Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf13
Certainly not entirely. The point is when you're an owner/developer, you consistently make the decision for the end user easier, not harder. Winnipeg is historically one of those cities known by expats as a place where making money always had more barriers or red tape.
When you make your product easier to use, more likeable or more effective, it intrinsically raises its value or use. That attracts more outside attention and potentially investment, and who knows, attendance. Attendance = more people. This is but one factor, but stack all the pros and cons against each other and you'll find a million issues that won't be single determinants to a decision. But if a strong amount of these factors fall on the wrong side, it becomes weighty. For me, adding comfort and convenience, two things our downtown needs improvement in, can be benficial long term.
My position for the skywalk individually is just to offset the opposition in equal measure.
|
Certainly the skywalk has value for the tenants/users of these buildings, but I don't think that's what's really being debated here. I think we'd mostly agree the skywalk would be useful to students but I think the debate is should that be permitted in a heritage district? The streetscape is not insignificant, a historical district or character neighbourhood is an asset greater than the sum of its parts and provides tangible economic benefits to the properties within it. I mean if a developer wanted to build a single-storey Burger King with a drive-thru and surface parking on Albert st, and felt a drive-thru would enhance the value of what they're building, does that just outweigh the impact on all the surrounding properties? Surely there is a balance between the needs of the developer and impact on the rest of the block.
That having been said, I can live with this skywalk seeing as it's on the very edge of the Exchange and will be surrounded by mostly modern buildings once Marketlands takes shape