Fixing A Mistake

Pretty well everyone knows by the time they become an adult, that if they don't consider all the implictions/consequences of a big decision, they'll have to live with whatever happens for the rest of their life. And, living with a wrong decision for 80 years is difficult.

Take the LVEC in downtown Kingston.

Having made a wrong decision to put it on its present location, city council is now faced with trying to make it work. And, in terms of traffic, there is no "good" solution. Actually, there's no even "acceptable" solution to the chaos that has now been created at the eastern entrance to this city.

Throughout the time leading up to initial decision-making about the LVEC's location, council and the mayor were told endlessly that downtown traffic and parking were issues that could not be resolved in a satisfactlry manner if the LVEC was put downtown.

Never mind, the mayor was determined to have it downtown, for reasons that have never been explained publicly. One day, however, Kingstonians will find out.

Consultants named IBI were hired to "study" traffic and parking, and not surprisingly, said that these two issues would not be issues. Considering the flaws in the premises on which they based their study, this is not surprizing.

When the citizens complained long and loud about traffic on the east end of the city, and the difficulty getting into and around downtown, a second consultant, Totten Sims Hubicki (TSH) was hired to determine how to make a silk purse out of this sow's ear. Tonight, they will tell us how this can be done. It will be an interesting, hot, firey meeting at Memorial Hall.

That morale is low and stress high among city employees who are tasked with carrying out a wrong decision, should be no surprise to anyone. The flack that traffic staff, accessibility staff, and project management have received is gigantic. To say nothing about discussions wiith representatives of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame. One has to wonder if the Frontenacs had totally positive discussions about THEIR new rink, and if they autoomatically got everything THEY wanted. Somehow, most people think so.

But, back to traffic. Vehicles speed off the LaSalle Causeway this morning, apparently the trees on the little "island" have been cut down, residents who live in the complex north of the LVEC are disgusted with the traffic, and citizens who are experts in traffic, parking and recreational facilities are betrayed.

One wonders if the mayor will attend this evening's meeting. Stay tuned.