I want the city to use my tax dollars to help build a new arena

Edmonton’s sparkling facility shows how much we’re missing,

Dear Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

Please mark me down as part of the .000003 per cent of Calgarians who would like to see a new sports/event centre in Calgary.

I am a born and raised Calgarian who has supported amateur and professional sport in this city throughout my life. I am also an avid supporter of the arts and have attended professional and amateur theatre and music concerts.

I am fortunate that I have been employed in a modest position that allows me the means to be a season-ticket holder for both the Calgary Flames and the Stampeders, in addition to Theatre Calgary. I love sports and the arts and I make it a priority to support both by purchasing tickets and volunteering for various events and fundraising efforts.

I am also a homeowner and have dutifully paid my city taxes since 1993.

At no point have I been given the opportunity to vote on whether or not I agree with the City of Calgary’s public art program. Furthermore, while I have not always agreed with the selections made on behalf of the constituents of Calgary, I agree that art adds to the heartbeat of a city and enriches the visual experience while venturing around our city, so I have said nothing.

Additionally, at no point was I given the opportunity to vote on the usefulness of a new $125-million library in downtown Calgary that I will probably never visit.

However, I do realize that encouraging literacy and retaining our literary history is important to a community, so I have said nothing.

This brings me to the CalgaryNEXT project, which you have stated the majority, and by your personal calculations, practically all Calgarians have expressed outright rejection of public funds being used towards.

This too is a project I will likely not get the opportunity to vote on, but this is a project I support my tax dollars being spent on.

The city sees fit to support the spending of my taxes on projects that may or may not be of any use to me personally, but they are supported by public funding because they are for the greater good of our city. I do not see how the CalgaryNEXT project is any different.

Mr. Mayor, you and most of our city councillors have repeatedly shown a negative attitude toward this project. How can you and the councillors of this city stand up for the merits of the library and the public arts program, and not for the merits of this project?

Do you honestly not think that this project will be an economic benefit to Calgary? Do you not think that it will be as enriching as a library or piece of art? Do you not remember how the Calgary Flames brought the city together in 2004, or how the Olympic spirit came alive in this city during the 1988 Winter Games?

I can tell you that I had to drive to Edmonton recently to attend a Garth Brooks concert (that didn’t come to Calgary), spend money on a hotel, and tried, unsuccessfully, to find a place to grab a bite to eat downtown because every bar and eatery was packed within a 12-block radius around Rogers Place.

Do you and our city councillors not believe that restaurateurs and hoteliers would not give their eye teeth to be in the same position in Calgary?

In looking at the Rogers Place website, from its opening to October of this year, no fewer than 25 major concert events will be playing and not touching Calgary in any way, shape or form. Wow. At a time when Calgary could use any economic boost it can get, it baffles me that everyone at city hall is rejecting this project outright. Edmonton is laughing all the way to the bank.

This will be an election issue for me. The citizens of this city are deserving of the economic benefits a venue of this calibre could bring to Calgary, and it should garner your — and our city councillors’ — enthusiastic support.