A great blog post from DJkelly that breaks down the good and the bad of the Calatrava/Peace Bridge.
http://djkelly.ca/2009/07/loving-or-...-as-it-sounds/
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Pro: You can’t build a bridge for much less than this. The rumour we could have done it for $2 million simply is not true. It is also important to note the City of Calgary is not paying for this bridge out of their property tax revenues. The money for the bridge is coming from the Provincial Government as part of the Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding. As such, there are a number of “strings” attached to the agreement that mean Council can’t do much with the money except build a bridge. (Remember the Bronconnier/Stelmach public battle of about a year ago? This is what that was about. Bronco wanted to be able to spend the money on other more pressing civic needs. He lost this part of the argument.) Because the money is unexpected and limited to only this use, it stands to reason that you might as well build a better bridge than you normally would have rather than giving the money back. (You’ll hear more from me in the future about provincial/municipal funding issues. It is this kind of messed up relationship that illustrates why we need a new deal for cities.
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I think that is a key component of why this bridge exists. Overal I'm ecstatic with this bridge. I'm happy witht eh price tag, happy with the design and I think it's going to be a great piece of the urban (not just inner city) fabric. I see alot of similarities between this bridge and the Millenium bridge in London.