Andrew Bateman, Cat Abreu, Emma Feltes and Peggy Cameron of the Culture Not Convention group, hate a waste of money, especially one to the tune of $375 million in tax dollars. They aim to come up with better uses for the convention centre cash. The Culture Not Convention show—running until Friday at the Khyber—features alternate suggestions of what to do with the money. Fifty members of the community (“A lot of the project participants were smart, young professionals with a genuine and visionary interest in what would make a revitalized and livable downtown,” says Cameron) have their ideas captured in the black and white photographs on display.
“The participants had real expertise and imagination in agriculture, architecture, arts, environment, climate change, energy, economics, planning, social capital, sustainability and transportation,” says Cameron. “We used the stats from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Nova Scotia alternative budget so many of the suggestions had specific budgets—that really helped illustrate how many small, diverse projects could be tackled instead of sinking $375 million into a private developer’s convention centre.”
Check out the exhibit, think about what you’d do with the money and imagine a new city.
This article appears in Aug 18-24, 2011.
What a ridiculous demonstration.
Seriously, a Yarmouth-Sydney rail line is a smart alternate suggestion? That would doubtlessly be even MORE expensive, even Calgary-Edmonton can’t justify the massive costs that a high-speed rail link would incur.
How about some suggestions from people that have even the slightest concept of planning? Instead of the pretentious morons at the Khyber who have no idea what they’re talking about (ironic they’re complaining about the Nova Centre considering that their very existence has been hinged on taxpayer money) why not people from HbD, or students from the architecture school?
If the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives are involved in any way, it’s usually going to be ridiculous