Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, June 3, 2010

Time to hit the gas on park

Earlier this week, I took time to review the architects’ conceptions for Lansdowne Park on display near the information desk at City Hall. I arrived at the same conclusion as the harshest critics of this whole process; the designs are pretty darn good, if not exceptional.

But then again, the creative combination of respected (and local) architects Richard Brisbin and Barry Hobin is a recipe for excellence.

The Lansdowne partnership comes to its latest vote (in what seems to be an eternal process) later this month and I will be as categorical as never before: This project deserves to be supported and move forward, period.

Council’s vote later this month is not a vote between this project and something better that may, or may never, come along in six months or two years; it is fundamentally a choice between this project — which has evolved due to community input — and doing nothing for a generation, if not longer.

So, is the entire community and broader city on side? No, they never will be. Is the financial package perfect? Of course not, in fantasy-land money would grow on trees and Lansdowne would be paved with gold. However, the present proposal does fairly share risk between private and public interests.

Is the stadium ideal? Are the retail tenants identified and the housing options pristine? Not exactly; but the mix of all the proposed elements will make Lansdowne Park a unique place to visit, gather, celebrate, shop, relax, live, work and play. And it will not only attract Glebeites, but people from all over Ottawa and yes, tourists from all over the world.

Between now and month’s end, anti-Lansdowne Partnership rhetoric will reach epic proportions. Given this certainty, some advance reality checks are in order.

First up, the interests behind redeveloping and yes, transforming Lansdowne from its current concrete abomination are not greedy developers and Toronto-based shopping mall or investment trust profiteers. They are local business people who have built our homes, supported our most cherished institutions and raised their families in our midst.

Frankly, if they were out for a fast buck by flipping a few pieces of property, they would have abandoned this whole process long ago.

Next up, we all need to remember Lansdowne’s history. Over a century ago it was located in the hinterland from Lowertown and downtown Ottawa. Our city grew to envelop Lansdowne and successive generations of people who bought houses and built businesses around the Lansdowne Park precinct were, and remain, transparently and wholly aware of its historic legacy and enduring utility to all of our citizenry.

It has been and always will be a regional gathering place for our entire community to watch major sporting events, to conduct agricultural commerce, to lounge and recreate, to expend disposable income (i.e. shop) and to serve as a focal point for artistic and cultural exchange. To assert anything to the contrary and deny this documented history of Lansdowne is tantamount to a blasphemy on the history of our city.

A decade from now, the next generation will look back and ask two simple questions: What was all the fuss about? And why did it take this city so long to do the right thing?

Lansdowne must move ahead. City council do your job and build our city!