The back room is looking pretty cosy these days, as “Decider Larry” cools on an international Lansdowne design competition. The park is not his personal property. His rush to construct a premature idea next fall leaves no time to get the rest of us involved.

The way to make money with Lansdowne is through tourism, not property taxes. A design competition would class up a city that badly needs a great public space. Our world heritage canal is one piece of the puzzle. Let’s not waste it by handing Lansdowne to O’Brien’s pals for small-minded development.

Let’s get excited about what we could build downtown. Let’s transform Lansdowne into a space that will be a beautiful draw for a hundred years. Mayor O’Brien: we want an international design competition.

Dear Mayor O’Brien,

Tuesday you were quoted as saying you are “cooling” on an international design competition for Lansdowne Park. This is very bad news to hear. Things are looking very cosy in the back room right now, and your electorate is getting very uncomfortable.

Lansdowne is not your personal property, it belongs to the people of Ottawa, and it is the last big parcel of land downtown. For you to say that you want “shovels in the ground” next summer is ridiculous. When are we to have our say?

We can do better than to pick the first proposal that comes up. The CFL can be housed in other people’s developments too, if that is what the people of Ottawa want.

The way to make money with Lansdowne is through tourism, not through property taxes. The international design competition will be good for Ottawa. It will focus worldwide attention on a city that badly needs a public space to focus the attention of tourists. Our recent canal heritage victory is one piece of the puzzle. Let’s not waste it by handing Lansdowne to our friends for small-minded development.

The mayor should be a LEADER, not a one-man decision maker. Show us that you can LEAD us, rather than trying to cut backroom deals. Let’s have public consultation. Let’s get Ottawa excited about what we could do with our downtown. The international design competition was a good idea, let’s get it back on the rails. Let’s build something at Lansdowne that will be a beautiful draw for hundreds of years.

Dear Councillor,

Tuesday, Mayor O’Brien was quoted as saying he is “cooling” on an international design competition for Lansdowne Park. This is very bad news to hear. Things are looking very cosy in the back room right now, and the electorate is getting very uncomfortable.

Lansdowne is not O’Brien’s personal property, it belongs to the people of Ottawa, and it is the last big parcel of land downtown. For him to say that he wants “shovels in the ground” next summer is ridiculous. When are we to have our say? We can do better than to pick the first proposal that comes up. The CFL can be housed in other people’s developments too, if that is what the people of Ottawa want.

The way to make money with Lansdowne is through tourism, not through property taxes. The international design competition will be good for Ottawa. It will focus worldwide attention on a city that badly needs a public space to focus the attention of tourists. Our recent canal heritage victory is one piece of the puzzle. Let’s not waste it by handing Lansdowne to O’Brien’s friends for small-minded development.

The mayor should be a leader, not a one-man decision maker. I hope that you, as a councillor, will not stand for his back room deals. If push comes to shove, will you support an international design competition?

Let’s have public consultation. Let’s get Ottawa excited about what we could do with our downtown. The international design competition was a good idea, let’s get it back on the rails. Let’s build something at Lansdowne that will be a beautiful draw for hundreds of years.