A problem with writing a Monday column is that many of the things I want focus on have already been talked to death by others.

Such is the case with the proposed designs for the new Alberta Museum.

By now, just about everyone has taken a kick at the can.

The commentary has indicated that a lot of people are less than pleased with the designs.

I am in that category as well.

These would not produce signature buildings. However, it is not the designs themselves that I find most interesting; it is the comments on Twitter, blogs and on the feedback sites of newspapers, television and radio programs.

Many of those comments are a clear indication of one of the problems with this city.

I don’t think anyone would argue that Edmonton is a particularly exciting place to live when compared to other larger urban centres. That’s not to say that we aren’t an interesting city, because we are. But we could be a lot more interesting.

It would be nice to think that if we changed our civic leaders more excitement would be the result.

But I don’t think that’s the case.

It has often been said that we get the leaders we deserve. I agree with that sentiment. I think our city doesn’t glow with imagination, innovation and fun, because the majority of Edmontonians really haven’t accepted that that’s what we want Edmonton to be. The comments about the new museum are a case in point.

The first thing people seem to want to do is to complain that such developments are a waste of taxpayers’ money. Many people compare it to financing a downtown arena as if that were an apples-to-apples comparison.

Others think that we don’t need a museum in the downtown. They are wrong. We do need it and a lot more things as well. Museums, art galleries, theatres and zoos are some of the things people use to determine if they want to live in a city. They rank right up there with good transit, safe communities and excellent schools.

No one who ever visited a major museum as a kid would argue that a museum isn’t important to the education of our children and our civic quality of life. However, in Edmonton, we seem to want to think small. Sadly, it is an objective that is all too easy to achieve.