THE Official Opening of the Brant Street Pier in Burlington, Ontario

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON.  June 15, 2013.  It opened – indeed it did and the event was wonderful to watch, a delight to be part of and a milestone for the city.  That milestone has the potential to become an albatross around the neck of this city but today is not the day to quibble.

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It is done – it is open and the public seem to love it.  There were out in droves on the Saturday when the Burlington Teen Tour Band marched the full length of the pier and returned with the city lag snapping in the breeze. 

These things happen. The city decided their wouldn’t be a “ribbon cutting” but instead there would be a banner made up and stretched across the pier for the Burlington Teen Tour Band to march through making the opening of the pier. The sign was supposed to read Brant Street Pier NOW but the banner was longer than the space and – well the W of now got hidden.  Ooops!  Not an omen – please.

The applause was very real.   I’m not sure if those young men and woman in the BTTB were fully aware of what they were participating in –but it was an historic occasion for the city.

They were sticky, they were gooey, they were soft and moist – one per person with more than a thousand made up to be given away. Did you get one?

The city had more than 1000 cupcakes on hand to pass out – they were all used up.

Hard to say how many people actually visited the pier on the Saturday – it will have approached 5,000 by the time the day was over.

Now what?

The pier will find its place.  The city will come up with ways to program the location and people will see it as something that makes their city just that much different from any other city in the province.

The birthing pains were excruciating and we know that from this point forward every politician will talk about the event as something historic.  Hopefully it will move the politicians off that ‘safest city in the country” line they keep touting.

A picture that should be etched in the mind of every citizen in the city. Glorious!

It is interesting that they speak of the pier as the completion of the city’s waterfront park.  The question as to what the Region does with the Beachway Park to the west of Spencer Smith has yet to be determined and for the waterfront to have some harmony the two will have to – and should – complement one another.

All in the future – this weekend the city celebrates and acknowledges that we now have something no one else has –and it is truly wonderful.

Are there flaws, deficiencies and things that need to be fixed quick, quick?  You bet there are – but today is not the day to point to hose.

Point instead to that picture of the full Burlington Teen Tour Band marching back towards the city with the flags flying and the full band playing.