“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

Are you a longtime Cranbrook resident? Are you sitting down? Perhaps you better because what I’m about to show you may ruin your day. And if you continue, please keep in mind I don’t agree with much of what’s to follow but I think it’s a good wake-up call for those of us who live in the Key City.

This appeared last week on Facebook in response to a request for comment from Cranbrook Tourism. It now appears to deleted, but a copy of it was forwarded to me last week and I almost burned my eyes out reading it. And again let me emphasize, I don’t agree with all of it.

Cranbrook is just a place to grab your shopping and go back home. Cranbrook itself has nothing to offer for tourism or anything else. I mean we got rid of the best little downtown campground. How retarded is that?  We have no waterpark, no race track, no fine dining, no nightlife, no beaches, no tourist attractions, no real mall with real stores, no ski hill.

We do have a strip that looks like crap, buildings that look like crap, unkept sidewalks, drugs, homeless people all over our main road, weeds, empty overgrown building lots, dilapidated buildings.

Cranbrook itself is a shopping hub for the local area. That’s about it. Sad but it is what it is.

I told you it was harsh and you can easily see there are several untruths in it. We do have a couple of small water parks and in recent years we’ve developed several fine dining establishments and other fine attractions like the History Centre and at least two cottage breweries and an arts and theatre scene that is second to none in a town its size.

Having said that, I’d like to also say the following sentence is largely true: “a strip that looks like crap, buildings that look like crap, unkept sidewalks, drugs, homeless people all over our main road, weeds, empty overgrown building lots, dilapidated buildings.”

Who can deny it?

But the sentence I’d really like to home in on is: “we got rid of the best little downtown campground. How retarded is that.” It’s the gospel truth.

Cranbrook’s RV Tourist Park was once the jewel of the city beginning in 1924 and running until two years ago when city council abruptly shut it down with no further comment other then to put up a sign on the street saying the park was closed “indefinitely.” What the hell did they mean by

that? Whatever it was, it wasn’t to be known by Cranbrook taxpayers who built it and maintained it for over half a century and made it one of the biggest trailer park tourist attractions in Western Canada especially when it was also the home of the unique outdoor Gyro swimming pool which was shut down by city council in 1969 much to the chagrin of Cranbrookians and tourists alike.

And it should also be said at this point that when city council shut down the RV park without explanation two years ago it was like spitting in the eye of more than a dozen longtime Cranbrook seniors who used to park their rigs in the park for the summer just to enjoy life in their old hometown again.

How heartless can they get?

And what does the city have in mind for the much loved former park? We don’t know because they won’t tell us. Is it condos? Is it Cranbrook’s first apartment tower? Is it another mall to compete with the two underused malls we already have? Whatever it is, the hardworking taxpayers of Cranbrook deserve to know. We’ve lost enough parkland in the city already.

So, I’m issuing a challenge to Cranbrook city council to come clean with its plans. Council subdivided the site into three properties earlier in the year and they appear to have something in mind.

Will they now do the right thing and tell us what it is?

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist, who believes the facts speak for themselves.

Article Share