Charles St GRT terminal redevelopment

[danbrotherston]

I agree that defeatism isn't a good policy.

But I also think it's important to be smart. The malls in downtown failed because the people who promoted them didn't bother to understand how and why downtowns work. I think the same thing is happening with people promoting arenas. It's not to say that an arena can't be included in a revitalisation project, but I believe that if an arena is the thing you think will improve things, that simply isn't the case. Making downtown a place people want to be is the answer.

Here, let's ask a relevant question. The city already has an arena, I've been to it a few times. Is the presence of the arena in the auditorium neighbourhood making that neighbourhood more vital or more active than it would be without it? Or is it intermittently adding traffic, congestion, and parking complaints interspaced by being an empty inactive plot of land.

So why would we think an arena would do something different in downtown?

Well, that is an easy answer. There is nothing else, but the arena near the Aud with little to no transit and very little density so not many people are walking. DTK has restaurants, shops, Rapid transit and high density around it. 

I am not saying an Arena is the only answer, but i truly believe that it is part of the answer, it guarantees 8-10k people entering the DTK core at a minimum 34 nights a year. That doesn't include the titans,  all of the concerts or other events it could host (Brier, World Juniors, Figure skating worlds).  The thing is, at the end of the day the Aud is 75 years old and will need to be replaced in the next 2 decades, why not think of it now while we still have available land DTK to incorporate a DT Arena.

So what you're saying is that if downtown is already a desirable place that people want to go, then people who go to the games will choose to be there for some time.

Which is precisely what I said, the arena won't change whether people want to be downtown, which right now, the majority of people in the city don't want to be.

8-10k people aren't just "entering" downtown. Most of them are driving downtown--even with transit 90+% will still drive.

I don't think the arena would do anything to fix the problems with downtown, it would create 34 nights (plus some concerts of whatever) of a transient population who will just drive home afterwards. The rest of the time, the place will sit empty (say at least 300 days of the year) and contribute nothing to the activation of downtown. For 300 days of the year, it will be equivalent to an empty office building.

I'm not saying that an arena shouldn't be downtown, all I'm saying is that it would do nothing to help downtown, unless downtown is already healthy and thriving. London's downtown is not healthy and thriving, but if you go around the *gag* budwiser gardens *gag*--apparently now Canada Life Place, an improvement to be sure on a non-game day (300+ days of the year), it's a ghost down, it has done nothing to active downtown. If you go on one of the 34 game days + some concert days, it's just one big traffic jam.

As an aside, I never understand why people keep saying that the Aud must be replaced. It being old doesn't mean it must be replaced, buildings can be renovated and modernized as needed, I live in a city with buildings 100s of years old.