Paving over Millenium Park raises lots of questions
The City’s rendering of the changes being made to Millenium Park
No public consultation on paving and renaming of Millenium Park
In July 2024, the City of Calgary announced Millenium Park would be renamed Cowboys Park after a new sponsorship deal was struck with Penny Lane Entertainment Group, operators of Cowboys Casino and the long running Cowboys stampede beer tent.
Fast forward to this past February when the Calgary Bluesfest revealed undisclosed plans to pave over 70% of the park’s green space. Councillor Terry Wong was quoted as saying “There’s no doubt that certain stakeholders were not included in a consultation,” but we’ve since learned that no public stakeholders were consulted before the demolition began.
- Why were the music and cultural festivals that have been programming this space for years not consulted?
- Why wasn’t the skateboarding community that uses Millenium Park engaged?
- Why weren’t the residents of the are neighbourhood of Downtown West involved?
Green space and mature trees paved over
With the City’s climate emergency declaration and Climate Strategy in place, it’s hard to justify the cutting down of 50-80 mature trees and paving over a rare green space in downtown, turning it into another heat-island parking lot.
- Imagine if the City paved over Prince’s Island Park—how would that change the experience of Calgary Folk Music Festival or Expo Latino?
- Why did we have to sacrifice this scarce green space when downtown has plenty of surface parking lots that could have hosted this Stampede beer tent?
Lack of transparency on sponsorship agreement
Eight months after the announcement of the sponsorship agreement with Penny Lane Entertainment the agreement has not been publicly released and we do not know what portion of these changes are being covered by property taxes. The process around the deal, including rushed arbitrary deadlines, secrecy, and lack of public engagement closely mirror the City’s agreement to publicly subsidize a new arena for the Calgary Flames owners.
- Why are the corporate naming sponsors dictating the design of public park spaces?
- What signal does this send to Downtown West residents and the users of the park about the City’s priorities?
All communities matter
The most important stakeholders have been sidelined in this process—the local Downtown West community, longtime Millennium Park recreational users including the skateboarding community, and the many cultural and music festivals that have programmed Millenium Park for decades to add to the culture and vibrancy of our city.
We need to make sure we are building a city for everyone, not just the business interests of a few. Over the coming months, I’ll be working for ward 7 and reaching out to Calgarians to advocate for a better outcome for Millenium Park.