Imagine being in the middle of a city, while green laser lights shoot all over, basking concrete undulations and grass in a warm green glow, while park users roll around on skateboards or walk around, passively spectating. A stream of fresh, cool water flows down from the building which houses the lasers, while a clock, said to be one of the most accurate in the world, displays the time in red digits.

Sounds like a scene from the future, doesn’t it? Well, this was the scene in Calgary at the grand opening of Millennium Park, formerly known as Shaw Millennium Park, and now Cowboys Park.

When it was built, Millennium Park was home to the largest skatepark in the world. At around 75,000 square feet, it has since been eclipsed in size by skateparks in other countries but remains the largest in Canada.

Most Calgarians have at least seen the park, likely passing it while whizzing by on Bow Trail or 14 Street SW. Maybe they’ve attended some of the many large events that have used the space to host large crowds. But they probably have no idea the central building structure can broadcast a bright green laser beam light show from the 24 columns that rise from the park’s concrete central structure, or that a water feature used to flow from the building toward the now-former stage area. Or that the often-under-repair clock was considered one of the most precise globally.

“Millz”, as it’s known to local skateboarders, has helped shape skateboarding in Calgary since it opened 25 years ago. The skatepark brought me and many others to Calgary, where we found somewhere to gather and belong, away from work or home, long before the term “third place” became common in modern sociology.

We embraced the park as our own, taking care of it by cleaning it, shoveling snow from its bowls, and performing minor repairs.

Park updates strip the area of amenities without proper engagement: Klymochko

The recent updates to the park by Cowboys, including paving over the grassy gathering area, have not gone over well with many park users.

It’s an area that was used by west downtown dwellers to relax on the grass and read a book while taking in some sun, or walk their dogs in a rare patch of inner-city greenery. As revealed just a few days ago by skateboarders who posted photos to social media, the majority of the skatepark will be closed until the end of July, all so Cowboys can hold their music festival. In this Calgary version of Footloose, the skatepark users are the good guys while the music and dancing folks are the bad guys.

Unfortunately, the grassy area has been lost permanently. Chalk it up to another miss at Millennium Park. The skatepark is now closed during its busiest time of the year, and we do not know the extent of damage the heavy equipment and machinery could be causing to the concrete surfaces.

The lasers that have only been used twice (to my knowledge) because they require NavCan approval due to their interference with air traffic, the clock that is actually really hard to tell time on (and is usually not working), and the waterfall feature that used to flow through the grassy area– all of these are just memories sparked from a grand vision generated more than two decades ago.

The paving of the grass has been widely (and correctly) panned by Calgarians, but the “engagement” by the City of Calgary is salt in the wound.

The City announced the name change from Shaw Millennium to Cowboys Park, and the public quickly realized the park’s green space would be removed in early March of this year. Incredibly, in what can only be considered an afterthought that hoped to save face, the City then announced that “engagement” would take place from March 31 until April 21. At that point, why bother?

Just east of Millennium Park and only a few months prior, the City recently fumbled another park project: the bricks at Olympic Plaza. After first declaring that the bricks could not be removed due to them not being able to be preserved, the City relented and managed to save the majority of them. This was the right move, but why did it take a public outcry to spur on this decision?

The travesty at Millennium Park speaks to a much larger issue of grand visions, and the massive investments that come with them, not working out as planned.

I truly hope the design vision for the new Olympic Plaza considers how bigger or bolder is not necessarily better. And, like they did with the Olympic Plaza bricks, I truly hope the City realizes that giving Cowboys carte blanche at Millennium Park is a decision that needs to be reversed.

We don’t need lasers and other expensive features to make a place successful. Some of Calgary’s best places are also our simplest.

• Zev Klymochko is a longtime civic advocate and skateboarder who has worked and volunteered locally for political offices and community organizations.