Re: June 11 letter “I love this city, but the vision for KED makes me want to leave,” by Christian Pelletier.
I agree with Mr. Pelletier’s passion and many of his arguments, but I disagree with his listing of all the things that are NOT confirmed at the KED.
I believe that the fact of these things NOT being confirmed should not matter ... at all.
It sounds like, if these things were confirmed, then KED would be a good idea. I don’t think it would be.
Even if all those things were confirmed, centralizing them all is a bad idea in itself.
Worse, centralizing them all on the far southeast side of the major centres of population just doesn’t make sense either.
This is not to mention that the outdoor recreational offerings like a waterpark, motorsports, festival square, will be within smelling distance of the dump.
Even if they picked up the whole idea and instead decided to centralize it downtown, or near Collège Boréal, (Maley/Lasalle/Notre Dame), as some have suggested; the problem is centralizing in the first place.
Never mind that there isn’t a confirmed hotel. There are lots of hotels in the city that could already use the business.
There are five or six in the downtown core that could probably expand the number of rooms and amenities they offer if arena investment were going there.
If putting a hotel at Moonlight Road and Highway 17 were a viable option with a coming arena, you would think a small group of the existing hoteliers of Greater Sudbury would have already joined together in a consortium to put a hotel there.
They could buy the land of, or team up with the people of, the Chateau Guay Motel to locate a hotel nearby this money-making bonanza, but they’re not.
Never mind that there is no committed motorsports, waterpark, soccer dome or drive-in theatre. If any of these were viable in Greater Sudbury, they would already exist.
Some may never come into existence on their own because they’re always being promised over there. And centralizing them doesn’t make sense either (let alone outdoors, beside the dump)
Are people going to go to the water park in the day and then walk to the restaurant, only to then drive to the drive in, or wear their waterpark sandals to the casino or arena? They don’t need to be centralized and offered together.
All this with Moonlight Beach just a kilometre away. Amenities like these, if they are viable, should be distributed throughout the region, not centralized on the southeast side.
If a waterpark should go anywhere, it should be in Chelmsford, where they watched for years as one died through red tape and the city’s legislative process.
The motorsports community would be better served with something large and flat between the city and Valley, on its own where they can make a lotta noise.
You can’t dismantle all the region’s town-built recreations only to re-centralize new recreational areas by the dump away from every town that has lost a ski hill, ice pad or swimming pool.
And never mind that there is no confirmed casino. The city doesn’t need or want one anyway. It would just be an expansion of the existing slots, and if they really want table games, they could put them there, out in Boninville between Chemmy and Blezard.
The original feeble attempts at public input at least ascertained that, people said a casino should be by itself, away from population centers.
Most people actually said if the slots are expanded to include table games then keep it where it is.
The city should buy a plot of land nearby the existing slots and put a new casino there and collect the rent from OLG as well.
They could bring the horse track back and put motorsports there too.
It is not the job of a city to pave a golden road to the doors of a provincial casino when they are only going to get a measly five per cent of the 50+ million$’s it extracts from people’s pensions and pocketbooks.
For every $48 million that goes out of the city through gambling, only $2 million will remain.
(I’ve said before, that’s like me asking someone to give me $1,000 and promising to give 40 bucks back. Very bad economic thinking)
So, I don’t like this list because it gives the impression that if only these things were confirmed, then he’d be supportive. I hope he would not be.
I am glad they are not confirmed.
That they are NOT confirmed is, I think, evidence that the whole thing is not viable or sensible.
Good business people know. If the idea were good, business leaders would be tripping over themselves to get in on it. That’s not happening.
It can be confirmed though that many existing businesses are worried about the arena relocation.
Many businesses would probably be able to expand their existing businesses if the arena stayed put, right where it is.
It can also be confirmed that many of these businesses have been paying taxes for generations and deserve to NOT have the city build an alternate new district with their own tax money, only to have this new district compete with their own existing businesses.
I really hope that council and the mayor reconsider their decision to proceed with building a district in a city whose existing businesses can not afford to compete with. Now is the time to reconsider and invest in Greater Sudbury’s many existing districts.
Stephen MacLean
Sudbury