City Notebook: Difficult to avoid people when we need each other

By COLLIN GALLANT on March 14, 2020.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

We’re all in this together, but also alone. It’s an interesting concept and, while maybe not the most immediate concern of a health scare that’s gripping local communities in our hyper-connected world, the social aspects of stemming the spread of the coronavirus are undeniable.

Avoid handshakes, limit visits and unnecessary travel.

Self-isolate for 14 days is recommended. If it’s possible, working remotely at home could slow the spread and help the health system avoid what could be an overwhelming wave of cases.

The course of action has major implications for businesses and society in general, but also in how we interact with each other.

If it continues for any great length, it’s easy to see the measures as isolating, if not alienating.

A crisis like a flood involves a call to physical action. This could easily be misconstrued as a call to do nothing.

And how are we to bolster community spirit when there is little opportunity for that community to gather. Can we “come together” when the key is maintaining a separation?

The head of the City of Calgary’s emergency management department Tom Sampson provided food for thought on Friday.

“We’re using the wrong terminology,” he said in a social media post. “We’re talking about ‘social distance’ when really this is a time when we need to be as close to our friends, our families as we possibly can be.

“So, let’s use ‘physical distance’, meaning stay close with your friends, but not physically close.”

In a busy world, we’ve already lost much opportunity to gather and interact. We lament life that has become for many a treadmill of driving to and from work, shopping and home.

As the world has gotten smaller, through technology and travel, so too it seems have our close social spheres.

The online universe has brought shopping, new movies and even fast food to our homes at relatively little effort.

The current course of action could easily reinforce it.

But perhaps we’ll arrive at the other side of this knowing the full value of a handshake, a pat on the back, a kiss on the cheek of an elderly relative, an elbow in the ribs after a wise crack.

Perhaps we’ll rediscover the art of conversation, how to make our own fun, how to be productive, self-disciplined, and how to support those around us.

Perhaps. I hope so.

Hotel

Encouraging news broken by the News this week is that the final design of the “Iron River” hotel project is now before city planners ahead of a final council decision

The developer – headed by downtown rejuvenation booster Aaron Burghardt says there’s still a lot of work to work to do, but plans are progressing

The design is by FWBA Architects, whose stylish Second Street office was a Burghardt project. Another feather in the cap of the firm is that they’re also working of the new public works building for the County of Forty Mile in Foremost.

A look ahead

The Intermunicipal Collaboration framework – hammered out by Medicine Hat, Redcliff, and Cypress County – will be unveiled at the city’s council meeting on Monday. Another key matter is a final vote on the Tri-Area Intermunicipal Development plan that all three parties must pass, respectively.

100 years ago

A proposal to build rail service between Medicine Hat and Leader, Sask., was unveiled by Canadian Pacific officials, the News reported this week in 1920.

It was stated the 80-mile line could go ahead while the proposed Hat-to-Hanna line of the Canadian Northern Railway system was in doubt.

A forum calling for proportional representation and an end to the first-past-the-post electoral system would be held in Medicine Hat.

Following the opening of new Centre Block of Parliament buildings in February, built after a devastating fire four years earlier, the total construction cost was revealed to be $6.95 million.

Jas. Armstrong, the incumbent reeve of the M.D. of Excelsior was defeated in a by-election, officials in Dunmore reported. Three successful council candidates were Jas. Frinch, of Gros Ventre, Ole Jensen, of Roseberg, and J. Sallows, of Coleridge.

New federal Liberal Leader W.L. MacKenzie King’s call for an early election was defeated by Union government members.

A date for a gopher-killing day would be set by the newly formed local branch of the United Farmers of Alberta.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com