236 Victoria St N | 40 & 35 fl | Proposed

[plam]

There really aren't, though. It is super hard to find locations for climbing gyms. And they certainly reach more than 0.5% of the population. More useful than a hockey rink, and those are publicly funded.

I disagree. They could build a new climbing gym anywhere they could find suitable land and there is a lot of that around Waterloo Region. Only, they don't because no climbing gym makes enough money to open a new location as not enough people do this activity, which is why they are usually located in the most bottom of the barrel spaces that have almost no use case besides hosting something like this.

Which just proves the point that it's not a good use of the land because they can't seem to securely maintain a single location. If more than a tiny percentage of people were into this activity, then they'd probably be making enough money to be able to stay open without having to keep trying to find the cheapest lease possible. And the developers agree, since they have easily run the numbers and know that it makes way more sense to sell and redevelop a piece of land that will provide thousands of homes and new commercial space. That has exponentially greater economic and social benefits to the region than a climbing gym provides. A climbing gym provides 0 homes, a tiny number of jobs and is ultimately only available for those privileged enough to spend money to go there.

I'm not suggesting it's preferable to keep cornering this business (or any others) until it folds over, but if we have the choice between having high density residential skyscrapers like this project or the Borden project versus a climbing gym, the former is the more sensible choice. It's up to the gym and those who like the activity to properly fund the thing. It shouldn't be down to to coercing politicians to deny approving a major residential project just to keep a place like this open.

Or better yet - to bounce off something you mentioned regarding hockey rinks - maybe the region/cities could consider operating a recreational climbing facility the same way they fund golf courses, pools, community arenas and such. WPL worked with Teeple Architects and the YMCA to build the John M. Harper Branch library and that place has swimming pools, a running track, auditorium, gym and so much more. It makes sense to create community spaces that offer a wide range of activities, so maybe one day they would consider a climbing wall in the next public facility made in the region. As we grow and grow, they'll be building more of those. We outgrew the little downtown community centre at 35 Water West many years ago...maybe the former GRT terminal could host some awesome mixed use project complete with a plethora of services, recreational and sports activities for the ever growing number of people living downtown. It could have everything from a daycare, climbing walls, adult and seniors clubs, a swimming pool, gymnasiums for various sports, gym equipment, classes on anything from cooking to art, drop in centre/space for youth (particularly important for families who want to try raising children in an urban space), gallery spaces, social services and so much more. Something cool like that would be a hell of a lot more beneficial to the public than some sort of 15'000 seat sports stadium or whatever.

I'm all for climbing gyms in public infrastructure as well. There is one in a Calgary YMCA, as well as in the Toronto Pan-Am Sports Centre. Somehow it's not quite enough on the radar of decision-makers (who are old). It is also true that the public options tend to be much smaller than private climbing gyms. Toronto has gotten a lot of gyms, recently including some right in the middle of downtown (Basecamp), but it doesn't have the US-style mega gyms that have recently opened.

I also think that it's a matter of what type of community we want to be. Is it one with things for people to do in public, or one where people go to their own houses and hang out there? Climbing gyms really are more of a community hub than golf courses (I think; I've never golfed in my life) or sports stadiums. For me they are more like libraries and pools.

There are enough climbers to get 2000 emails sent to the Minister of Conservation about climbing in Ontario Parks last year, so it really is not a small demographic.