Quote:
Originally Posted by buzzg
How is the Parker Lands thing a "fiasco?"
It's wild brush, it's not like it was some protected marsh or anything. Agree the dogleg shouldn't be happening, but that land would have been developed one way or the other.
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Quite a lot to unpack here, surprisingly.
1. "It's wild brush, it's not like it was protected or anything".
Well, at the very least it IS a marsh. More specifically, it's a massive natural area consisting of woodlands mixed with a substantial amount of wetlands. It has some of the most densely populated and diverse wildlife within the city limits, and within the past few decades it has quickly established itself as a popular recreational area for nature lovers, something that is NOT the same thing as a giant field of freshly cut grass to play frisbee on and the occasional tree or shrub here and there to provide shade for all those 'jolly picnickers, (which is pretty much what any of the remaining green space left after the development will turn into.) At night time the entire area is filled with croaking frogs and toads (some parts of it aren't anymore as early as a few weeks ago, when the developer ambushed the area with a surprise bulldozing spree.) People literally have to drive slowly at night because of all the deer in the area, and it's the perfect place to see all kinds of critters that you wouldn't be able to see in a typical Winnipeg neighborhood. Nobody who is actually familiar with the area would consider it "wild brush", nothing more than a land reserve for future development. I can't emphasize enough this is NOT your typical barren former farmland that is the usual diet for suburban development that you'd typically see in Winnipeg. It's a nature park. At least that's what it always was for the citizens of Winnipeg, and the fact that it was never an commemorated as an official public park by the city does not change that which was already established collectively.
2."Agree the dogleg shouldn't be happening"
I wholeheartedly agree as well, but quite frankly the environmental effect of the dogleg isn't really that big of a deal. Aside from cutting down a few trees in the way of the glorified bus lane, it pretty much would eventually blend in with the rest of the environment once everything settled down. The real threat that completely pales into comparison is the private development by Gem Equities. Which threatens the whole entirety of the area. Oh sure, they say that they're going leave some of the space undeveloped for green space, but the developer was supposed to have formulated the whole plan for the development and presented it to the city BEFORE he'd start removing trees from the area. I sure can appreciate that the kind of development he has in mind is high density condos, probably being advertised as TOD, but because the plans haven't even been formalized yet in their entirety there's nothing stopping him from suddenly changing it to cookie cutter houses on hideous cul de sacs.
3. "but that land would have been developed one way or the other."
What, you mean there's more people like Sam Katz out there trying to climb their way into positions of influence in our city?
I think I've said everything that's necessary.