To the editor:
I'm a senior, 80 years old, and I don't know one person over 55 who would actually use this new arena, other than as a spectator. Perhaps a hockey area/community centre with a pool would benefit many more people living here. (It's disgusting that a city of this size has only one public pool.)
Does this city really need, or want, an Ice Palace (as another said)? Truthfully, driving around North Bay, I have only seen one other man-made structure that even comes close to portraying luxury, wealth, or prosperity as this Ice Palace proposes to be. I can't believe that anyone would be interested in vacationing in North Bay other than for its beaches, because there's nothing else here that could possibly attract them.....a handful of nice restaurants and stores???
When I first came here, about 17 years ago, this city was an attractive destination for visitors: the downtown was a quaint area with boutiques and good restaurants. And the mall was thriving, with another department store. Now, I don't even need to describe the downtown to you... it's a disaster and a crime (Partly, I believe from zoning laws). Do you know those large turn-of-the-century rooming houses/slum apartments,? Well, they could have been transformed into the Yorkville of the north, with more boutiques and restaurants and swanky loft apartments. So instead of just the Main St, there would be a whole downtown core to attract visitors and keep them coming back.
When this city is hurting so much, and our young people are leaving because there's nothing to keep them here, it seems to me that Council is determined to ensure that North Bay will continue on its downward spiral to become the nastiest town in Ontario. As one writer said, build a solid but basic arena; it's all that the people who live here need or will need in the foreseeable future. And then hope that Council will turn its attention, and our tax dollars, to correcting the real problems and working toward rejuvenating the downtown core and hiring a medical recruiter to attract younger doctors here.
Why doesn't Council look at how other small, Ontario towns/cities reinvented themselves to become a place where people are happy to live and want to visit? Niagara Falls did it, and a whole slew of other towns did it too!!!
Carolyn Peters
North Bay
