EDITORIAL – Kudos to those who build things up instead of tear them down

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

IT’S SOMETIMES SAID there are two kinds of people in every community — those who tear things down and those who build things up.

We certainly have our share of the first kind but, fortunately, we also have a lot of the good kind. Here are a couple of current examples.

They’re acts of imagination that help make Kamloops a little more beautiful. One is the new mural on the former Paramount theatre, now operated by the Kamloops Film Society.

The rescue of the theatre is, in itself, an example of community building, and the new mural adds to the growing inventory of public art in the city. Created by artist Zach Abney, the newest addition represents scenes from past films shown by the society.

The other example is the initiative of painting commercial dumpsters in the downtown core with artistic renderings to deter graffiti vandalism. The idea has been heralded as a first for Kamloops, which isn’t quite true — it was tried 20 years ago or so without much success but it’s worth trying again.

The new one has been painted for the City by Landon Muzio, whose views on the best way to fight graffiti I’ve had occasion to strongly disagree with. But regardless of the graffiti issue, painting pictures on dumpsters has got to be an improvement over the current drab mono-tone paint jobs.

That leaves about 1,199 to go, and it would be great to do every single one.

There are many more examples of the ways in which community minded people build instead of tear down but I thought these two were worth mentioning today. They’re just the sorts of things that make a City more livable, and those who make them happen deserve kudos today and every day.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.