I really like the Harry Jerome recreation centre.
I swim or exercise there fairly regularly, and its dingy, rabbit-warren charm reminds me of the rec centres of my youth - and also my parents' youth. The building is almost half a century old, and it wasn't exactly a masterpiece of design to begin with. It has no shortage of asbestos, and many of its mechanical systems and structures are already years past their intended lifespan.
Something has to be done. It's a shame this outgoing city council got lost trying to find a solution. I wrote a story two and a half years ago about the municipality's efforts to get some federal stimulus money for Harry Jerome, its own "shovel-ready" project. Well, the stimulus has been and gone, but the shovels have yet to appear. The city has dragged its feet, gone on strange detours, taken key pieces of land out of the equation, bickered about consultation and made rash promises along the way.
There are really two problems at work here. The first is about financing. Where it comes to paying for the new centre, the city has three options: it could fund the project using cash it has on hand from taxpayers of the past; it could borrow the money from taxpayers of the future; or the bill could be paid, in whole or part, by a private developer as part of some land-and-density deal.
I'm no financial whiz, but I do know that it's generally preferable to spend someone else's money, making option No. 3 the obvious choice. But the new density that would come with that private cash is something no one wants to talk about heading into an election.
That's particularly true of Mayor Darrell Mussatto and Coun. Craig Keating, who are both conscious of their reputations for rarely seeing an apartment building they don't like. There are a lot of big buildings going up in the city right now. I think a lot of the stalling on their part is a sense that they are taxing voters' tower tolerance. Appearing to resist new density in the courthouse neighbourhood is smart politics.
The other problem is that people showed up. That's right: The system worked. At the beginning of this year, in one of the most crowded council meetings I've seen, the swimmers and the gymnasts and the seniors and the local residents and the lawn bowlers all read off their wish lists.
There are plenty of Monday nights when it's just me and a handful of staff in the audience.
So when the room is full, it gets noticed. I think several councillors looked at that crowd and thought about all the other seniors and lawn bowlers and parents of gymnasts that are out there. In low-turnout elections, you can only alienate so many constituents.
The problem isn't that all these people came to council, it's that council gave them a lot of what they wanted, including a promise to ignore the two existing fields and the lawn bowling greens. I'm not saying they should necessarily build on Norseman Field, but not even to explore those options has really derailed the planning process.
It was rash, and I wouldn't be surprised if a new council decides to back out of that dead end.
That's going to make some people pretty unhappy.
Cost estimates, obviously, are varied. But we're likely talking about the mid-to upper-tens of millions. Harry Jerome will almost definitely be the biggest single purchase in the city's history, and an important public building. So it's worth getting right. Pools, gyms, seniors centres; they all cost money. Either the towers get taller or the city gets poorer. Or alternatively, the city could do nothing, which has become the policy by default.
Meanwhile the existing buildings continue to decay.
Oh, and the city and district are both trying to guess the other's intentions. It's enough to make your head spin.
These are some hard truths, and elections aren't usually the easiest time for politicians to confront hard truths. But voters who do want a new rec centre should ask for specifics about where candidates stand on what to build and how to pay.
With some luck, a new council will move quickly after the election. This is a big, complicated project, and it's going to take a while before any actually construction work starts. But council needs to make some firm commitments early in its mandate, before that 2014 election starts looking too close on the horizon. [email protected]
