Bold dragon arches over LRT portal still disappoint Chinese community
City transportation staff released new, bold renderings for a dragon-themed LRT portal in The Quarters last week, but Chinese community leaders say the city has ignored the larger question of how to rejuvenate the neighbourhood.
City consultants are proposing red metal arches over the trench and entrance to the tunnel to suggest the back ribs of a dragon, with Asian-styled fencing and coloured tiles in a dragon motif on the trench walls.
Draft renderings were given to the Chinese community for comment and will be presented publicly at an open house June 14 at the Old Timer’s Cabin.
But Chinese leaders in the area, who earlier lobbied city council to relocate the trench, are looking for more.
“What we want to do is make it into a neighbourhood experience,” said Mei Hung, head of the Chinese Benevolent Association.
“We need to make the best of the trench, the hole in front of the two seniors buildings. How can you make it into a place where people would like to come?”
The proposal from the Chinese LRT task force calls for an elevated promenade to conceal the trench. The promenade would have space for neighbourhood celebrations, a Sunday open-air market and traditional tiered steps descending into a rock garden with a black dragon or other statue.
Like the city plan, the Chinese idea is still in a concept stage, Hung said. But the process of designing this LRT element should be about more than the LRT, she added. It needs to be about preserving space for community celebrations, and rejuvenating historic Chinatown.
Hung gave a presentation of the Chinese suggestion to the transportation department May 15, and was disappointed to see city renderings May 28 that make no mention of anything beyond the LRT.
But Nat Alampi, city project manager for LRT planning and construction, said consultants proposed an elevated pedway in response to Chinese concerns. The pedway would help seniors cross from the Chinese lodge and continuing care centre on the north side of the avenue to the cultural centres on the south side to play chess or do tai chi.
Designers also shortened the trench by about one-third of a city block by making the newstyle train descend more quickly at a 6.5-per-cent grade rather than at four per cent. The train descends into a tunnel to run under the 95th Street and Jasper Avenue intersection. It exits near the river to meet the new bridge.
Building an elevated promenade or other community amenity on top of the LRT track is beyond the scope of his project, Alampi said. Plus, the rock garden envisioned in the Chinese proposal is on private land.
The city could build the basic portal without the arches and reinforce the retaining walls so that an elevated promenade could be added later.
“We’ve been meeting to find the optimal way to make this work,” Alampi said. “We do have a timeline. We’re trying to get preliminary engineering done by 2013.”
The Chinese community has been worried the trench leading to the tunnel will degrade historic Chinatown at a time when new investments in The Quarters give hope for revitalization.
The Chinese community invested more than $100 million in the area between 102nd and Jasper avenues, 97th and 95th streets, since the original Chinatown was razed to make way for Canada Place. City hall designated this the new Chinese area.
The community has been split between the southern area with its cultural establishments and offices, and the more recognized commercial Chinatown several blocks north, where owners of Chinese grocery stores and restaurants found cheaper rent.
Frankie Lee, president of the Chinatown and Little Italy Business Association, said he is encouraging new businesses to expand south down 97th Street and would like the Chinatown gate moved to the south end of 97th to signify the whole area as celebrating Chinese and other Asian immigrant groups.