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| Ottawa. source: morguefile |
I hope you don’t mind me discussing this
but Ottawa seems to run out of commons sense sometimes. I always find it funny that if
you get three friends together over dinner and a beer, they always seem to come up with
the answer to life’s questions. That is how we came up with the solution I’m going to
present to you for Ottawa casino the province is considering for the city.
Let’s walk you through it.
A CASINO FOR OTTAWA
Tired of watching millions upon millions of
dollars going over to the Gatineau casino across the Quebec border, the
province has decided they want their piece of the pie: let’s allow a casino to
be built in Ottawa. Our mayor seems behind the idea and has set a few criteria.
One, it must be downtown, and two, it must be on our new rapid transit way.
Unfortunately there is no space right
downtown. Any big-time Casino corporation is going to want space to build a
hotel and conference facilities because modern casinos make 60% of their money
from such facilities. The Bytown Market business association has already
expressed their distaste for having it anywhere near the Market.
THE ELEGANT SOLUTION
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| Conference space, hotel space, event space: all part of a casino's success. source: morguefile |
However, there is one location that fits
all the requirements. That location is at the corner of Booth Street, Scott St.
and the MacDonald (River) Parkway, or what is affectionately known as LeBreton
Flats. As it stands today this location is a huge multi-acre empty field. The
casino would sit directly on the transit way and could even have it run through
the building. Booth Street runs virtually in a direct line to the Queensway,
and it runs straight into Gatineau. The Parkway allows vehicles to come from
the west of the city; it also allows fantastic access to the center of the city
and the existing hotels. A shuttle such as they use in Las Vegas could bring people
from the hotels to the casino. The land itself is a weed field and has been for
fifty years so there will not be complaints of a loss of park space or tree
canopy. The new water system
recently installed in the area gives it
good infrastructure.
WIN-WIN
What else would we gain? Well, the
corporation that takes the project on would have to do upgrades to any other infrastructure they
need. It would pay huge tax dollars and profits to the city and the province, including paying
some of the costs of the new transit way. We won’t have to tear up the downtown core and
that means less traffic havoc. It physically won’t affect our downtown tourist area or
force us to tear down culturally relevant buildings (heritage stuff). The National
Capital Commission’s parkland in front of the War Museum, located right across
the street, will benefit from the facilities, restaurants, shops, etc. making
it a true tourist area. The city will get its much-needed new hotel. This is
pretty much a win-win for everyone.
LET'S DO THIS THING.
So what do we need to do to move this
forward? First, send this blog to everyone on your lists; share it over facebook and twitter;
post it on Reddit. The more people thinking about it the better.
Second, talk about it. We will get one
chance to do this right. Do you want to leave something this important to city
councillors and the Province? I sure don’t. Let’s get our say in now.
