Collision course

Canada’s food guide literally crashes and sinks on the rocky shoals of the average mall food court. Want something green? That’s hard work. Some fruit? Good luck.

But if your food preferences lean towards brown, salty and deep fried — as the tastes of many teenagers (and many adults, for that matter) do — well, the food court can be manna from heaven.

It’s easy to see that during an average school lunch break at the Village Shopping Centre in St. John’s. With lunchtime a small tide of junior high students flows in from Beaconsfield Junior High, aimed like grease-seeking missiles straight for deals tailored for their taste and pocket book: $5 poutine-and-Pepsi combos, similar-priced Chinese food, and the list goes on.

But if the lunchtime tide rises the boats of the food court merchants, it’s plain that same lunchtime experience has escaped the radar of a different segment of the population.

Who? Well, until recently, the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, the City of St. John’s and even the provincial government, to name a few.

Right now, the school district is putting the finishing touches on a new west end high school, one with the delightful average handle of Waterford Valley High.

There’s been plenty of thought going into the team name (the Warriors) and even as we speak, work is being done on a gender-neutral appropriate mascot.

But it seems like only this week anyone’s started talking about — wait for it — the fact that some 860 high school students are going to want to get something to eat at various times of the day, and that the Village mall food court (and several other fast-food eateries) are nearby, but across four lanes of Topsail Road traffic.

If you think the food court is busy now, well, Topsail Road is busier, even if earbud-wearing, horsing-around teenage street-crossers aren’t aware of that.

Stop and consider just how many times there’s been a serious collision at Topsail Road and Columbus Drive and you’ll realize this is a recipe that can do far more harm than clogging arteries and packing on the pounds.

Food court workers are both waiting for, and dreading, the huge influx of lunchtime students.

They’ve been making preparations for how they plan to handle an expected increased workflow since the location of the new school was announced. (All you have to do is ask them.)

Not so for the policy-makers. They only seem to be cottoning onto the concept now, talking about crossing guards and a pedway that probably could be built by the time the school is set to open.

Unfortunately, the issue may have been brought into even more focus by the recent tragic death of a 17-year-old who was hit by a car in the area.

But it is a serious issue, and one where preplanning — not reactive politics — is a requirement.