(Copyright The Kingston Whig-Standard 2006)
Despite all the questions that have arisen, despite a process that was flawed
from the beginning, one thing remains indisputable about the city's proposed
Large Venue Entertainment Centre: Fundamentally, the community believes it is a
good idea. Amid all the criticisms - wrong location, too small, dubious financing - let
us not forget that Mayor Harvey Rosen won the last election by more than 18,000
votes, with a platform largely centred on a pledge to replace the aging Memorial
Centre. The significance of defeating an incumbent with that kind of plurality
is not to be diminished, and the mandate that flows from that should not be
denied. That's why a referendum on the downtown arena and entertainment centre would
have been silly. That voice has already been heard. With a month to go before a
council vote that could possibly kill the project, we need to remember how
unmistakable that message was. This leads, however, to one of the more puzzling aspects of the whole arena
debate: Where have all those people gone? More precisely, why have none of the
23,179 people who voted for Harvey Rosen's dream not stepped forward to begin a
fundraising campaign to help achieve it? Let us look at a couple of examples that contrast sharply with the LVEC
experience. In Napanee three years ago, citizens were rebuffed by council when
it came time to build an arena. They were told to raise $425,000 before council
would entertain the notion. The campaign grew beyond $1 million by the time it
was done. There was no mistaking the public will, and a new arena opened on
time. Fifty-five years ago, our own Memorial Centre was built with money that came
not just from senior levels of government, but from citizens who did such basic
things as buy raffle tickets and sign up for donations via payroll deductions. Why has no one from among all those who purport to support the arena shown
such initiative? Certainly we see such effort for other civic ventures. A public
campaign has raised millions of dollars for the Grand Theatre renovation. The
Hockeyville bid has shown how a grassroots campaign can take hold once it
captures the imagination of the community. Think of the ramifications if a person or committee stepped forward to
undertake such a fundraising initiative. Those of us who believe the arena is a
good idea would have an opportunity to express it in the most tangible, direct
way. What better signal to send to the provincial and federal governments than a
groundswell of public support, in a way stronger than any petition or grant
application could ever express? Critics of the arena project have been portrayed as negativists and naysayers.
Supporters of the project invoke a so-called silent majority of the faithful
that is being drowned out in the debate by people they characterize as bent on
needlessly scuttling a good thing. To a large degree, this attitude misses the constructive nature of the
criticism that is being offered. If the civic will for an arena is there,
however, there's no better way to prove the point than by starting a fundraising
campaign. Let's see who - and how many - put some money where their mouths are. If supporters truly are a majority, why must they stay silent?