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Old Posted Nov 13, 2014, 5:09 PM
Simplicity Simplicity is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 1,774
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyro View Post
If anyone's interested: Only info I found useful is quoted below.

News letter Nov.2014


News Letter:
http://skycitywinnipeg.ca/wp-content..._V1_I5B-MR.pdf
Stefano Grande is such a useless shill it isn't worth having him as part of any discussion. Especially not one involving downtown. I want everybody to read this guy's quote in this developer's newsletter:

Quote:
"Only cool and creative people want to live downtown! Seriously, downtown living is for people who live busy and active lives and want to connect with the vibe of a city, and want to be seen.
Now, notwithstanding the fact that this guy lives in Bird's Hill because not even the outer ring suburbs were far enough for him (and is absolutely contributory on his micro-level to the exact problems our Downtown faces), he has the audacity to say this in a developer's newsletter! A guy who doesn't even live in the municipality he's paid to promote - let alone downtown - is here to let you know where cool is at and who you can purchase it from. Ignoring that these developers are convicted con-artists who carried out their frauds on unsuspecting and desperate bankruptcy filers who came to them for credit counseling, the credibility of this development was gone the moment it fell two years behind. But I guess those sorts of optics aren't relevant, and the puff piece that went along with that rag of a downtown magazine was a nice touch, too.

The BIZ is an organization funded by council through a surcharge on commercial property taxes. As such, it is an arm's length division of our municipal government. It is completely inappropriate for them to be using resources to promote a development by convicted carpet-bagging grifters. Given the history, you'd think they'd do everything to avoid being complicit in what will likely turn out to be a steaming pile of lawsuits, mismanagement, and total dereliction of their responsibilities. That goes doubly given the evident mismanagement up until now.

The Biz and its leadership should at least be required to exercise some discretion in the projects they're publicly supporting. Obviously, that's not happening. And if they're simply ignoring all of the existing red-flags, then it's worse. Any planner will tell you that mega-projects at the public's expense are not feasible means for redevelopment. The citizens of Winnipeg should know that better than anybody. Instead of promoting granular, sustainable development in the downtown, we have the Downtown Biz acting as public relations agent for another doomed mega-project and its criminally-minded associates. How they can allow this to happen is beyond me...
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