Shirt Tales

Photos L to R:

1. Visual graphic illustrating Centre Block real estate up for grabs attached to Forsyth Art Deco factory portion-- soon to be demolished to make room for parking garage;
2. what the public got for its money on another city block also demolished in its entirety-- YOUR! market;
3. what the private sector got out of the deal to build us a "OUR" Kitchener Market ( Rambling Rose who lives an easy 10 minute drive has only gone to shop there twice since it opened);
4. map of another block partially demolished-- starting at Queen St and moving east: the American Block (privately-owned), parking lot, a 1960's one-storey bank; the Oxlea office tower, the Cenotaph green, and the Canada Citizenship and Immigration building (owned by federal government), Vogelsang Green and more parking;
5. last photo? Canadian Block on north side of King Street looking towards Frederick Street.
   
   Berlin then, Kitchner now, and what will King Street look like 30 years from now?

• Currently available on the city's website is a hotlink to request citizen input into the Centre Block redevelopment process which can be accessed here: http://www.city.kitchener.on.ca/centre_block.html There's lots of links here to background information. Perhaps the most important link deals with the City's proposal to private developers who are to respond to its RFP (Request for Proposal) under what is called a P3 model-- the acronym for public-private partnership. Essentially boils down to "we will give you the taxpayer- owned 2.5 acres on Centre Block + some cash if you, the private developer, will build us a new central library + parking garage to allow you to build a maximum density residential development on the remainder of the site. The last time the City floated this proposal in 2003, there were no takers. Since then, the Centre Block Project Committee adopted the library as the lure on the hook. However, as costs for building this library started escalating, taxpayers started resisting this particular process-- so much so that this Council now wants some citizen input. But remember, Council intends to redevelop this prime piece of real estate -- with or without a library! If there is no library, what do we get for lands purchased for $9,700,000 and charged to the Economic Development Investment (Fantasy) Fund? Another parking garage? in one of the three worst air quality areas in all of Ontario?
• One recent example of this Council's downtown redevelopment projects using the P3 model is "Your Kitchener Market" (public share) for which an entire city block was razed & still bleeding taxpayer monies in the improvements required. Most of the block will be occupied by Le March condo residences (the private portion).
• Various Centre Block Committee members have talked about "creative innovative financing options." The next phrase that will crop up to replace P3 will likely be AFP (alternative financing proposals). For example, "AFP uses private sector resources and expertise to provide on-time, on-budget project delivery with long-term consideration of building life-cycle costs." cf. North Bay project at this link: http://www.nbgh.on.ca/downloads/reportspring06.pdf
• Ontario's Ministry of Public Infrastructure endorses AFP's: " AFP does not mean privatization. AFP uses private sector resources and expertise to provide on-time,on-budget project delivery with long-term consideration of building life-cycle costs...AFP models are selected for given projects on the basis of an assessment against the principles articulated in the Ontario government's Building a Better Tomorrow framework for planning, financing and procuring public infrastructure. Any role for the private sector in AFP models is governed by those same principles. Some of the benefits of AFP include:
  · Accelerated investments in infrastructure
  · Transferred risk of cost overruns and missed deadlines (to the partner)
  · Enhanced expertise, skills and dependability
  · Earlier construction start on more projects
  · More effective project management and monitoring
  · Transparency and fairness in processes
  · On-time, on-budget project delivery" and provincial government backgrounder info here:
  http://www.pir.gov.on.ca/userfiles/HTML/cma_4_42522_1.html
• What ever happened to public control over public resources? How likely is it that a private developer will assume public risk without factoring some risk and return on investment? even propose lease-back payments? cf. the Old City Hall that was torn down and then City of Kitchener leased its offices in that red building opposite Market Square? and became the tenant in an Oxlea building? How much will this cost taxpayers in the end?
• Will any of the above questions be answered as you complete the online survey? It is important to insist that only a publicly- controlled process for redevelopment of publicly-owned lands will be the best and most cost-effective process to redevelop the Centre Block and even to build a central library--be it on Centre Block or elsewhere. It is important that this process becomes transparent and accountable to the folks who will be paying for it! http://www.city.kitchener.on.ca/pdf/centre_block/question_flow_chart.pdf

Glen Murray, Mayor, City of Winnipeg, speaking on Political Will: "It particularly disturbed me because in the dialogue that I was hearing yesterday, people were talking about city government like it was someone else’s property. And people were asking, "Well, how do we change things? How do we deal with government?" as if it’s some monster you have to battle. It’s simple, the answer is three words: Take It Over. If a gay man can be elected to office in Winnipeg in 1989 and become mayor in what was arguably a more socially conservative community just north of Canada’s Bible belt, I think you can have radical change in ......" Why not visit Glen Murray's Winnipeg? here: www.winnipeg.ca/newdeal.

Full text of speech here: http://www.artsnb.ca/eng/pdf/Murray_CreativeSpaces_oct03.PDF

# posted by ramblingrose @ 3:51 PM