LeBreton Flats 2.0 (RendezVous LeBreton) | Cancelled

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

There is a frustrating psychological effect where people often think of walking across a parking lot as being "quicker" than an equal distance walk through an urban environment. I've noticed this in Kingston where people will complain about having to park three blocks away on a side street to shop downtown, and then say they prefer parking at the suburban malls instead, even though if you measure it the walking distance from the parking spot to the store is greater in the suburban mall. (In Kingston side street parking is free, so money's not part of the equation).

I have the exact opposite experience: a 5-minute walk across a parking lot, or along a windswept barren suburban "power centre" strip, psychologically takes way longer than the same length and distance along a fine-grained main street.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Ottawa has not developed any new traditional main streets since before World War II. I hope they can be successful but they have not demonstrated an ability to do so. The closest we have come to this is the Lansdowne development but this is very modest. It is going to be a major challenge for our planners and developers to pull this off and make it successful without compromises and the temptation to let the cheap big box model to creep back in.

The problem is mainly with the unimaginative Ottawa developers, not the planners. The developers believe - wrongly - that there is only a market for power-centre retail and curlicue residential housing. And yet, it's the old, pre-war main streets and streetcar suburbs that command the highest prices and consistently retain the most value.

The disconnect between evidence and imagination is jarring.

Of course, it doesn't help that the city that theoretically plans for and favours "main streets" and urban neighbourhoods keeps approving suburban crap, and then acts surprised at at all the suburban crap that gets built. You get what you approve. Ottawa could start doing and demanding better, starting tomorrow. It chooses not to.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

I have the exact opposite experience: a 5-minute walk across a parking lot, or along a windswept barren suburban "power centre" strip, psychologically takes way longer than the same length and distance along a fine-grained main street.

I very much agree with you, but it seems many people in this city don't.

[kevinbottawa]

Melnyk calls potential move to LeBreton Flats a "game-changer"

WAYNE SCANLAN
Published on: December 15, 2014Last Updated: December 15, 2014 4:02 PM EST

Senators owner Eugene Melnyk says it is too early to discuss details of a possible move to a new arena in the LeBreton Flats.

But he sounds like a man ready to take his best shot.

“This building wasn’t built to last 35, 40 years,” Melnyk said Monday from the Canadian Tire Centre, where he held his annual skate for children.

Despite the money the Senators organization has spent recently to upgrade the current arena, built in 1996, “you have to build a new one eventually, I hope in my lifetime,” Melnyk said.

“It’s where do you put it from here? We’ve had tremendous support (for a LeBreton pitch), but you’re always going to have naysayers.”

Melnyk noted the Request for Qualification (RFQ) proposal is due on Jan. 7, but that he would likely file it before Christmas, so that staff aren’t working on it over the holidays.

“The project itself is very premature to even talk about it,” Melnyk said. “We haven’t even decided if we should do it.”

And yet he added he hopes he and his staff come to the “right decision” on a proposal very soon.

“If we’re going to do it, we want to do it right, we want to be organized,” Melnyk said. “We want to make sure this has been very carefully thought through. This impacts the city in a huge way, it impacts the organization in a huge way, we just need to clearly understand what we’re getting ourselves into because it is a long-term project and it’s really a game-changer for us.

“The main thing is we want to do what’s right for the city, for the fans and the organization long term.”

...

wscanlan@ottawacitizen
twitter@hockeyscanner

http://ottawacitizen.com/sports/hock...a-game-changer

[J.OT13]

Melnyk on Senator's possible move.

If Ottawa Senators move, they'll 'do it right'

By Don Brennan, Ottawa Sun
First posted: Monday, December 15, 2014 04:36 PM EST | Updated: Monday, December 15, 2014 04:43 PM EST


If the Senators are going to make a push for relocating to Lebreton Flats, they'll do so within the next 10 days.

Speaking publicly for the first time since it was revealed the team has explored the possibility of moving from Kanata to downtown, Senators owner Eugene Melnyk said Monday a formal proposal would be submitted well before the NCC's extended deadline of Jan. 7.

"I think everybody wants to have a merry Christmas," said Melnyk. "If we're going to do it, it's going to be before Christmas."

If, however, remains the operative word.

While Senators Sports & Entertainment released a statement last week stating it is "reviewing the NCC's request for qualifications and (is) actively considering the opportunity," Melnyk would not get into specifics nor would he discuss the concerns or fears of moving the team from its current home to a brand new arena built on prime government ground.

"We haven't even decided we're going to do this," said Melnyk. "There's an RFQ (request for qualification), we haven't submitted one yet ... and if we're going to do it, we want to do it right, we want to be organized, we want to make sure this has been very carefully thought through. This impacts the city in a huge way. It impacts the organization in a huge way. We just need to clearly understand what we're getting ourselves into, because it is a long-term project and it's really a game-changer for us.

"I'm hoping we come to the right decision, and we're going to do so very soon."

Insisting he wasn't trying to "skirt the question," Melnyk said the team is still "analyzing" whether or not to move -- and its other options.

"This building, believe it or not, was not built to last 30-40 years, like some people think," Melnyk said of Canadian Tire Centre, which was called The Palladium when it opened in 1996. "We've spent a lot of money to keep this building looking the way it is.

