Why Is The Fix In At Lansdowne?

Ottawans should be against spending wildly any more public money on huge projects until the city gets its act together. And it certainly doesn’t have its act together at Lansdowne.

No more light-rail cock-ups. No more Lansdowne 1.0 cock-ups.

The city has absolutely botched $2.2 billion on LRT and now we’re getting nothing out of this project at Lansdowne but huge developer profits. What are the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group professional teams paying in rent? Seeing the city is getting nothing from Lansdowne except more giant bills, it appears they are getting the use of public facilities for free.

The city got nothing from Lansdowne and was capped at $1 million a year in revenue that was to go to repair public buildings on the site. That was the result of the so-called waterfall. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The waterfall was created to confuse people into thinking this was a partnership. It was not. It was a way to fool people.

LANSDOWNE: Elevator, Elevator, We Got The Shaft

I heard waterfall used by the city in a discussion of Lansdowne 2.0. Don’t fall for that crap again. If you don’t understand the money, don’t make the deal. My worst fear is that the city understands the deal and is still making it. Why?

Lansdowne 1.0 was designed so that the public would never get its money back on the civic site improvements. Maybe OSEG could declare how much revenue it has generated from high-rises at Lansdowne? And the argument that the city gets property taxes from those buildings is misleading. The city gets revenue from all residential buildings constructed, not just at Lansdowne. Why go into a lopsided partnership to get what you are already getting? Lansdowne isn’t a park anymore … it’s an unsuccessful shopping centre with very profitable high-rises and a falling-down stadium.

The city got nothing from Lansdowne 1.0 except huge bills paid for by you and me. The city will get nothing from Lansdowne 2.0 except huge bills paid for by you and me.

City staffers said that the municipality would not get its money back from Lansdowne 1.0 without Lansdowne 2.0. Well neither was designed to get the city its money back. The plans were designed as big real-estate deals for developers.

So why does city staff, our public servants, want to mislead the people they are to serve? What’s in it for city hall and the public? Why is city hall determined to ram this through when it will never make a nickel for the municipality.

Why is the fix in?

So you must ask the question of Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, city council and city staff … why did the city enter into such a lopsided deal for Lansdowne 1.0 and is now doing the same for Lansdowne 2.0. This is just another big real-estate deal for developers. What’s in this for the public, you know, the taxpayers?

Lies, it seems.

The city knows it. The public should know that. And the developers know that.

There’s nothing in this for the city except property taxes which it gets anywhere. Nothing. Get it? Nothing.

A better option would have been to tear down the non-heritage buildings at Lansdowne and make a park. Not only does Ottawa get a beautiful place and save half a billion dollars in bills but it also retains ownership of the land.

This convoluted mess of a deal on both Lansdowne options was designed to confuse the public.

So I ask again … why is the city entering into a deal again that gives the public no benefits … just costs. Why?

How Do We Fix Ottawa’s Light Rail? BENN

People say that Lansdowne is better than it was. With a bunch of ugly high-rise buildings on it? Beauty is in the eye of the fool.

Lansdowne has been terrible for the city, for its taxpayers and for the esthetics of the park.

If the principals behind this deal can give us a good reason to go forward with Lansdowne 2.0, let’s hear it.

Apparently it’s because we have a housing shortage and people need places to live. Developers don’t go into these deals as a public service. They go into them for profit. Good for them. Nothing wrong with that. But let’s not confuse the development industry with Mother Teresa. And affordable housing at Lansdowne? Yes, affordable housing if you are rich.

But so far, all we’ve heard is a bunch of obfuscation and twisting of the truth concerning the reality of the situation. Horrible public policy.

This project is terrible both ethically and fiscally.

If developers want to make big profits, feel free. That’s their right. But go the bank if you need money. That’s what the rest of us do. Unless the city will give me free money, too. If they do that, I’ll back Lansdowne to the hilt. Can someone explain why these guys get free money and I don’t?

Don’t make profits on the backs of taxpayers.

There are millions of good causes that for which the Lansdowne money can be used rather than pouring it down a sewer a second time for a butt-ugly development at Lansdowne.

Public servants should represent the best interests of the public. Whose interests are they representing at Lansdowne?

Not mine and not yours.

Ken Gray

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