Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 28, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba Focus a17 Winniw Farr till sep Timber 2000 give City managers the right tools incentives key to a booming City a Toronto reporters recent few sentences about Winnipeg shabby downtown were another useful makeup Call for the com it is time to retire the naive belief that various Levels of government can wave a magic bureaucratic Wand and reinvent our City there is no substitute for fundamental imagine a simple policy innovation that would be the catalyst for the following outcomes new downtown a thriving arts com the streets crowded with people and the Commerce that follows most pundits see this As an unreal Zable that it might be achieved by a sensible accounting adjustment that creates More transparency in City operations seems even More but there Are practical the 1 proviso is think ing big and recognizing the Cardinal Rule of successful policy making incentives a dramatic expansion of the cites Economy is possible if civic Man agers have the right incentives to seek across the red River from downtown sits a half vacant City storage on tache this prime riverfront property offers a spectacular View of the downtown since there is no Cost for holding the the civic department in charge is Content to sit on it even though it has much higher valued potential it would make an Ideal location for an upscale High Rise condominium for Young professionals who work in the office towers a 10minute walk across the Provencher the building would generate tax revenues and help create the momentum for the riverfront Economy of restau shops and water taxis that City planners dream the land remains a storage Yard because the value of the asset on the City books is the same indifference to property values has brought the development of Winnipeg High potential Exchange District to a Here we find dozens of frequently abandoned and the areas clapped out state is living testament to wider policy stagnation a Miasma of obsolete planning High the zoning red tape of multiple bureaucracies and rent it offers the most interesting living spaces in North and a sizable group of entrepreneurs is ready to create a vibrant downtown com but the department that sits on these properties reports no holding costs on them even Basic maintenance expenses Are absorbed in the City the incentives Are exactly Back More distressed buildings create More responsibility and a Case for bigger budgets Here we see the Low performance Public sector at its most the Best Way to unlock the potential of these properties would be to impose a nifty tool called a capital charge on All Public it would require City organizations holding property to calculate its Market value and then pay a hold ing charge equivalent to the Cost of borrowing the equivalent value of Money from a this would create the now that Are needed to guide land assets into their smartest consider the Impact on our two the storage Yard on prime riverfront say the land is valued at roughly what a Developer would pay for it in the if the Cost of capital eight per the City depart ment responsible would have to pay a year to store stuff to avoid this it would quickly decide to keep its surplus equipment on no prime real estate or just dispose of the machines and close it the land is sold for condos Are a valuable addition to the assess ment base Springs a few Hundred peo ple move to the the Exchange District if these Valu Able heritage buildings had to pay a capital the City officials responsible for maintaining them would face Strong internal incentives to release and redevelop the goal would be to get rid of them As fast As possible to minimize hold ing contrary to popular civil servants Are not stupid faced with paying a capital charge and working on performance contracts that rewarded them for using Cap ital they would be eager to end the pol icy induced coma of this historic they would embrace real reforms grandfathering zoning removing parking eliminating one Way streets and rus hour Park ing replacing old style property taxes which severely penalize densely developed areas with a simplified Flat tax on the land they would join the lobby pressuring the province to end the damaging stupidity called rent to enable the construction of new rental accommodations in the area for the pre Condo Market Young As values the incentives to release stifled properties would become even the City owns Between and Sepa an Busy downtown would lure hundreds of people who now shun rate pieces of the imprecise number is another legacy of the uni City mess and its lackadaisical management of Public no one really knows what the City the capital charge policy would shake properties out of limbo and onto the Here is where it gets to be a portion of the proceeds from this garage Sale of land assets would be deposited in a new endowment fund for the City arts Community that generated a Perma nent income Stream equivalent to the entire Rev Enue our Mickey mouse amusement tax brings Over the proceeds would be used to pay Down debt and reduce complemented and tweaked by other Long stalled imposing a capital charge would spark it would produce vigorous Down town investment and a sustained boost for the assessment a straightforward mechanism for de politicizing and expanding arts funding and a simpler life for our overworked elected the most attractive downtown Community in North America would just be a Peter Lolle is president of the Frontier Centre for Public 0 letters to the editor the free press welcomes letters from they must include the authors address and Telephone letters May be letters to the 1355 Mountain r2x fax email thunderbird House planted a seed As a resident of the North i often have Opportunity to pass the recently constructed thunderbird i am proud of this Brave Structure rising out of the rubble of the infamous Higgins it says to me that we All Are moving on a path toward a place where our spirits can be cared for and perhaps even of concern to me Are the comments i hear regarding the conditions of the would the people and Agen cies dedicated to the health and Well being of children not be Able to