To: Steven Serviss (Kingston This Week)
I have several comments to your article
printing Don Gedge's reply to public comments/questions:
i) I am appalled by the comment that "we need to put a signature building on the waterfront, not only hotels and condominiums": This may be partly true, in the sense that there are some hotels and condos on the waterfront, but this not different from other cities. Unfortunately, we have also Dupont, which does give Kingston too much credit. How about the City Hall? I thought it is THE signature building for Kingston, so are we planning to build something similar? And if so, WHY ON THE INNER HARBOUR LOCATION? Why on a location where we discontinue a marina, 2 striving businesses, where it is not enough place and have to fill in the Bay, where there is only one road of access which still has to be build and we are contemplating shuttle service in lieu of parking? Is this because we like the challenge of choosing the most inconvenient and unlikely site or because Kingston is all of a sudden short of shore line????
ii) Surprise, surprise: Mr. Gedge says that there are no "white elephants". Kindly refer him to an article in the Globe and Mail referring to the Toronto SkyDome: It cost $600 million to build, and has recently been sold for $25 million to Rogers Communications owned Blue Jays. Ontario taxpayers are still left to foot the bill for the original $300 million debt and "it will always be a reminder of the folly of sinking hundreds of millions of public dollars into a venue that ended up enriching smart private businesses while taxpayers were left holding the bill" (Globe and Mail, Dec. 1, 2004).
I suspect you will be printing our comments as well, otherwise the public is informed exclusively of one side of the coin, and, as far as I know, that would not be objective journalism.
Irena Manoliu
Resident