07-20-2023, 08:52 AM
(07-19-2023, 04:45 PM)KingandWeber Wrote:(07-19-2023, 03:45 PM)ac3r Wrote: What an utterly absurd idea.
Why? I know you keep saying it's impossible, but the space is very clearly there for an arena the same size as Budweiser Gardens in London, which is all I think we honestly need. If you take measurements of just the Budweiser Gardens building, it would fit on the existing terminal property if you include the small city parking lot. If we really needed more space, 44 Gaukel could be demolished (apparently the building may need to be in any event due to its age) and I also think you could build over Joseph St. (i.e. just remove Joseph except for a bike/pedestrian path) since that section sees very little traffic anyway. I'm *not* saying this is absolutely the best location for a new arena, but I think it's quite feasible despite what you say. Yes, we would need to figure out parking, but there's a nearly empty garage at Benton/Charles which is less than a 2min walk away.
Not to mention the City Hall parking garage (1 block / 200m away) and the Duke/Ontario garage (2 blocks / 300m away), and I bet that Manulife would be happy to fill their parking garage with cars after-hours (1 block / 150m away).
As someone who lives near the existing Aud, it's kind of infuriating that the parking overflows from the Aud's designated parking and 5+ blocks deep into the neighbourhood in all directions. It doesn't leave space if residents want visitors, and it clutters up the streets with cars, which significantly reduces sightlines when you're walking and makes it more dangerous to cross the street. I would love to see all those cars using parking garage space (can we talk about increased revenues for the city?) instead of putting them all on the street. And you can't tell me that people won't walk that distance, because they absolutely will walk a full kilometre right now.
We seem to need some kind of Aud/hospital thread, because we clearly think the two are going to be dependent on one another.