Can something be considered “sustainable” if only weirdos are involved? As a weirdo myself, this is a topic I spend a lot of time thinking about, and the Richmond Street Transformation project that my office overlooks has caused me to consider the issue again.

So far the project appears to be very much of the “Birkenstocks and apple cider” school — chalk painting, conceptual art, Katimavik demonstrations, talking circles, etc. — to the point, I think, the end effect might actually end up being anti-sustainable: for regular everyday people walking and driving by the message isn’t going to be “wow, we really should have more bicycle lanes in Charlottetown!” it’s going to be more “they closed the street for this!?”.

The transformation project has another week of action to convince me otherwise, but so far it hasn’t lived up to its promise.