Downtown BIA chair Jeff MacIntyre sent a letter of thanks to fellow Downtown Sudbury members on June 28, a day after Greater Sudbury council's decision to build a new arena on the Kingsway.
MacIntyre's letter is as follows:
Thank you for your support,
A particular thank-you to Nico Taus, Christian Pelletier, John Arnold, David Robinson, Ted Willson and Brian McCullagh whose efforts and support in this endeavour went above and beyond.
Also to Mark Signoretti, whose belief in a vibrant downtown and passion were on high display last night.
Thank you to the mayor and councillors who supported us as well.
It's been a long road to here, and one thing is clear, those that care about downtown are more united and passionate than ever.
It would be easy to be discouraged by a vote that didn't go our way, but now is the time to harness that energy and rally the community that has been built on the road to this decision.
While Council gets to choose the location of its infrastructure, it's the people with passion that make those places vibrant. I wake up today and walk to work seeing the storefronts of passionate entrepreneurs, and memories of the passionate community I saw last night at council supporting them and the place they had built together.
I saw councillors last night whose wards don't represent the downtown speak passionately about why the downtown is important.
Today we need to remind them of those words, both those that supported us and those who didn't and move forward with Synergy, Art Gallery, Library and Place des Arts.
More importantly, we need to band together to build a stronger downtown, as entrepreneurs we need to make downtown a place our supporters are even more proud to support, as a community we need to come together with ideas to make our streets a place to gather without the confines of an event centre.
Downtown is in revival mode not because of decisions from city hall, but because of the community that believes in it. It was clear last night that while downtown lost the day, it's young and passionate supporters will win the future.
Thanks,
Jeff MacIntyre, Board Chair
