Originally Posted by troutman
Facebook friend wrote this letter - some good points:
Just sent this letter in. Remember folks, you only have until Friday at noon to have your feedback on the arena deal added to the record and actually considered by council (hah).
To His Worship Mayor Nenshi, Councillor Woolley, and whomever else it may concern,
I'm writing to provide my feedback on the proposed fundamentals of the Victoria Park Event Centre. First of all, I'd like to express my gratitude to Councillor Woolley for his motion to extend the period of public engagement for this project. As was rightly pointed out, the amount of time provided to the public is, frankly, insultingly short for a deal of this scope. When Council unanimously approved a motion on March 4 (again moved by Councillor Woolley) requesting that administration develop a plan for "public feedback on the terms and conditions of any potential deal," it's hard to imagine that four days to review the deal was what they had in mind. Yet here we are.
The feedback I'd most like to provide is that in my opinion, there is not enough information released to date for the public to provide meaningful feedback. Statements from your worship and other members of council clearly state that this is "a good deal for Calgary" and that the city will see benefits, and according to the City's website, that the City will receive a "return on investment," but the numbers provided are underwhelming at best. A $400 million return on a $275 million investment over 30 years is an ROI of approximately 1.1% for the city—assuming there are no cost overruns on a half-billion dollar project, that revenue estimates are accurate, and ignoring that items like property tax revenue from retail tenants could be generated from investments other than an event centre. There are countless studies in recent years suggesting that arenas and event centres never deliver the promised economic stimulus, and Calgarians deserve a better answer as to why this deal will be different.
The community benefits listed are also overstated, as they imply a situation where the Flames will absolutely leave if we do not build this centre now. That is a highly questionable position, at least based on the information the public has currently. Not to deny that a prominent sports team and athletic facilities contribute to community identity and health, but to list those as benefits of this project is to imply that we don't currently have them.
Based on those criticisms alone, it is difficult to see how this is the best deal the city could receive, and I would urge council to either do a better job of explaining the benefits, or listen to the many, many frustrated Calgarians who are asking you to turn down this project. I have read other letters that other citizens have publicly posted listing a variety of other concerns, and I encourage you to take those concerns seriously.
However, given the dialogue to date and the rushed feedback period, I assume it is very likely that this project will go forward, regardless of the feedback Council receives. That being the case, I would like to respond to the question of what I'd like to see in an event centre.
Given that significant public funds are going into the centre, it would be ideal to see the centre made accessible to all Calgarians. Mandating that a certain percentage of seats to all events over the life of the agreement be allocated to heavily discounted or free tickets for low-income Calgarians would go a long way to ensuring this public accessibility.
If the goal is to create an entertainment district, one thing that has been lacking for Calgary's film community is smaller screening spaces. A range of screening rooms from 50-100 seat rooms through 500-600 seat rooms could address a longstanding gap and benefit the dozens of film festivals that take place in Calgary every year.
Since this is an event centre and not a sports arena, it would be nice if the public support programs went to a wider range of groups than just community sports organizations, as there are many other community organizations that are in need of such support. If that isn't possible, building in some assurance that these funds will support such organizations in a wide range of communities would be useful, with a specific focus on marginalized groups, people with disabilities, immigrant and refugee youth, and indigenous communities.
The city should clarify and quantify the value of the lands involved in this deal, specifically the Enoch Sales property and the Victoria Park bus barns, and measures should be taken to ensure that the City receives adequate compensation for any transfers of these lands, which could include caps on the differential between the 2018 land value of the Enoch property and its value at the time of sale, or other such measures. It is also vital that these land deals do not impair the city's ability to build the Green Line on time, on schedule, and with a routing that meets the needs of commuters.
Again, it is my hope that Council will either reject this deal, or will better explain the benefits aside from a marginal and questionable return on investment, and claims of economic development that go against a wide and established body of study questioning the benefits of arenas and event centres. And I thank Councillor Woolley for his attempt to allow for actual, considered feedback on this proposal, in a motion that I was disappointed to see the rest of council reject.
Sincerely,
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