Quote:
Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed
If what you say is true, then it's also no guarantee that an arena will do any better.
But also, when has anywhere near $100 million (even that is half of what the city of Edmonton would be putting into a new arena) been spent on previous revitalization attempts?
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Firstly, the City welcomes the arena in downtown and supports it because they know the benefits are worth it. No, building the arena district is not more of the same. The City has tried to build up Churchhill square (twice), allow for residential condos in downtown and encouraging businesses to develop in the area but nothing is guarantee to succeed. The City and private investors have never taken on such a big development of monstrosity proportions (2 billion dollars worth) probably no one would dare dream and implement it.
Here is a guy like Katz who has a vision to enhance both the city and his hockey team and dare to dream big. I don't see any other big thinkers willing to take the reins. How many more big museum, art galleries, large shopping malls etc can we build to enhance our livelihood and wellbeing? I attend the museum and art gallery once a year that I contributed through my taxes to build.
Some of my taxes are used to subsidized or assist private businesses like the Dell call center. The City built it on 3 acres of land and renting to Dell for 1 dollar per year. Dell left within 2 years and the building sat emptied for a year and a half. Katz is not the first businessman to ask for assistance nor will he be the last-at least in this case, his dream for an arena district will benefit more than just a few art gallery/museum goers who attend maybe once a year.