Consultation: Large Venue Entertainment Centre comments

[Lydia]

Thanks keoadmin for giving us the input site. I have used it and if I can use it ANYONE can use it. lol Happy New Year.

p.s. I'm feeling lonely over here. I am not getting any replies to these messages i'm putting on here. What is it? No one likes me anymore?? Heck I would even love to hear from Bandit
:( :(

[bill]

Large venue for a city that can not even fix its roads or other infrastructure projects..............

[Evelyn King]

Hi Lydia:

Sorry you are feeling so lonely over here. LOL The powers that be somehow deleted me from KE, had a heck of a time finally getting back in here, but, here I am, a new member LOL.

Hope you are well and things are going OK in your life.

Evelyn

[old bayridge]

[It does seem odd that although we cannot improve the infrastructure, we will be able to afford the LVEC. What do you think of Ken Wong's opinions in the Whig?

[bill]

I think that if he has such a problem with this committee, and if it is taking time away from his life, then he should quit.

Does anybody know who is the realtor for the lands at sir john a and the 401 or division area and the 401.....wong and the committee claims it would cost more anywhere else......I really do not believe that??????????????

this site looks great :)

[nstn]

Answers to the many LVEC concerns seem to be slow in arriving. As many others have said, it is unclear why it should get priority and resources over the many other desperate infrastructure problems in the City of Kingston.

A much smaller investment of several million dollars in rehabilitation of the existing Memorial Centre property would be far less expensive than the proposed LVEC. It would also be a more widely available as a public community centre.

[ronmac60]

As Maven and others have indicated Kingston residents have almost uninimously stated that the LVEC project size must be influenced by
other necessary city upgrades and repairs.

If a list was made of all the expenses Kingston faces in the near future
and at the bottom of the list a price tag of $28 million was added and then
if such a list was presented to the taxpayers on election day, just
how many of us would approve the huge $28 million? Unfortunately
there is not much chance that a public referendum will be offered
but if it were, I am sure the LVEC project would NOT be approved.

Instead, if a suggestion that we spend $11 million building a NEW
facility on the site of the present ARENA I think the taxpayer
would approve.

The sad fact is that when large enetertainment areas are built, often
the result is a deficit within a year or two of completion. The best
example is the splendid OKEEFE CENTRE in Toronto. Within a few years
after it opened the city taxpayers were faced with a multi-million
dollar deficit. It was not because the great ampitheatre was defective
or inaccessible in any way. It was simply that taxpayers each had their
own budgets to cut and BIG EVENT tickets, often $50 or more per person
were the first to go.

No event that I can imagine would bring 6500 people together in
Kingston on a cold winter's night. Having attended hundreds of games
and concerts over the years my guess is that 2000-3000 maximum
would be a more accurate figure.

Someone has suggested underground parking for 1400 cars. But
that person did not quote a cost figure for such an amenity. If it
were $2 million would this be included in the present price or be
an added expense?

City experts tell us that a third of our population would come to the
arena by public transportation. But to the 50,000 folks who live in
the west end of the city, are there busses that would go directly
to the proposed waterfront and be there to take them home at
11.00 PM all through the winter?

Recent suggestion re patron parking is that they use "off site areas"
meaning a walk of 10 to 20 minutes. Just how many seniors would
be willing or even able to make that long walk twice during the winter
months?

Kingston Electors information will, I am sure, be valuable to those in
charge of the LVEC project. My suggestion is that KE should create a
weekly column in the Whig. Each week KE would choose from contributors
messages.