17TH AVENUE NEEDS AN ENTERTAINMENT SCENE
Austin’s South Congress Avenue should be the template, Richard White writes
To some, the 17th Avenue S.W. shopping and dining corridor (2nd to 14th streets S.W.) is still Uptown 17, while to others it is the Red Mile and yet others (specifically the 17th Avenue BRZ), it is RED (Retail Entertainment District).
For many Calgarians, the heyday of 17th Avenue was during the 2004 Calgary Flames Stanley Cup playoff run, when tens of thousands took over the street after every game. The impromptu street festivals captured national and international media attention, creating an image of Calgary as a fun city.
But after the Flames lost in the Stanley Cup finals, 17th Avenue has never really been able to capitalize on the opportunity of becoming one of the great urban streets of North America. Melrose Sports Bar, the epicentre of the Red Mile, closed in January 2014 after 23 years of operation. That site has recently reopened, with much fanfare, as Trolley 5 Restaurant & Brewery.
Today, 17th Avenue struggles with its branding. Is it a restaurant row? Absolutely. It is home to Pigeon Hole, No. 1 in enRoute Magazine’s Canada’s Best New Restaurants (2015) and Model Milk, No. 2 (2012). It has also become a very popular destination for pizza lovers with restaurants such as Una and Cibo.
Is it a shopping street? Indeed. Some long-standing destination retailers include Rubaiyat, gravitypope ( love the new space), Reid’s Stationary and Purr, as well as two of Calgary’s best optical boutiques — Eye Candy and Brass Monocle. Newer additions include West Elm, Modern Duke, Structube, Steeling Home and Kit and Ace.
Is it an entertainment district? In my opinion, a resounding, “No!” There are no cinemas, no theatres and no performing arts centres. The only live music venue of any renown is the Ship & Anchor Pub.
When I think of “entertainment,” I think of more than shopping, drinking and dining, I also think of sidewalks full of people, buskers, lots of street vendors and food trucks. This is exactly what we experienced along South Congress Avenue in Austin earlier this year with its Stampedelike atmosphere on weekends as well as Thursday and Friday evenings, despite there being nothing special happening.
Physically, South Congress Avenue and 17th Avenue are very similar. Both area about a 10-minute walk from downtown. Both area a mix of retail and restaurants about 10 blocks long with lots of patios. However, this is where the similarities end.
Shortly after I got back from Austin, I made a point of visiting 17th Avenue on a nice spring Saturday to check out the action. Yes, there were people on the sidewalk, but it was hardly the lively impromptu street festival atmosphere experienced on South Congress.
CREATING VITALITY
First, there is a greater sense of spontaneity about South Congress, with buskers performing day and night. What would be surface parking lots in Calgary were Food Truck lots in Austin. There is even an artisan market on a parking lot one night a week. And the patios are more animated, several offering live outdoor music.
Speaking of music, the biggest difference between the two streets is that South Congress has several live music venues (indoor and outdoor) that add an additional element of entertainment. Live music is everywhere in Austin, including the airport lobby. Branding the city as the “Live Music Capital of the World” is very appropriate.
A third difference is there are few financial institutions on South Congress, while 17th Avenue seems to have one on every corner. Banks on corners are urban vitality killers — they do nothing to add to the street vitality. I realize they are prepared to pay the high rent for the corner visibility so landlords are quick to lease to them. Perhaps we need a bylaw that prevents (or limits) banks from leasing corners on pedestrian-oriented streets as part of Calgary’s new Main Streets program.
WHO NEEDS DENSITY?
Something else struck me as unusual on South Congress — there were no highrise condos anywhere nearby. No mid-rise condos either, for that matter.
We are led to believe by urban planners that density is the key to creating 18/7 urban vitality, yet South Congress is thriving without any significant infill projects.
On the other hand, 17th Avenue has numerous highrise and midrise infill condos completed over the past few years with more to come.
It has also seen numerous new and renovated retail spaces open up, attracting new retailers like West Elm and Best Buy. It will be interesting to see what impact Embassy BOSA’s new 34-storey Royal tower (223 upscale condos) with an Urban Fare grocery store at street level and second floor Canadian Tire when it opens in 2018. (FYI: I was hoping for a cinema complex as part of the Royal development.)
What I also found interesting is that South Congress has no significant streetscape improve- ments or beautification initiatives. There were no street banners, no fancy benches and few bike racks. The sidewalks were adequate but nothing special and it certainly isn’t a tree-lined boulevard. In fact, it is an old fashioned, much-maligned six-lane highway. Yet, at the same time, it remains a vibrant pedestrian street.
Neither is there a park or plaza space on South Congress for people to gather or events to take place. It has nothing to match 17th Avenue’s Tomkins Park and certainly nothing like 17th Avenue’s high-tech public washroom installed in the park in 2008 that attracts more than 40,000 “visitors” a year.
Calgary’s 17th Avenue is currently receiving a major upgrade — new sidewalks, buried power lines, new LED street lights, more trees and crosswalks. While these changes will enhance the 17th Avenue experience, I am not convinced they will add significantly to its vitality. What is really needed is more entertainment — music, theatre, comedy club and cinema venues.
LAST WORD
Whatever you call it — Uptown 17, Red Mile or RED — Calgary’s 17th Avenue has many of the ingredients needed to become one of North America’s BoBo ( bohemian and bourgeois) streets. It has the “rich and famous” living near by in Mount Royal and the “young and restless” living in the Beltline. It has a good mix of retail and restaurants too. But what it lacks is the 18/7 street animation and entertainment venues to become a tourist attraction like South Congress in Austin.