I have a dream, and it’s totally do-able

A younger Martin Luther King stood on the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, whereas an estimated 250,000 folks packed the reflecting pool.

There, on August 28 1963 he gave his well-known “I’ve a dream” speech — a masterpiece that referred to as for civil and financial rights and an finish to racism within the US.

Nicely of us, I too have a dream and it’s a doozy.

First off, this is my beef.

Vacationers come to Calgary, they get on a bus or lease a automotive and go to Banff and the Rockies. Few, if any, cease in Calgary.

Whereas we do have some cool issues to see, comparable to The Glenbow, the Calgary Zoo and Heritage Park, the Calatrava Bridge, in addition to a number of navy museums and scenic bike paths, we do not actually have a giant draw.

Apart from the 10-day Calgary Stampede, after all. The best out of doors present on earth, as we are saying, however after that, it’s just about lifeless as Julius Caesar.

We’ve music and cultural occasions too, and Studio Bell, however once more, nothing actually enormous. No one goes to fly to Calgary to absorb a cultural pageant

They go to Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, presumably even the Badlands. Many vacationers do not even know concerning the Blackfoot Crossing Interpretive Centre, which is only a quick drive east of Calgary.

A good friend of mine and his daughter from LA, really did do a stopover in Calgary, touring our downtown, earlier than hitting Freeway 1 west.

To my embarassment, they had been shocked by the dodgy characters and open drug dealing on the mall and the way the Calgary Police Service did not appear to care.

However let’s go away that difficulty for a unique day.

Now, I do not need to take away from the Hangar Flight Museum’s deliberate $60 million undertaking to construct a brand new facility. The financing for that undertaking will launch in earnest in 2024.

And, it has a superb probability of taking place. It actually does.

Nevertheless, as I mentioned, I too have a dream and it’s this.

What if Calgary constructed an enormous, Louvre sort, glass coated three pronged ‘tremendous museum.’

Every prong, would home a specialty; one leg may home our aviation historical past, one other leg may home the military/navy museums and the third prong may home the Glenbow.

The latter’s downtown location may very well be offered off, to boost cash for the brand new facility, which may very well be named, the Lougheed Museum of Calgary.

It may even have excessive ceilings, coated in glass, the place issues may very well be hung from above.

I envision a cultured place, just like the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the place they really levelled a mountain and spent US$1.3 billion to construct a world-class artwork museum.

It even has a monorail that takes you from the car parking zone under, to the museum up high and again.

I spent a day there as soon as, which wasn’t sufficient, ending up within the wonderful cafeteria that missed LA.

I’ve been to fabulous museums in my life — the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, the Churchill Warfare Rooms in London, the Museum of Flight in Seattle, the Loopy Horse memorial and customer centre within the Black Hills, the Getty and the Nixon Library in LA, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Acropolis Museum in Athens — and so they all have one factor in frequent.

It is about compelling exhibitions and nice storytelling, for positive, nevertheless it additionally has to do with why can we search, surprise and marvel at issues past ourselves.

It has to do with universally perplexing nature of what the museum has to supply as effectively. Who wouldn’t need to see a facility that had all three of those fabulous subjects beneath one roof, for one price.

And, we’ve got a narrative to inform that could be very distinctive.

To some of us, it could usually appear that such establishments are merely locations the place forgotten objects go to take pleasure in their closing years.

However the energy of museums are extra related at this time than they’ve ever been.

Museums assist us be taught from the previous, they carry communities collectively, they stand agency within the face of adversity and function hubs for innovation and interplay.

And most significantly, they educate future generations.

How a lot wouldn’t it price? I’d estimate between $100 and $150 million, and it might embrace a high-end meals courtroom within the central atrium, together with a memento retailer or two.

Very like we see in airport concourses.

And sure, that’s some huge cash, however a drop within the proverbial bucket if you evaluate it to Calgary’s bold Inexperienced Line undertaking, which has been estimated to price upwards of $20 billion when it is lastly accomplished in 2027.

The most important undertaking in Calgary historical past and one that continues to be mired in controversy.

Whereas one metropolis group has requested for a outing, to re-look on the undertaking to enhance it and presumably avoid wasting cash, Calgary’s metropolis council firmly has its blinders on, refusing to take heed to the populace.

Worst mayor, worst council at a important time in our metropolis’s historical past. An ideal storm of municipal incompetence.

And the $20B estimate doesn’t embrace potential price overruns for a tunnel beneath the Bow River, which specialists say provides uncommon engineering challenges.

In different phrases, a multi-dimensional museum is do-able. It simply requires the desire and the way in which. And the funds too, after all.

I imply, if we will afford to construct $20 to $25 million cloverleafs throughout this metropolis and hand out thousands and thousands to wealthy Calgary Flames house owners, absolutely we may afford a undertaking of this dimension.

One thing to trigger vacationers to cease in our city and perhaps spend just a few {dollars} right here. Get to know us and like us.

We’re actually not that dangerous. Nicely, most of us.