Can A Circus, A Big Box Shopping Center and A Ferris Wheel Be That Far behind?

CNE was a bust this year, partly due to Exhibition Place's dogmatic refusal to bargain with their union. Watch Doug commission lovely artists' renderings of the grounds transformed by boat-in hotels and every gaudy thing he's ever seen in Vegas.

None of them will show snowdrifts.

oldjones said:

CNE was a bust this year, partly due to Exhibition Place's dogmatic refusal to bargain with their union. Watch Doug commission lovely artists' renderings of the grounds transformed by boat-in hotels and every gaudy thing he's ever seen in Vegas.

None of them will show snowdrifts.

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Wonder what Doug will do to the Ontario Place grounds?
Sure he'll screw that up.

Frankfooter said:

Wonder what Doug will do to the Ontario Place grounds?
Sure he'll screw that up.

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Kind of hard not to screw it up as it has been a mess for the past decade or so.

They should go one of two ways. Make it a big casino or make it a park for the homeless.

Anbarandy said:

Province not closing door on downtown waterfront casino

By Samantha Beattie Staff Reporter

Fri., Sept. 21, 2018

Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli is not ruling out the possibility of a casino on Toronto’s downtown waterfront.

There has been no official proposal or announcement, but Premier Doug Ford is reportedly considering a casino as part of revitalizing the waterfront or Ontario Place, echoing a past casino proposal he and then-mayor Rob Ford fought for in 2013.

Mayor John Tory stands firmly against the idea.

“Prime waterfront land and downtown period is not a place for a casino,” Tory told reporters Friday.

Asked Thursday if the province and Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) would consider allowing a casino on the downtown waterfront, Fedeli said, “I don’t open the door and I don’t close the door. There’s been a spike of interest in it (in the media), and so you have to have these types of discussions.”

Fedeli said he hasn’t spoken to Ford about a casino.

Tory was skeptical that the Progressive Conservatives government would seriously consider a downtown casino, noting that Ford did not campaign on it and hasn’t publicly embraced the idea.

“We will have to see whether it unfolds as a real issue or whether it’s speculation fuelled by the gambling industry,” said Tory. “We don’t need one. We don’t want one.”

Having another casino in Toronto could take business away from Woodbine Racetrack, which is already being revamped to include a full-fledged casino and entertainment-hotel complex in north Etobicoke, Tory said.

OLG is currently focused on the development of the Woodbine location, said spokesperson Tony Bitonti.


Can't wait!

With the hijacking of democracy accomplished, the planned piracy of the TTC subway system in view, Thugly shall now squat and shit out his vision for Toronto's waterfront.

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What harm would result if there was a casino on the waterfront? Would it not create jobs and attract tourism? Social groups have fore-warned that the neighborhoods will go to pot and people will turn into addicted gamblers, however there are casinos all over Ontario and the local neighborhoods are not falling apart. There are tons of outlets for gamblers (including the Wynn led on-line Ontario casino) so I cannot see how a casino on the waterfront will all of a sudden turn the population of Ontario into rabid gamblers.

And he'll threaten to use the notwithstanding clause again to build all these projects and take the TTC.

explorerzip said:

And he'll threaten to use the notwithstanding clause again to build all these projects and take the TTC.

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So how is investing in the city a bad thing?

Ref said:

So how is investing in the city a bad thing?

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Of course investing in the city is a good thing, but the citizens need to decide on what takes priority. Transit, roads and other infrastructure projects are are infinitely more important than a casino, shopping mall ferris wheel or some other vanity project. While it might sound good if the province takes over the TTC, the system and the land it occupies is a huge asset to the city. We've been down this road before where tax payer funded assets like highways, stadiums, etc are sold to the private sector while the citizens get cheated.

explorerzip said:

And he'll threaten to use the notwithstanding clause again to build all these projects and take the TTC.

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If a private interest group somehow manages to block the plans of the democratically elected government? Yes

explorerzip said:

Of course investing in the city is a good thing, but the citizens need to decide on what takes priority. Transit, roads and other infrastructure projects are are infinitely more important than a casino, shopping mall ferris wheel or some other vanity project. While it might sound good if the province takes over the TTC, the system and the land it occupies is a huge asset to the city. We've been down this road before where tax payer funded assets like highways, stadiums, etc are sold to the private sector while the citizens get cheated.

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Build a casino and mall and attract tourists and others into the city. Use the money generated to fund other projects rather than just squeezing the life out of tax payers.
Ontario Place has been a ghost town for years may as well put the land to good use...and to appease the left, ensure bike lanes to the grounds are included.

JohnLarue said:

If a private interest group somehow manages to block the plans of the democratically elected government? Yes

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So it's good thing to force Toronto into the construction of projects it may or may not want using their own money? Then sell that project to a private company at loss and give it a 99 year lease on the land? That's a good deal for the city?

Boober69 said:

Build a casino and mall and attract tourists and others into the city. Use the money generated to fund other projects rather than just squeezing the life out of tax payers.
Ontario Place has been a ghost town for years may as well put the land to good use...and to appease the left, ensure bike lanes to the grounds are included.

