I am on such a high, everyone. It's so cliche to say, but we really can make a difference. Most of those who spoke tonight were in favour - when has that EVER happened in St. John's? The media went mad... it's like they'd never seen anything like it before.
And we had so many people - including older residents who live near the site - come up to thank us for speaking, as young people, and not only that - but also to AGREE with us!
One woman even said, "I wanted to say... if you're opposed to this hotel, well then what do you think could be put there?"
We also all shared our concerns about the design of the new proposal - and the President of Manga Hotels, the architect, and others involved were present, so they heard it. They're also doing Star of the Sea, which I and most of us ADORE... so that gives me GREAT HOPE that we could see some excellent improvements as the design progresses.
Also, one man who spoke basically said, "I appreciate the developer taking these steps to change the design to address our concerns. But I'm still opposed to this development..."
And that, to me, SCREAMS why we shouldn't bother forcing heritage requirements on new construction in the Downtown West End. You create a Frankenstein monster of a building that NO ONE likes.
Other thoughts:
- We have an excellent council candidate in Jeddy. I've rarely seen someone speak so eloquently, with such clear and well-thought out structure, flow, order of points, etc. in person and off the cuff. He was, no exaggeration, a BRILLIANT speaker. We'll be able to hold him up as our candidate VERY proudly.
- Two of the four people who spoke in opposition to this development did so using reasons that should be dismissed as illegitimate out of hand. One guy was complaining about the noise the hotel would create, the increased crime it would bring, etc. WTF? Another guy's issue was dealing with 311 to get illegally-parked cars towed.
- We HAVE to keep going to these things. As Jeddy pointed out - imagine if we had been at the first one, when all these heritage hoops were added and the design became hideous? We could have prevented all of this.
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Well done gents.
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