Quote:
Originally Posted by EastK
It is a rejection of the mentality we have had here for decades that if you complete some massive project like say Portage Place, MTS Center and so on it would somehow improve an area that has some of the worst social problems in the country. The problems these neighbourhoods face have almost nothing to do with the railway's location. Big infrastructure projects are supposed to create a positive lasting impact and this will do nothing of the sort. Say we move the rails, the day the project is completed all the poverty, homelessness, crime, addiction, trauma and abandoned buildings are all still there.
Furthermore in a have-not province that has 10 hour ER wait times and craters in its roads the priority should not be to dump 2-5 billion on rail movement.
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Its an intersting comparison you make between rail relocation and Portage place or MTS. I think it might be worth noting that Portage Place and MTS were expected to generate spin off economic activity that improved downtown where as the rail relocation is expected to create fresh greenfield-ish development porperties within the city in order to build housing and or commercial services. Not exactly apples to apples in terms of mega projects.
I always cringe when big develpments get pitched as 'revitalization.' I'm pretty sceptical about those claims too. Rail relocation arguably has more going for it in respect to improving social issues due to the potential for new housing in areas adjacent to current poverty.
As for ER wait times, I don't think that money spent on rail relocation studies is taken from the health care budget.
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