Under the viaduct: is a Vision donor driving talk of demolition?
The Vancouver Courier's very good writer Sandra Thomas ably fills the paper's opinion page, and in today's paper she pulls no punches. Her op/ed titled Demolishing the viaducts benefits who exactly? explores the topic of tearing down the Georgia Viaducts, which has been promoted by Mayor "Geoff" Meggs. Thomas says the discussion has triggered the cynic within her, and she wonders aloud if the developer who stands to gain the most from the structure's removal, Concord Pacific, might be influencing the proceedings.
...if the proposal to permanently close the viaducts gets the go ahead, it will make Meggs' longtime goal of developing the land underneath one step closer. When that happens some developer (read Concord Pacific) is going to make a pile of money. Concord Pacific, which already owns much of the property near the Georgia Viaduct, and its subsidiary Pacific Place Developments Corp., donated $119,750 to Vision's 2005 and 2008 campaigns. That number doesn't include the money Concord gave Vision as a lead sponsor of the party's February 2009 fundraiser.
There is no suggestion that Concord Pacific does anything but good work in Vancouver's downtown core by Thomas. What she appears to take issue with is the anecdotal arguments being made for the thoroughfare's destruction. She says that Meggs' case was made by the lack of disruption caused by their closure to the public during the Olympic Games.
Meggs insists the high number of people finding other ways to get in and out of the city during the Olympics is proof the viaducts can be removed with little or no problem for commuters. And the city will likely hire someone in April to study just that.
More accurately, the Viaducts were used during the Games, but just not by you and me. The Olympic fleet of buses had many of their units parked there during February, and whenever the Prime Minister or members of the Olympic Family entered or exited GM Place, their limos drove along the viaducts.
No one has really bothered to analyze the gridlock experienced along Keefer and Pender streets in Chinatown, which we've heard was considerable as commuters who still wanted to get downtown chose this route.
