City planners from five major North American cities have given the grandiose plan to build a new football stadium in South Point Douglas a collective thumbs-down.
The group weighed in on the proposal Friday afternoon while on a tour of the neighbourhood.
As Chuck Allen, a Chicago-area planner, walked along Rover Avenue near the Red River, he suggested a new home for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the community isn't a great idea for a few reasons.
"The city's going to have to pour money into infrastructure, which, as I understand it, they don't have a lot of money for. In the United States, there's classic examples of stadiums that haven't delivered much..." Allen said.
"It's going to affect the entire community, probably not for the better... I don't believe the city is putting a lot of effort into this community in the first place and a stadium isn't going to solve anyone's problems."
In late June, media modul and football fan David Asper released his vision to build the CFL club a $150-million stadium and revitalize an overlooked part of the inner city.
It's part of a $400-million proposal to redevelop the south side of Point Douglas and includes a year-round water park, hotel and footbridge connecting it to St. Boniface.
Earlier this week, Mayor Sam Katz said a decision about the costly and controversial development will be made within a month.
Sean Connelly, a city planning PhD candidate in Vancouver, said he doesn't know a lot about the stadium plans but understands Winnipeg faces a huge infrastructure deficit.
"It could end up being an albatross around the city's neck -- paying for the infrastructure for a new site when there's already a site in existence," Connelly said. "When sustainability has become so prevalent in the public, it seems bizarre to revert back to a 'field of dreams' way of thinking."
Hundreds of city planners, economists, community activists and development professionals from across North America were in Winnipeg this week for a conference.
Several participants took a tour of local neighbourhoods on Friday.
Richard Milgram, one of the tour guides and a professor of city planning at the University of Manitoba, said he doesn't think there are any redeeming features to the stadium plan.
"The whole question has been whether Point Douglas is the right fit for the stadium. The real question should be, 'What's the right thing to do for Point Douglas?' That would probably result in a whole bunch of different responses," he said.
"What we need in the city is to consolidate and strengthen what we have, not create another destination because we're not a growing city."
Inside one of the city's oldest warehouses on Higgins Avenue, Jocelyne Chait, a city planning consultant in New York City who has worked with residents in the South Bronx, shared her views.
"There's always a claim it's going to improve the area in terms of bringing the money in and revitalization. But if you look at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, which has been there for a number of years, it hasn't done much for the community," Chait said.
"There has to be a concerted effort to actually work with the community. They have to put money into housing, provide employment, to provide activities for youth, support for youth, yeah arguments can be made, but in many incidents (like this) that doesn't happen."
Heather McLean, a planner who worked for the City of Toronto for five years and is now completing her PhD, called the stadium plan "regressive."
"These projects, from what I know, they lead to really rapid development and bring in a lot of traffic," McLean said.
"I don't think it will necessarily provide a lot of economic opportunities and it will displace a lot of residents who don't have many places to go."
selena.hinds@freepress.mb.ca
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