A resident’s comments.
What makes a city beautiful? What makes a city a destination? A quick browse of the internet reveals that in Canada top tourist attractions include: Niagara Falls, Banff, The Rocky Mountains, Historic Quebec City, Nova Sootia’s Paggy’s Cove and the Bay of Fundy as the top 5 destinations. The order may change and some of these destinations may fall off of the list but whatever site you search you will find that Quebec City is within the top five- regardless of criterion. And why is that? It is because it is a city that has recognized and paid attention to it’s history – it is as simple as that.
Clearly the Wilson Farmhouse is not going to make Guelph a worldwide tourist attraction but let’s face it, nothing is. But what can make Guelph special and beautiful? As a city that is rapidly increasing in size and in housing that is circa 1980 plus, what can make these areas unique? What can distinguish us from so many other swiftly growing cities?A nod to history, variety , centres for community and culture. There is a reason that Quebec City is sought after and that ‘Europe” is ” the Place to go”. Please consider that and the following quotes.
“A country without a past has the emptiness of a barren continent; and a city without old buildings is like a man without a memory.” Graeme Shankland
“The past reminds us of timeless human truths and allows for the perpetuation of cultural traditions that can be nourishing; it contains examples of mistakes to avoid, preserves the memory of alternatives ways of doing things, and is the basis for self-understanding…” Bettina Drew
“If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you are.” James Burke
“A building does not have to be an important work of architecture to become a first-rate landmark. Landmarks are not created by architects. They are fashioned by those who encounter them after they are built. The essential feature of a landmark is not its design, but the place it holds in a city’s memory. Compared to the place it occupies in social history, a landmark’s artistic qualities are incidental.” Herbert Muschamp
“Never believe a politician or a bureaucrat who says there’s no money for preservation.” Charles Payton CM