayor Robin Brock sure didn’t.
She saw a civic upside to taking part in the 2006 Mayors Grape Stomp challenge in Montebello Park.
“My job is to put Thorold on the map. If I can do it by stomping grapes, I’ll stomp grapes.”
There’s apparently no end to the lengths people will go for their residential roots.
Take, for instance, the 2003 Smithville Fair when local yokels tried to set a Guinness World Record for most people flossing simultaneously on a single string of dental floss. The thread was 600 metres long and was unwound for 441 participants. Why the toothy task? “To put Smithville on the map,” said resident Jeannine Gower. “You’ve got to support your town.”
Fortunately, the good people of Wainfleet don’t have to resort to one-offs for recognition. It has the annual Marshville Heritage Festival.
“This is what put Wainfleet on the map, it’s Wainfleet’s treasure,” explained festival chair Margaret Robertson a few years ago.
I think you might need a map to find that map, though.
But when it comes to geographic bravado, Welland is in a league of its own in Niagara.
Key the phrase “put Welland on the map” in a search of The Welland Tribune archives dating to 1999, and 39 stories pop up — 39!
The things responsible for such recognition over the years have included the Welland Canal, international events held on the recreational canal, the Rose Festival, the widening of Highway 406, Niagara College’s new athletic facility, the Welland Minor Hockey Association, the Seaway Mall, the Niagara Stars of the Canadian Baseball League, former MP Gib Parent and Above and Beyond Cupcakes. Man, I’ve got to visit there! I just have to find this map everyone’s talking about.