I definitely think the biggest downside of the West End is the massive infrastructure clusterfata that would need to be remedied to make it work. I think with the environmental remediation, Bow re-alignment, riverside development, possible Crowchild/Bow fix, possible C-train bridge to Sunalta to handle the load....you could easily spend a billion dollars on fixing that alone. It's definitely not my favorite location if they go on the cheap, but if they want to do it right, it could transform the whole area into something we could all be proud of. I really wish Calgary would've tied this to an Olympic bid to get some federal funding out of it.
Personally, in an ideal world, I think the Railtown lands between 9th and 11th St SW (the huge empty strip of land that's between East Village and Victoria Park) would make for the best location for a mega sports complex like what is being planned. The East side of town has a ton of momentum in terms of redevelopment, is close to the existing entertainment district of the Stampede, and most likely wouldn't require the massive infrastructure changes that the West End area needs to work right. Car traffic wouldn't be much different that it is now, and it's already within walking distance to two C-train lines (although admittedly not as close as the one is now), and would probably be in the path of the SE line as well (so might be something that could be integrated from the start), so would be setup to support a wider range of citizens. Too bad the lands are privately owned by another developer.
|