I’m back, after an extended summer made far too busy with looking after other things. ‘Tis blogging season once more!
It seems Saskatoon’s oft-delayed River Landing project has finally taken root, right on the wind-swept banks of the South Saskatchewan. Here’s the first of a few aspects I’ll highlight, featuring some photos from the summer.
The downtown portion of the riverbank, west of the Traffic Bridge, has never been soft on the eye. Three short years ago, this was a gravelled road trailing down to the water’s edge, a non-descript, weedy surface on which downtown workers parked their cars. Given our crime rate in Saskatoon, that would seem to be a gamble.
Now it is a place to take your kids, a promenade where lovers can take in the prairie sun. For the first time ever, this stretch of land—between the Traffic and Senator Buckwold bridges—actually looks like it belongs to a city, rather than a little town. For the first time ever, it’s a place to be enjoyed. Most notable of all is the water park for the kids, which shows the path of the river as it tracks across the prairies. Above, there’s art of sorts—those “sticks” in front of the new Persephone Theatre. There’s also a snack bar restaurant.
Lastly, the founders of our community are featured at the bottom of the traffic bridge, in the centre of a new traffic circle: Chief Whitecap and John Lake. (This occupies space near the present Meewasin Centre, the intersection of Spadina and Third Avenue.)
