Many thought that I was being "negative" for predicting that the Canadian Motor Speedway would never come to pass. A few of us actually looked into the background of the investors and surmised that the money was not there and that the developers were hoping for massive government help to finance the effort. The government has not been interested in investing tax payer money to support a foreign-based operation and the Kuwaiti banks behind the project are struggling. The Kuwaiti-based investors behind the abandoned marina development on the Niagara Parkway suffered a similar fate. Of course, that was another dumb case of over-development of an existing iconic roadway. You can't make this stuff up. It defies common logic.
Many people were lulled into believing the myth that McMaster was going to build its research and development module at the track blew up in developers' faces when the university reported that it was not aware of any such deal and eventually located the program in Hamilton.
Remember the long-gone motorway themed restaurant/bar on Garrison that was supposed to bolster the image? Changed hands two times since. Whatever happened to the local woman who pretended to be an "interested party" but was really the speedway's flack? And Erik Tomas who consistently reported on the "progress" of the development. How quiet he has become.
Once again, Fort Erie Post's James Culic recounted the lack of progress in his latest article.
* The three properties that need to be purchased in order to fulfill the OMB mandate are still not in the hands of the speedway developers and property owners have not heard from the speedway developers in months.
* The bank financing the speedway is in serious financial trouble. (We told you that a long time ago.)
* Azhar Mohammad, the project director, has still not updated the Fort Erie Town Council about the lack of progress at the track although he promised such an update months ago.
And the myth continues as it has for almost a decade. The developers had a large group of locals all primed and ready to march to get their speedway. And, as many of us called it, the NOT-NASCAR TRACK myth ran very deep amongst the easily manipulated. And the noise! Who needs that?
This was a bad idea for the get-go and the Fort Erie location is ridiculous for a myriad of reasons. The promises of jobs and increased tourism were attractive to a job-starved community, but the potential cost to taxpayers is astronomical.With one race track already failing, why would anyone think that people would travel from all over North America to a place without proper infrastructure to view car races that are not NASCAR sanctioned?
I'm sure there are a lot of ways to make Fort Erie even more tourism friendly without adding a behemoth race track spewing fumes and noise over some spectacular landscapes. I don't know, but I would venture a guess that Fort Erie's tourism future is in its fabulous waterfront and its closeness to the United States.
.
In a town where developers hold sway, it is frustrating to watch foolish mistakes turn up on the town docket. It took Buffalo over fifty years to finally realize the waste of its precious waterfront before it began a concentrated effort to restore and revitalized its waterfront. Now it is a shining example and major tourist draw where once there was blight. Fort Erie has even more potential in its waterfront. All those studies and the town still listens to developers before its people. Will they ever get it right?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Some of the mucky mucks employed to bring economic development to the town (no names mentioned) got a trip or two to exotic locations to "research" such projects on the taxpayer dime. Seems poetic justice that the decline in crude oil prices leading to a severe drying up of cashflow in places like Kuwait leads to a now defunk car track.
ReplyDeletethe NOT4Nascar was only going to be built if the various levels of gov't round these parts rolled over and gave huge tax breaks(Region did) and paid for much if not all of the necessary supporting infrastructure like roads, bridges, sewers, etc etc etc. Luckily Fort Stupid doesn't have the resources and had to rely on the province and the Feds to cough up huge. The senior levels of gov't did not like the smell of the massive lie of JOBS JOBS JOBS as there would have been a handful or two at best(remember martin's full page add in our local rag about THOUSANDS of jobs. the bigger the lie the more believable,a strange quirk of human nature easily exploited)
ReplyDeleteThe local levels of gov't would rather cost us all huge so as to be seen to be doing something rather than the status quo of doing the usual nothing. Gotta stay in power you know as when you control the purse strings of the tax payer GOOD THINGS(eh sandy!?) will come your way when you're that close to the trough.
Hold these politicians accountable people as way too many of them cave whenever a deep pocketed developer with a bad idea shows up. Lets see, Port Dalhousie, Bay Beach, Thundering Waters etc etc etc...support the few good men(and women) who have the balls to stand up for the greater good. They are few in number.
Part of the reason that Houston is suffering so much is what has been reported as over development without proper zoning, etc.
Delete