There is a lot going on these days down on the lands known as the East Village, that 49 acre parcel between Fort Calgary and the downtown core, and the Bow River on the north and 9 avenue SE on the south.

But first, a little history.

As the CPR pushed the main line west in 1882-83, it was generally acknowledged that the new townsite to be known as Calgary would be east of Fort Calgary, where the wonderful community of Inglewood now exists.

Land speculators, being land speculators, immediately began snapping up all that land which they believed they could then flip to the CPR for some handsome profits.

However, the CPR, being the CPR, (the closest thing to a local monarchy we have ever had), didn’t intend to be taken to the cleaners by Calgary’s first generation of land developers.

After having safely secured the lands to the west of Fort Calgary, particularly the strip along where the Palliser Hotel now stands, the railroad publicly announced that the townsite would be situated there, and the Inglewood boom went bust, as did many of the land speculators.

So, what would be some of the things to spring up around the new train station and townsite?

Hotels – including the now-legendary St. Louis Hotel.

In the picture accompanying this column is a picture that tells a story about the St. Louis Hotel – one moment in time.

I am pleased to mark my return as a regular bi-weekly contributor to the Calgary Herald by announcing my simple plan to save Canadian democracy.

I begin with the following question: why can’t we solve our problems in this country? I answer with the following proposition: our problems are not being solved because our ancient political system and institutions were not designed to find confront the complex and fast-moving problems of today’s world.