Vancouver’s new central square is nothing but a blank space

Re: Vancouver finally gets a real central square, Opinion, Aug. 8.

How much deep thinking and how many teams does it take to create a big empty space in downtown Vancouver? It would seem lots.

Urban planner Lance Berelowitz says the city has finally got what it deserves in the area on Georgia Street in front of the old courthouse. It has all the barren beauty of the Sahara Desert without the sand.

Berelowitz says that after being worked on for almost a year, it is still not fully complete. What’s left to flatten?

All healthy democracies have a place for the citizens’ right of assembly, he maintains. But in volatile Vancouver — anything is worth getting all riled up about — it has a chance of becoming command central for groups that love to tie up downtown traffic.

Berelowitz cites Trafalgar Square as an example of what Vancouver will get. It could be assumed he has never seen London’s famous square, which is far from empty and bare. The only similar spaces in London were areas devastated by air raids in the blitzes of the Second World War, now rebuilt.

The old area in front of the Vancouver courthouse wasn’t exactly a beauty spot, but it did have the fountain, some trees and flowers. There aren’t many of these in Condotown today. The urban planner says perhaps there could be a contest to name the new blight. I want to get my entry in early — Big Empty.

Ian Macdonald, North Vancouver