After months of finessing, colourful catwalks were unveiled with a scavenger hunt in Calgary’s Marlborough neighbourhood on Saturday.
Catwalks are walkways or shortcuts that lead to community gathering points like parks, schools or transit stops.
The Marlborough Community Association and Sustainable Calgary worked together to create meaningful changes to the shared shortcuts that are quick, low-cost and transformative.
Srimal Ranasinghe, community lead with Sustainable Calgary, said the catwalks spark imaginations and bring the community together.
“Do they have to look like the way they look right now but can they function as community spaces that bring people together?” he asked. “Can they function as artistic spaces? Can they function as play spaces? As spaces that can grow food and other attractive greenery as well?”
Ranasinghe said residents were excited about last year’s pilot project and how it turned into what they see today.
The goal is to give the community (including kids) ownership over these spaces as well as make the catwalks attractive, safe, interesting and useable.
Different sections of the walkway have different themes, including art, greenery, games and Halloween. For the plant hangars, they reused wood pallets.
Because other neighbourhoods have expressed interest in the idea, the people behind the initiative partnered with the City of Calgary and the Federation of Calgary Communities to put it out on a citywide scale through Activate YYC, a grant program.
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