Bill Gordon hopes his idea will go viral.
Not COVID-19 level viral, but just picked up locally.
The Ward 2 councillor said he'd been fielding phonecalls from constituents who are sharing various concerns related to how the pandemic measures will affect the town. In some of the conversations, Gordon said people had brought up the Big Dig and wondered why it hadn't been postponed.
"They're concerned about contractors from out of town bringing infection to the community," he said. "Then their other core concern is the well-being of the contractors. And a tertiary concern is that aren't the businesses suffering enough?"
To a large degree, Gordon said the contract signed by the town lays down the start date.
"If we were to try and walk back on it, there would be a significant financial cost to us," he said. "I made the inquiries because I shared the concerns with the people who were contacting me. If it was the only reason that the crew was coming out, then I would have asked that we consider putting a pause on it. But I was told that they've been declared an essential service and if it weren't our project, they'd be working on another one."
So Gordon's idea is to turn the project into an opportunity for people to focus on something other than COVID-19.
"Usually construction sites do bring a lot of gawkers and onlookers, so it struck me that the concept makes sense," he said. "There are lots of people that live downtown, above the stores, but they may not have unlimited broadband internet. So I would really think it would fall on the shoulders of the business owners who are open that if they do have a security camera or web camera."
The idea, Gordon said, is to point a camera out the window onto the street to be able to show the work happening downtown.
"The cost would be borne by the people who either buy a webcam or put one in place," he said. "It could also be used as a marketing tool. If you're offering takeout food, you might be at a vantage point to offer the view to the street, and people could look at the stream and hopefully get a hankering for your food."
And he has already installed a camera on Georgian View Shoppes, owned by David Lee.
"I just donated my space since it's vacant," he said. "I thought I could do something for the town so people can see progress live. Anytime somebody wants to know what stage they're on and how far they've gone, they can just go online and look."
The link is now live at billgordon.ca.
"It's pretty good actually," Lee said, adding Gordon had shown him the live stream after installing the camera. "Store owners would want to see the progress, especially when they can access it from their computers and phones."
If it wasn't a pandemic, Gordon said he would be asking the town or the Midland BIA (Business Improvement Area) to do this.
"But everyone has so much on their plate, this seems like a nonsense thing to try and pursue officially," he said. "It's totally within the power of citizens. And I think it's a great idea and can be monetized and marketed."
Gordon shared the idea on his Facebook page and seven out of the eight comments were encouraging and approving of the idea.
One resident, William Francis Mark Higgins, was against the dig.
"The dig should be cancelled," he wrote. "It will kill businesses. It brings people here who may be sick and they work too close together too, which can hurt their health. This construction now is just stupidity given the present crisis."
Another resident responded to the same comment disagreeing that the timing is bad.
"Councillor Bill Gordon perfect timing to get it done," wrote Josephine Cote. "There shouldn't be much traffic and pedestrians due to COVID-19 and most businesses are closed anyway."
Gordon said he agreed this was the perfect time for the project.
"If we were to put this off for a year, people would be freaking out because when it rains hard enough, and it will, the sewers will be overflowing into Midland Harbour," he said. "If we were to push it to next year, these businesses would just be getting back on their feet and then we would tell them we're going to dig up King Street a year after you're trying to recover."
Going ahead with the project right now, added Gordon, is like pulling off the Band-Aid.
