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The Queen City |
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| FTLComm - Regina - Friday, June 10, 2005 | |||||||
After 121 years the Queen City is suffering from a number of problems but at the same time is experiencing amazing growth. I did not set out to show you all both good and bad about this city but rather to hint at what can be seen. The centre of the city Wascana park and lake has been revitalised and makes Regina one of the most attractive cities in the country. Yet only a block from one of its two major hospitals is one of the most serious ghettos in the city with the highest crime rate in the country. But it is not all gllom and doom. The burned out house is only a block from several brand new homes built in that same ghetto area where the unemployment is almost 90% with crime and violence as bad as it gets anywhere on this continent. One the city's northwest and reaching out into neighbouring suburban communities the housing developments are moving along at a feverish pitch while on the city's east side the retail development is continuing to grow at a rate that makes the landscape seem to change on a weekly basis as new massive structures appear alongside ones that were only finished weeks ago. This dramatic contrast between poverty and unprecedented growth and development is hard to understand yet this was the case before in history when in the 1920s there was amazing wealth and destitution forming a remarkably unstable society. If Regina does not come to terms with its poverty, over crowding and unemployment the consequences will only get much worse and the fabulous economic growth will be overshadowed by the ultimate consequences of a down trodden society. Park Street seen on the right in this QuickTime VR was the edge of the city only thirty years ago now about one quarter of the city stretches to the east beyond this point. Regina is far from being at a crossroads as it is still in its infancy, far below the critical mass that will one day boil over and engulf the community in widespread violence and civil disobedience. The racial situation in the city is still such that the underpriviledged are less than half but that time when the numbers of the minor reach the majority will have dramatic consequences and anyone who thinks that things will just shuffle along as they are now with the gangs and violence confined to their own groups will be sadly upset when the have nots demand and perhaps take what they do not have. So far Regina is insulated with the racial minority confined and unable to do much but suffer, this will not always be the case. City and provincial government have for far to long assumed that one day the Federal government will solve the problem but that will never happen and the sooner government addresses the needs of almost half of the population the more likely it will be that the crime and poverty will begin to be resolved. Until then Regina is doomed to be far less than royal. |
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Victoria Avenue
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