Prairie Sky Gondola | 76.2m | ?s | Prairie Sky | DIALOG

What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    56
What baffles me is that the issue of how to preserve the powerplant didn't seem to be top of mind here. I understand that the potential graves are a key point here, but surely so is the powerplant. What's plan b now? Who is going to put any money into activating the plant if there is no easy way to get there? If this ends up getting torn down because of this I'm seriously going to move away. Everyone has a breaking point.
 
Didama said:
If this ends up getting torn down because of this I'm seriously going to move away. Everyone has a breaking point.
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As a resident of downtown who is already frustrated by the the social disorder, the City's general lack of ability to provide basic municipal services like cleanliness, and council's general ridiculous lack of direction (replacing mosquito spraying with bats, defunding then refunding the police), and now this with the gondola, I can empathize with you because I am at my breaking point with Edmonton as a whole.

It is getting tougher and tougher to defend this city and I am at my breaking point as well unfortunately.
 
Didama said:
If this ends up getting torn down because of this I'm seriously going to move away. Everyone has a breaking point.
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I highly doubt torn down (mostly just thanks to demo costs) but I can see it being stuck in limbo for another decade or two yet.
 
northlands said:
I highly doubt torn down (mostly just thanks to demo costs) but I can see it being stuck in limbo for another decade or two yet.
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Easily at least that long sadly. I just hope it doesn't get to a point of disrepair where they determine it isn't feasible to be saved.
 
TAS said:
One of the concerns expressed was about the fares as per Coun. Salvador and noted by Coun. Janz.
"... I am not confident that the fee structure will be fair, equitable, and affordable... While council has been provided verbal answers concerning the rates frequent riders would pay versus tourists, the reality is, those fares could change at any time over the course of the next 90 years in order to generate additional revenue."

The Portland gondola is $6 return trip and PSG was suggesting about $2 one way for locals.
Our high level street car is $7 return trip for an adult. How is that considered more fair, equitable and affordable in relation to the gondola? And is that high level Streetcar fare locked in for 90 years? I mean what if they raise the fee?

I love the streetcar so not complaining about the fee, just bringing it up because it seems a different standard is being applied to PSG from council in regards to affordability/equity?
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Portland isn't in Canada, so they do not use the same currency. Given the round numbers used, I suspect the differential currency rates are not accounted for.

So, $6 US is around $7.70 Cdn.
 
Lost all my hope in this city. I dread every time I have to go to work downtown. Learnt to love my suburb. At least it’s clean.
 
Didama said:
What baffles me is that the issue of how to preserve the powerplant didn't seem to be top of mind here. I understand that the potential graves are a key point here, but surely so is the powerplant. What's plan b now? Who is going to put any money into activating the plant if there is no easy way to get there? If this ends up getting torn down because of this I'm seriously going to move away. Everyone has a breaking point.
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Like you, I wish the power plant were more top of mind, but the city bureaucracy seems to struggle with all major projects. It also has much potentiona, but sadly, they are really not up to dealing with it.

In fairness it is a big undertaking. I think the best approach would be to build something small on the west side (that was previously used by EPCOR already, so it is not a natural area) that would accommodate a small coffee shop, gift shop, washrooms and maybe restaurant.

One of the big complaints about our river valley is the lack of amenities, but understandably people also don't want to encroach on natural areas for them. This would be much less intrusive and if done with private companies, probably must less costly than Touch the Water which seems to be the next city boondoggle involving lots of expensive concrete that will soon crack.

The addition would have to meet guidelines to compliment or not detract from the original structure and could remain city owned, so the rent from the commercial space could help fund the rehabiliation of the larger building, perhaps one part at a time. Eventually it could become something like a Granville Island market.
 
Let’s not forget why council said no tho. The controversy of this site lead council to vote in favour of Paquettes motion. This was just something that became way bigger than it was suppose to, far beyond Prairie Sky.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1559334269004029952

How I interpret this is, any development in West Rossdale is basically halted for the foreseeable future.

If council wants to develop Rossdale and the power plant with a clear conscious including indigenous input and influence, due to how sensitive Rossdale is to communities, its best they go to step one and approach Rossdale as a whole before approving a site to a private company. At this point how I see it, it’s not about the Gondola anymore, it’s about Rossdale.

I imagine this engagement could influence future changes/uses of some of these sites including the plant. I won’t speculate more, well just have to wait and see more.

To me, it’s not a no, it’s a not right now. The city is going to do the engagement first, then go from there. Let’s all try to be a bit more positive. It wasn’t what. It was where.
 
itom987 said:
I thought this issue was already resolved.
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Traditional+Burial+Ground/@53.530524,-113.5005228,3a,75y,170.02h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sySHdhfJwHkSur4l79DUgDg!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?panoid=ySHdhfJwHkSur4l79DUgDg&cb_client=maps_sv.tactile.gps&w=203&h=100&yaw=170.02106&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i16384!8i8192!4m7!3m6!1s0x53a0230cd23b5f23:0xaea2fe3eccdcf099!8m2!3d53.5302122!4d-113.5004325!14m1!1BCgIgAQ
So now the memorial grounds aren't good enough? I cannot believe how stupid this is becoming.
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I think the issue is there isn't a clear, defined location for the burial grounds. The monument you cite is deliberately incomplete; they knew there were other graves under the road. That lack of clear definition got spun into the 'All of the Power Plant site is a graveyard' thinking that we are seeing now. I don't have enough of the history to know if any graves were where the current plant is, (although there's absolutely no way there's anything under or around that building now though; the foundations are very deep, there is a huge amount of underground services running to and from the plant, and there were other buildings there before the current structure was built, all of which would have irreparably disturbed the soils at the site) but the lack of definitions surrounding what was there, and where precisely it was, created this ambiguity that i think a lot of people latched onto to pull down the project.
I've come off really callous here. I do think the site needs to be respected, but respect means figuring out what was/is there, through archeological means, surveys, better research, etc. having the site sit empty, decaying, behind chainlink, with no intiatives to change or resolve that state happening, is not an answer. and I do think there needs to be better, more commonly known background to the history of Rossdale. There very well may be more to the story, but the monument there is commemorating a post-contact burial ground of Fort Edmonton residents, both Indigenous and European, that wound down as Edmonton (the City) grew up around the fort. That's a much smaller site to commemorate than a lot of the commentary happening around the gondola would imply. there's been a power plant on the site since the 1890s. in 1924 it was a coal dump for the plant.
 
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