Personally I thought the Lansdowne consultation engagement was the worst. Most of the zoom engagement in the last year or so was about the "public" realm; views of the historical sights from the new Lansdowne 2.0 layout (podium) sort of thing. We knew three towers were proposed, and parkland was supposed to be preserved with a "natural" cover for the arena. Never anything about financials, and few details about the event facilities (stadium and arena). Important points, but this wasn't what was covered, despite the questions addressing issues like financials. The last of several 2.0 "consultations" was last September. A month later just before the Thanksgiving long weekend, a new proposal - Lansdowne 2.1 was dropped on us, which was passed by planning committee and council without consultation within 2 months. We attended consultations for at least a year on a proposal the city clearly had no intention of following through on in September. And the city dropped a significantly different proposal in October which passed council by the end of November without consultation. Two towers, the arena further encroaching on the park, and reduced retail space for starters. This was totally disingenuous engagement. So here we are tomorrow with the city opening up what I can only assume will be a repeat of a consultation process where they thumbed their noses at us once already. I think I'll take a pass on this process. Fool me once, shame on thee, fool me twice, shame on me.
Personally I thought the Lansdowne consultation engagement was the worst. Most of the zoom engagement in the last year or so was about the "public" realm; views of the historical sights from the new Lansdowne 2.0 layout (podium) sort of thing. We knew three towers were proposed, and parkland was supposed to be preserved with a "natural" cover for the arena. Never anything about financials, and few details about the event facilities (stadium and arena). Important points, but this wasn't what was covered, despite the questions addressing issues like financials. The last of several 2.0 "consultations" was last September. A month later just before the Thanksgiving long weekend, a new proposal - Lansdowne 2.1 was dropped on us, which was passed by planning committee and council without consultation within 2 months. We attended consultations for at least a year on a proposal the city clearly had no intention of following through on in September. And the city dropped a significantly different proposal in October which passed council by the end of November without consultation. Two towers, the arena further encroaching on the park, and reduced retail space for starters. This was totally disingenuous engagement. So here we are tomorrow with the city opening up what I can only assume will be a repeat of a consultation process where they thumbed their noses at us once already. I think I'll take a pass on this process. Fool me once, shame on thee, fool me twice, shame on me.
It was probably the worst "consultation" I've ever attended - intentionally bad.
I was also in attendance at the Bank St. transportation meeting and was similarly upset.