commit to a a or a Rock to the grounds of the thunderbird House the thunderbird House has brought change to the Corner of Higgins and it makes me proud of my City and visually gives Hope for the future of All our the seed has we need to encourage it to Sharon Jones Winnipeg dont Cut fuel taxes i am writing to protest both the tone and the Content of the editorial taking it to the free the tone was sneering toward those of us who advocate living lightly on the Earth so As to leave a reasonable legacy to our the phrase ride their bicycles or erect windmills in their the Content contained factual errors and an egregious misreading of the latest round of speculations on the climate change Situa two subsequent editorials suggest a dedication of existing Gas tax revenues to improving the do you think this approach is to reduce greenhouse Gas emissions if you should know building bigger and better highways simply encourages More use of cars and the recent research you cited flies in the face of the research published by the transportation climate change it shows that in the transportation sector of the Canadian Economy contributed the largest share of ghz emissions per which will under the business usual Assumption to per cent in by the Industrial sector contributed per cent in falling to per cent in Only the transportation and the Fossil fuel industries share of ghz emissions will Rise by the year the shares of All the other sectors will this data clearly indicates that the transportation sector is and will increasingly be responsible for the largest share of ghz note that the composition of gases emitted by each sector has been converted into a common metric millions of tonnes of c02 the figures do take into account the production of methane and other go gases by Indus the one fact you Are right on is the Inadequacy of the Kyoto targets to significantly affect the concentration of gigs in the reductions of 50 per cent to 80 per cent Are needed to stabilize the concentration of How is such a reduction to be achieved not by lowering Gas we should be raising them As Britain has done and dedicating the Revenue from them to provide More efficient and less polluting tru Sporta Tion Harvey Stevens Winnipeg Mulroney dressed for the occasion on Reading the report of the Mulroney wedding in the free i was quite startled by the sartorial Gaffe made by writer Luann Lasalle in her description of the varied modes of dress of some of the principals who were present at the her Colour Ful report of the Bride in her Cream strapless silk gown and carrying a bouquet of White was followed by the description of the bizarre attire worn by the father of the she reports that he was dressed in a Long tailed this description suggests that he had visited Mal bars costume shop on bargain Day and had been convinced that the latest in formal attire was a combination of Tuxedo and tails and so he dressed it will be comforting for Canadian citizens to be informed that after read ing other i was pleased to Dis cover that our exp rime minister was immaculately attired in proper formal Wear White White pique1 Vest and James Winnipeg who calling who a lame Duck one would think with All party leaders showing their respect to retiring foreign affairs minister Lloyd Joe Clark would jump on if for nothing More than trying to score some Points with the the tory Leader resorted to calling Axworthy a lame i would Challenge Clark to name another my who has contributed As much and Energy to their Home town As Axworthy even Stockwell Leader of the Canadian of which i am a made a few polite and respectful com even if he and Axworthy have opposing political i would just like to say that Clark has some Brave consider ing that Many thought of him As a rather Lam Duck prime Mike Ziesmann East Paul help wanted to honour airmen i am writing to seek the assistance of your readers in helping me to Contact the families of these deceased Craf who came from for the past 20 years i have been try ing to piece together the wartime his tory of our Village Airfield 22 Wellesbourne which was a Large Craf base from 1940 243 Craf airmen lost their lives flying from i would like to get photos of these airmen for our museum which is on the old Airfield for display with All their i need photos of these airmen from Winnipeg John Gilbert Campbell Pilot officer Edward Ian Ross David son William Leslie Falardeau Michael William Fedirczyk Eddie Stanley Joseph Mccasky flight Peter we must never forget these Brave John Pratley Warwick England Alliance already has been exposed in wrong time for free one can read that those who oppose a snap election argue that Call ing a Quick election would deprive them of the Opportunity in parliament to expose Stockwell Day As a hollow Man and a narrow ideologue and the Alliance As just the Reform party warmed where have they been that was All done last Gilbert Verrier vote carefully in vital from the Media coverage of the cur rent vital i see unapologetic tax cheat Al Golden is considered a Favourite to reclaim his tarnished seat on on this i have but one message for the Good citizens of that Ward have a heart will a if you vote him Well All have to Deal with him and Sev eral years of free press editorials on term Adam Dooley Winnipeg Sinclair suggestion offensive for those of us who know Jim Kostel or even ride his the Sugges Tion by Gordon Sinclair that he exploited his murdered children for literary Fame in his Book wolves among sheep is ludicrous and offensive or exploitation Book about family murder takes bus Driver on tortured i am even More astonished that a journalist who has Given himself per Mission to write about others pain in cowboys and indians feels free to criticize another for writing about his own i enjoy Sinclair i can Only conclude that this ill considered article is More a reflection of Sinclair Agenda than of Kostel Nicks could it be that Sinclair is smarting from being scooped by the Globe and mail on this compelling local Story for a More balanced readers May wish to read the Vancouver san review unthinkable unending mar Toews Winnipeg doonesbury the Media of Viz Spetta How pump pump rat to you think support Hamon thbaps7 ;