Jennifer Smith

There's a rather odd item coming up at this Monday's Council Meeting that seems to have caught everyone's attention over at Hawthorne Villager: Councillor Arnold Huffman's proposal to install a piano staircase at the new Milton Centre for the Arts.

What the heck is a 'piano staircase' you ask?



Pretty cool, huh? I thought so too when Arnold first showed it to me. However, there are a couple things that have made reconsider my initial support.

One is the price tag: $91,300. That's a lot of money. That's almost as much money as the much-maligned Steinway piano - and the Steinway at least will appreciate in value and draw high end performers and therefore audience members. This thing... I don't know. I would certainly never argue that everything has to have a monetary return, but I really can't see much of a tangible or intangible benefit in this at all.

Sure, it's cute. But is it $91,300 worth of cute?

The staff recommendation calls for a 50% contribution from a sponsor with the rest to come from the Milton Community Fund. Thing is, the Community Fund is supposed to be for "not-for-profit organizations and individuals whose initiatives add to the quality of life within our community or enhance the image of the Town", and there's no group or individual behind this that I can see. Unless Arts Milton wants to take it on, and I can't see that happening here.

My second reason for hesitating is more from a design and function standpoint. Every photo and video I've seen of one these things has it installed on a long busy stairway in an unlikely place (usually a subway) next to an escalator. In most cases, the motivation is to encourage people to be more physically active by taking the stairs.

In this case, the stairway is quite short: only 15 steps (two octaves), which hampers the illusion of a piano keyboard. It's not in a particularly heavily used spot (it goes up to the theatre balcony and offices). And the only alternate way up is an elevator that is unlikely to be used by anyone except those who cannot physically manage the stairs.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not vehemently objecting to this thing, although I'd much rather see it 100% sponsorship funded than use the Community Fund. My main problem is that it hasn't been made clear exactly what it's supposed to be. Is it a tourist attraction? Is it a fitness initiative? Is it a public art installation? Huffman appears to be promoting it as all three, and yet as far as I can tell it falls short on each count.

But maybe I'm just being cynical. Perhaps the sum will exceed its parts.

(Unfortunately I have to work on Monday night, so I'm counting on all you Tweeters out there to keep me updated.)

UPDATE: Council voted 7 to 3 to approve moving forward on the piano stairs, provided that the Centre for the Arts finds a sponsor to fund 100% of the project. In other news, an explosion was heard from the council gallery that is believed to have been Martin Capper's head.

 

And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging...

Tomorrow's Community Services Standing Committee meeting agenda has a couple of items dealing with two of my favourite subjects: transit, and food.

The first quarter Transit report is just chock full of good news. Paid ridership is up 81% compared to this time last year, costs per passenger trip have been cut nearly in half, and more and more people are buying transit passes, meaning that they are becoming regular, daily users.

All this is a huge vindication for the tireless defenders of Milton's much maligned transit system, and a slap in the face to those who keep insisting that "nobody in Milton rides the bus". Here's hoping the naysayers will stop trying to sabotage the system and start working to make it even better and more efficient.

The other item that caught my eye was a request for authorization to start a new Community Garden on some Town property adjacent to Chris Hadfield Public School. The garden would be roto-tilled and fenced by the Town, planted and harvested by students as part of their curriculum, and tended over the summer by parents and neighbours.

The original proposal from the school explains the importance of this initiative:

A food garden at Chris Hadfield will have a tremendous positive impact on our students. From junior kindergarten to grade 8, the garden will provide an opportunity for our students to discover where food comes from, to raise their environmental awareness, to learn their science and geography curricula through hands-on experiential learning, and to feel connected to their local land...


Furthermore, this garden will act to bring the local community together. Lead by a small group of knowledgeable and dedicated parents, the garden will be cared for by local families over the summer months. This project will encourage the coming together of a diverse group of community members with knowledge of gardening from different backgrounds and cultures.

I love this idea, and I hope this will encourage other schools to do the same - especially those in newer areas where houses don't have much garden space.

By the way, this will be Milton's second Community Garden - and if you didn't know we already had one, you're not alone. It sits at the corner of Ontario Street and Childs drive just across from the Mall on part of the Allendale property owned by the Region. The Town tills and provides water for it, but does absolutely nothing to promote it or even let people know it's there.

Photo courtesy of Purple Lizard Design

I hope the publicity surrounding this new garden will get the Town and its citizens thinking more about where our food comes from and what we can do to reconnect with our agricultural roots. Who knows? Maybe this is the real cure for sprawl.