Comments on: Arena: Katz Group Pitch

By: Edmonton City Council - Please Approve the EAD | Urban Jungle

Edmonton City Council - Please Approve the EAD | Urban Jungle — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:59:06 +0000

[...] some of the blog posts out there. Councillor Iveson’s is a great place to start. Some people choose to look at the information, a.k.a. the [...]

By: Trudy

Trudy — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 16:37:02 +0000

Question for Kelly. Please post your source for your statistics. You state that 85 to 95% of Edmonton citizens want a new arena. Please provide the source of the independent poll that supports your statistics.

By: Colin

Colin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:10:44 +0000

I note the new picture – very nice

By: brian

brian — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:47:00 +0000

to reiterate. downtown is seeing development without a downtown arena.

the city will only see tax revenue shift from the rexal/northlands areas to downtown, for any development a new arena gives. this does not equate to an increase in tax revenue. they might see some small tax revenue by increasing taxes downtown, which I doubt will encourage development.

downtown already has the shaw conference centre for large events, which will likely see an expansion in the near future. downtown also has plenty of restaurants, shopping, a theatre, parkland, and hosts many events throughout the year.

an arena might bring hockey fans downtown, but if people are there for the hockey alone, they will soon leave. spinoff benefits are easy to claim, but hard to prove and often exaggerated.

the lrt will bring far more people downtown, as downtown will be the transportation hub for the city. 354 000 people and growing, use ets every day to get to where they need to go. how many use an arena, and how often? a few thousand people for a few hours, every few weeks vs 354 thousand over the course of a full day

which is the wiser investment in the goal of “bringing people downtown”? think about it, and answer it honestly, not with the “someone that went to a draft pick in LA” bias

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:52:57 +0000

I’ve read through all of this, and there are some great comments throughout. I myself support a new arena district in the downtown core. To me it is right for the city, especially with the push to develop and rejuvenate our core.

I was recently at the NHL draft in Los Angeles, and seeing the arena district there with the restaurants, clubs, and vibrancy that it has made me happy that it is the same group responsible for their arena district that Katz is consulting with on ours.

If you take a look at the area surrounding the proposed site, all you really see is empty lots, many of which aren’t even being used for parking. Imagine the tax benefits the city would see if that area was fully developed. A large portion of the empty lots in the downtown core are currently in the planning stages of being developed. The arena district should push some of those plans forward, with the city seeing more tax benefits.

People currently don’t go downtown much due to the lack of venues, or places to go. Businesses don’t want to open there because there’s not enough traffic. A new arena district would bring more businesses downtown, and more people.

I agree there are issues to sort out, and risk, but I see nothing but good coming from the extra development. Please figure something out and get it done.

By: brian

brian — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 07:16:49 +0000

sorry bad links
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Edmonton,+Alberta+T6L+7B5,+Canada+(Mill+Woods+Town+Centre)&daddr=rexall+place&geocode=FSOnLwMdbiE9-SEqn7FFAaDANg%3BFUxyMQMdsc88-SmvK0oJGCOgUzH463SB1jpfmQ&hl=en&mra=pe&mrcr=0&sll=53.513368,-113.455811&sspn=0.230283,0.848694&ie=UTF8&ll=53.516634,-113.444824&spn=0.230266,0.848694&z=10

millwoods to rexall
3 turns
8 steps
26 minutes

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=2331+66+ST+NW,+Edmonton,+Alberta+T6K+4C2+(Mill+Woods+Town+Centre)&daddr=104+Ave+NW&geocode=FdCnLwMdcCI9-SFC8dF16lpdeQ%3BFQENMQMdiDQ8-Q&hl=en&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=15&sll=53.548773,-113.492889&sspn=0.00719,0.026522&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=15

millwoods to the proposed downtown arena site
6 turns
14 steps
25 minutes

By: brian

brian — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 06:33:30 +0000

getting downtown on a weekday during rush hour traffic means being stuck in the bottlenecks on the hills, then having to navigate the small central roads and red lights to get to the proposed location for a downtown arena. I can prove to you that such an act would be more difficult than going to northlands. As an example here are two google maps routes from millwoods, showing optimum driving conditions with no congestion.

to rexal
25 minutes
7 turns

to the proposed arena site
25 minutes
14 turns

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=rBn&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&q=millwoods%20to%20rexall&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

with a downtown arena, forget about going downtown on an event day, by car. traffic will be a congested mess….

downtown workers make up a small percentage of the population, so I can’t see them offsetting the problems. downtown workers can easily catch a train to rexal, so they would not travel by car to either venue location

By: John Holmes

John Holmes — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:10:36 +0000

Brian, on traffic, I have driven from the South side to Northland for over 20 years, there is no easy way to get there, game day or not. 75th St moves at a crawl, as does the Capalino on game night.
I drove downtown nearly every working day, I say getting downtown is faster, lets agree it is the same, however downtown is closer.
And lots of people who would attend Oilers games work downtown, and just may stay there on game nights – so there is no travel for them, ok going home travel.
Again downtown is just better.

By: brian

brian — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:29:18 +0000

p.s. downtown does not have all the benefits of the northlands site. specifically it is hard to access by vehicle during peak times, especially from the south side, with bridges getting frequent bottlenecks. rexal has quick and easy access from 75st. it sits next to a major throughway with a high speed limit.

By: brian

brian — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:25:46 +0000

regardless of the advantages of a downtown location, building there will leave the current rexal site abandoned. This would create a huge burden for the city.

downtown will develop without an arena. if any part of the city needs attention, it is where rexal currently stands.

downtown will infill develop with the lrt expansion, from condos and businesses that want good transit access. rexal lands are a great opportunity for infill development of the commercial establishments that katz wants like a hotel and a casino. the low property values prevent people from wanting to move there but make it perfect for a large “entertainment complex” (the very line the katz team uses to pitch the arena. after all, isn’t northlands already an entertainment complex? instead of building a second entertainment complex, and have them compete against each other, why not expand the one we already have and infill develop the northlands area. while we are at it, we could improve the one area of the city that needs it most.

just be patient and downtown will recover with better transit access. 118 ave will not recover by moving the business activities from rexal to downtown. what katz would end up doing is destroy one part of the city to create a slightly faster build schedule in another.

it’s like taking food from the poor and giving it to the upper middle class…. not my idea of a progressive policy