Markham Hislop
Let’s give credit where credit is due. I poke City Hall with a stick from time to time but when the bureaucrats do something right they should be praised. This is one of those times.
The City of Calgary Waste and Recycling has come in for a fair bit of criticism in this column for its treatment of Race City and the problems it’s caused for associated clubs, such as the Calgary Kart Racing Club.
One issue for which the City has been justly criticized is the closing of 68 Street SE and the hardships that has caused for the tracks.
My constant complaint about Waste and Recycling is that it refuses to look for win-win options. Dave Griffiths, director of waste and recycling services, made it very clear in an email to me that he views the dispute with Race City as a zero sum game – there must be a winner and a loser.
In other words, a gain for one side is a loss for the other. Thus far, the losers in this game have been Race City, race fans, businesses tied to the track, racing-related businesses and local SE businesses.
That’s a lot of losers.
But as SECN is reporting today, the City is opening 68 Street Saturday to allow CRKC access for Round Two of the club’s racing series.
The move is an experiment, intended by the City to gauge any damage that might be done to the new road construction.
Waste and Recycling’s decision opens the door a crack. If Saturday is deemed a success, maybe the City will consider opening 68 Street for other CRKC events.
I certainly hope so. Every event the club has to cancel costs it in the neighborhood of $8,000. How long can the non-profit organization continue if it loses money every time there is a spit of rain and the goat trail through Race City becomes impassable?
Businesses that rely on those events, such as the food caterer, also lose money when events are cancelled. No one likes to see small businesses penalized, especially in today’s tough economic climate.
Kudos to Waste and Recycling for being open to new approaches. If the City can build on this one minor bit of cooperation between Waste and Recycling and the CRKC, maybe the 2009 racing season will be salvaged.
Race fans across the city are hoping this is the start of a new era in relations between Race City and the City of Calgary.
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