"You have to build a new one eventually, I hope in my lifetime. It's where do you put it from there. We've had some tremendous support.

"You're always going to have naysayers, they object to this, they object to that, but that's fine. It doesn't bother me," added Melnyk. "The main thing is, we want to do what's right for the city, for the fans, for the organization, long term. And that's the way I think. It's long term. It's not what happens next year, or the year after. It's what happens over the next 20 years from now."

Asked what would become of Canadian Tire Centre if the Senators did move, Melnyk said: "I haven't even thought about that yet."

http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/12/15/...ll-do-it-right

[eltodesukane]

"If Ottawa Senators move, they'll 'do it right'"

Why have they done it wrong the first time?

[DEWLine]

"This building, believe it or not, was not built to last 30-40 years, like some people think," Melnyk said of Canadian Tire Centre, which was called The Palladium when it opened in 1996. "We've spent a lot of money to keep this building looking the way it is.


That worries me. A lot.

[Boxster]

Originally Posted by DEWLine

"This building, believe it or not, was not built to last 30-40 years, like some people think," Melnyk said of Canadian Tire Centre, which was called The Palladium when it opened in 1996. "We've spent a lot of money to keep this building looking the way it is.


That worries me. A lot.

We can probably say the same thing about Montreal's Olympic Stadium.....its still up but it is very high maintenance.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by DEWLine

"This building, believe it or not, was not built to last 30-40 years, like some people think," Melnyk said of Canadian Tire Centre, which was called The Palladium when it opened in 1996. "We've spent a lot of money to keep this building looking the way it is.


That worries me. A lot.

It's Melnyk. A grain of salt is required.

[drawarc]

Originally Posted by eltodesukane

"If Ottawa Senators move, they'll 'do it right'"

Why have they done it wrong the first time?

This article explains why CTC was built in Kanata:

http://www.obj.ca/Opinion/Bruce-Fire...is-in-Kanata/1

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by DEWLine

"This building, believe it or not, was not built to last 30-40 years, like some people think," Melnyk said of Canadian Tire Centre, which was called The Palladium when it opened in 1996. "We've spent a lot of money to keep this building looking the way it is.


That worries me. A lot.

The lifespan of a stadium isn't about reality, but the owner's reality. This is just a spin to justify the move.

[JCL]

City Hall reporter from the Ottawa Sun, Jon Willing, provided his opinion if Lebreton Flat is not chosen as the new location for the arena: http://blogs.canoe.ca/cityhall/city/...ebreton-flats/

[On Edge]

Hurdman is a great idea. Right now it is a wasteland.

[OTSkyline]

This picture of what Hurdman COULD become gave me a boner... I lived for 5 years on Riverside Drive and always cringed at what a waste area Hurdman was. Central location, transit hub for buses and future LRT, scenic with trails along the river yet, NOTHING. If there ever was an important TOD we should be focussing on, it's Hurdman.

[McC]

It's not a waste, it's a negative business case: the value of (slash/demand for) Hurdman as development land hasn't sufficiently exceeded the cost of cleaning up the old landfill and rail yard contamination on the site yet, and likely won't for decades (given all of the land in similar condition at Lebreton, Chaudière and Bayview that are all ahead of Hurdman in the queue).

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

This picture of what Hurdman COULD become gave me a boner... I lived for 5 years on Riverside Drive and always cringed at what a waste area Hurdman was. Central location, transit hub for buses and future LRT, scenic with trails along the river yet, NOTHING. If there ever was an important TOD we should be focussing on, it's Hurdman.

Towers in a park. Meh. Not worth the very large cost of expunging the former garbage tip from the site.

[Uhuniau]

I still find myself chuckling at this boosterist BS passage from a Roy MacGregor piece in the Citizen on January 14, 1996:

There is much comfort to be found in local history by Ottawa Senators majority owner Rod Bryden, whose brand new, $200-million Palladium will open Monday in what was once an empty corn field in rural Kanata. Too far out. Nothing there. It won't work. Yet the Dey Brothers succeeded brilliantly. Their new rink was a success, the team won several Stanley Cups -- and urban development quickly followed.

"You can see the parallel with the Palladium and Highway 417,'' says Ottawa sports historian Paul Kitchen. "Land development seems to follow the building of rinks.''

[phil235]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Towers in a park. Meh. Not worth the very large cost of expunging the former garbage tip from the site.

Now put those buildings down to the river's edge and create a boardwalk-type promenade, mirrored on the other side by the university buildings, and I think you have something.

[trhgr]

Originally Posted by On Edge

Hurdman is a great idea. Right now it is a wasteland.

I agree. Or somewhere around the train station / industrial area. I wouldn't want to see an arena in Lebreton flats. So far, this area feels like an urbanism failure. It is not the "new extension to downtown" people were promised (mostly by Claridge to Phase I buyer, though....). I don't think adding an arena in the middle is going to help.

[waterloowarrior]

@OttawaCitizen: Breaking: #Senators confirm plan presentation to #NCC for facility in #LeBreton Flats. No further comment for now. #ottnews

@jchianello: The Sens officially confirm that they'll apply to the @NCC_CCN to build an NHL arena at LeBreton Flats. #ottpoli