By Pepper Parr
November 17th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
The city recently asked those who are part of the Insight Burlington opinion panel which of three illustrations they would like to see on a series of smart phone apps they are thinking of developing.
The choices were: The Escarpment; a picture of a family and The Pier.
The Pier on the day it was officially opened.
That was the structure you the taxpayer shelled out $14 million for when it was originally going to cost something just over $6.5 million.
Most organizations keep their skeletons in the closet.
Let’s see what they choose to do.
Hope the “mistake by the lake” never makes it onto the app. Already see it in far too many places “representing” Burlington. It is a monument to hubris, ego, failure and waste. Never needed to be built. We already have a pier, on the Burlington side of the canal. Provides a much broader and better view of Burlington’s lakeshore and on to Toronto.
People come to Spencer Smith Park for so many other reasons than the Brant Street Pier. It was already a destination. They’d still come, just as they always have, and always will.
A well-known computer company used to have an internal direction that said ‘if you have issues with a product, market the hell out of it”. Burlington seems to have adopted the same playbook. ;-}
The Pier to Nowhere will always stand as a shining example of managerial and fiscal incompetence at City Hall. Want to know why taxes are rising at a multiple of the rate of inflation?
Oh, I think the pier will look good if LaSalle Park Marina gets their way and boondoggles 14 million from Provincial and Federal grants (to be taken away from other infrastructure programs)and that includes loans from the city…for what… to have 10,000 tonnes of rock dumped into the lake for their permanent break wall….340 boat owners will benefit, of which only about 80 or so currently live in Burlington…wonder what kind of artistic or architectural value that will have…Oh ya, just remember, Rick Goldring said something to the effect that the picture of a marina looks good on a brochure…
Defiantly not the useless and unattractive pier. I don’t care for the other choices either but at least the escarpment is attractive, especially with fall colors.
if this picture proceeds, this is sort of bland. Why not put within a sunrise or sunset.
The pier is a symbol of failure.
The pier is a sad and sorry reminder of a seriously flawed initiative that should never have been initiated. Not only that it is, frankly, ugly, and has no redeeming artistic or architectural value.
Might as well put a picture of a financial sink-hole on the app because that’s what this $14 boondoggle amounted in the end.