Is that all there is?  

All there is, an arena, casino, skating rink, hotel?  

I mean really, is that all, there is?

Really, all there is, another River Cree Resort, downtown...

                                                   

Vision 

Well then, lets keep dancing!  Let's bring out the best, and the brightest.  Lets enable, engage, enlist, and share.  An ' Entertainment District' implies 'community' of people. Last week's vision is rather limited. Actually, there wasn't much about 'district' at all. Certainly the presentation was bereft of people.  There's got to be more, than the lowest denominator of things we already have.

Let's start with Purpose. Outcomes before incomes. 'Why' before who and how.  If, we are talking 'Entertainment District', why are we talking about it? Then, how will it, if, it's still on the table, relate to the Art Gallery, the Citadel, the Library, Shaw Conference Centre, neighbourhood hotels, the icons, institutions, in the neighbourhood. What of the artisans and entrepreneurs? The little guys who'll bring life, energy, esprit, business, and people to the district, and actually live there.  

Need more Vision.

                                                                              

Arena 1.0 is so 1990's!  Need all the cash. Be unabashedly greedy. Marginalize those who disagree. Polarize the debate. Classical hall marks of a dysfunctional command and control business as usual system. A lame and boring practice which devalues community and portrays Edmontonians as rubes to be cajoled and manipulated. 

Only the greedy find a need to bamboozle. 

Except, times are different. disingenuous assertions dissolve, instantly, with insight ... 

" not our City’s place to give private industry access to government borrowing power. We are fortunate enough as municipalities in Alberta to borrow through something called Alberta Capital Finance, which – thanks to the fiscal discipline of both local governments and the province – enjoys among the best credit ratings you’ll find (and thus lowest interest rates) anywhere. The public sector has earned this. The private sector has not."  Don Iveson

...  investigation and analysis,   

" According to Gary Klassen, the city's general manager of planning and development, a big downtown development like Edmonton City Centre pays 1.4 per cent of its assessed value in property taxes. So even if -- and it's a big if -- all the developments spurred by the arena had a total assessed property value of $1 billion, they'd generate $14 million a year in taxes"...  Edmonton Journal Transparency is difficult, when playing in a cloistered sand box. It's better than exposing one self, though.

There's a tendency to be overwhelmed by the complexity of the current macro financial morass. Seems complicated, complex and a lot of work. No need, to be confused. New Arena 1.0 is our quagmire. Greed is why our business and financial system is morally bankrupt, dysfunctional, and perpetually gamed. Why there is less wealth, than 3 years ago. Greed is local, too.  Capitalism on the way up. Socialism everywhere else. Pass the costs to whoever can be enlisted to accept them.  

It can be different. 

Need less Greed

Great companies start a movement and build a consensus. Imagine the Entertainment District with an articulated consensus. Imagine, if everybody understood 'why'.  If everyone stood to benefit. If there are lasting meaningful on going economic gains, across the community.

Need More Great.

The toughest things for any business to do is to rethink how their business is done. What it could look like in the future. New is risky, unproven, takes work, requires energy, encourages ideas, listens, fails and restarts. Not that hard to do, when the page is blank. Good companies enable all, exclude no one. 

Need more Good.

Read  Good to Great.  Great to Good. 

Invest an hour   Watch

Failure is OK. Arena 1.0 is dead.  Next!

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