Still flapping over the Muni
THE EDMONTON JOURNAL FEBRUARY 25, 2009 2:04 AM
Like an unkillable zombie lurching across our city -- moaning blood-curdling threats about the horrors of an extra 10 minutes in a taxi! -- the mouldy Muni debate is on the prowl again.
Next week, the city begins a process that could lead to redevelopment of the airport's 217 hectares. As a result, a group of businesses who benefit from the City Centre facility have written Edmonton councillors as if the idea were the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. Even worse, one spokesman warns that the Edmonton Oilers could be slightly inconvenienced.
Once again, the vast majority of Edmontonians who never set foot on the Muni grounds are being asked to sacrifice a priceless opportunity to build and reshape a greener, more compact city for the convenience of politicians, owners of private aircraft and small numbers of travellers from northern communities -- a convenience, it should be noted, that nobody insists Calgary ought to provide by, say, expropriating 200 hectares along McLeod Trail in the city's southeast.
Once again, the issue of the risk to Albertans' lives is raised because of the potential relocation of air ambulance and medevac services, as if alternative arrangements could not be made with some of the estimated half-billion dollars that could fill the city's coffers over two or three decades by putting the land to more cost-effective use.
Once again, these arguments are made as if the merits of the Muni can be discussed in a vacuum, rather than placed on a scale to be balanced against the benefits -- the huge potential benefits -- the community as a whole could reap from a sensible redeployment of the property.
It is, of course, possible that the current economic downturn is not the right climate in which to contemplate redevelopment of the Muni. Current users would have every right to be upset if a service important to them were to be withdrawn, only to have the land sit empty, or be developed poorly or with too little profit to Edmontonians.
A final decision must not be made on the basis of vague, wistful ideas about LRT expansion, NAIT expansion and a hypothetical green community of 32,000. On the contrary, Edmontonians must be able to see in detail what they will get in return for the hit taken by the Muni minority. A decision must also await a detailed, fully transparent analysis of how medical services will be affected and how they will be provided in the future.
In a perfect world, debate over the airport would not be dominated by one group, however legitimate its interest is. It would be joined by equally active communities with other perspectives:
For example, what about travellers from the north who use the International Airport to transit to other destinations and don't want the viability of those flights undercut by expanded service to the City Centre?
And what about all the Edmontonians who spend an extra 10 minutes in their car each day -- because they must drive around the airport to reach suburbs unnecessarily far away?
Unfortunately, in the real world, city councillors must act on behalf of the silent majority, if the greater good for the longer term is to be their legacy. Let's hope that a year from now, we'll say that's what happened.
And who knows, if the Oilers have a few more minutes of quiet time to contemplate their play on their way to and from the International, closing the Muni could prove a positive for them as well.
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Travel/Still+flapping+over+Muni/1327082/story.html
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