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How about we tackle more pressing issues like transit, roads, electric grid, etc. that are badly needed so that goods, services, citizens and tourists can actually come and go? An attraction like a casino, mall, etc. in the Ontario Place area would cause nothing more than congestion. Further, if said mall, casino, etc. is sold to a private company then there goes the revenue source for the city. Do we really need yet another mall in the city when retail is steadily declining?

Ontario Place was successful under its original concept. Where it went wrong was when the Moslon Ampitheatre opened and OP struggled to attract visitors. Then the bizarre decision to make cheesy rides as a way to attract business just made it worse. At its height is was a true tourist attraction and busy day and night during the summer.

The Province just re-opened the grounds last year as the first stage of revitalizing it as a waterfront park. Not many people know this, but it’s getting back to its roots. Very peaceful park settings, with a large marina (which never closed). The buildings are still abandoned but could be renovated fairly easily. It’s a really nice park. I think a Casino would be a mistake, unless it was restricted to the Pods (the interconnected convention space buildings built above the water). The lower areas should remain a Park with pubs/restaurants/clubs for nightlife. The biggest problem is that it is brutal there in winter, so would be tough for restaurants and clubs to open 365 days a year and attract the crowds they would get in summer.

For decades the City Hall was proposing plan after plan for development of Toronto's waterfront. In the end, they just issued condo permits. Transit? Plans, plans and more plans. Hardly anything progresses past the planning stages. The UP Express is great example. Three decades of talking and an idiotic, overpriced execution. Maybe that's what our city needs from the province, a swift and hard kick to the backside to spur some activity

jcpro said:

For decades the City Hall was proposing plan after plan for development of Toronto's waterfront. In the end, they just issued condo permits. Transit? Plans, plans and more plans. Hardly anything progresses past the planning stages. The UP Express is great example. Three decades of talking and an idiotic, overpriced execution. Maybe that's what our city needs from the province, a swift and hard kick to the backside to spur some activity

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You're out of touch, the UP Express is now a success. Ridership is way up after they dropped the ticket prices.
As for the waterfront, there were plans for the waterfront to turn it into a park 140 years ago, when they put all the rail lines together through union station.
Politicians screwed that up back then.

Harbourfront used to have all kinds of great programming through the summer, but that was funded by parking lots in the area and when they were sold to developers the harbourfront centre lost most of their funding. More screwups from politicians.

Frankfooter said:

You're out of touch, the UP Express is now a success. Ridership is way up after they dropped the ticket prices.
As for the waterfront, there were plans for the waterfront to turn it into a park 140 years ago, when they put all the rail lines together through union station.
Politicians screwed that up back then.

Harbourfront used to have all kinds of great programming through the summer, but that was funded by parking lots in the area and when they were sold to developers the harbourfront centre lost most of their funding. More screwups from politicians.

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Remind us how long it took us to build the link to Pearson??? And why wasn't it integrated into the existing TTC system??? How much did it cost to build??? As for the rest, what are you saying? That the city council cannot progress beyond the planning stages?

Toronto needs a casino like I need a hole in the head.

A spectacular failure waiting to happen. We are already over casinoed. There is not enough stupid money out there to support it. And I won't even get into the social costs.

If you want to see how a casino can be an utter and complete fucking disaster, Look no further than Atlantic City where they built this white elephant called "Revel" for 2.4 billion US dollars. Another fat loud mouth named Chris Cristie pushed hard for this fools errand and poured a pile of tax dollars into it .

It went broke.

Twice actually.

Sold recently in bankruptcy for 82 million dollars.

That's about 4 fucking cents on the dollar.

Casinos are 1960's thinking.

Ref said:

What harm would result if there was a casino on the waterfront? Would it not create jobs and attract tourism? Social groups have fore-warned that the neighborhoods will go to pot and people will turn into addicted gamblers, however there are casinos all over Ontario and the local neighborhoods are not falling apart. There are tons of outlets for gamblers (including the Wynn led on-line Ontario casino) so I cannot see how a casino on the waterfront will all of a sudden turn the population of Ontario into rabid gamblers.

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I think it'll take far more than a single Casino to attract new tourists to Toronto, and there's already one at Woodbine doing that, so all the waterfront would add in attractiveness is … water. And Toronto's employment rate is reasonably low already without those low-wage, insecure jobs.

If people want to waste their money gambling, they're welcome to, but there's no reason for Toronto to waste the last of its prime waterfront helping them. Gamblers will go to some pretty nasty spots and turn their backs on the scenery to lose the baby's college fund anyway, so let's keep the waterfront for ourselves.

jcpro said:

Remind us how long it took us to build the link to Pearson??? And why wasn't it integrated into the existing TTC system??? How much did it cost to build??? As for the rest, what are you saying? That the city council cannot progress beyond the planning stages?

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In fact the TTC express to Pearson is still cheaper, faster and more convenient than UP. But the business travellers on expenses who it was built for do seem happy with it.