Just over a week ago I showed you a photo of the dome on my walk to Granville Island. (Click the underlined words if you want to read about the walk). Here it is again. It is the white roofed building nestled between the high rises. BC Place recently had prominence as being the venue for the Winter Olympics 2010 Opening and Closing Ceremonies and over the years it has hosted many spectacular events in the City.
This is what the dome looked like after collapse.
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| Photo Credit: Nick Procaylo, PNG |
I hadn't even realized that the roof was going down today. It was a bittersweet moment. The original dome was built in 1983 at a cost of $126 Million.
The dome will be replaced with an expensive retractable roof. While I am all in favour of making upgrades, it is a rather expensive proposition coming directly on the heels of huge expenditures for the Winter Olympics. The retractable roof alone is expected to cost in the neighbourhood of $475 Million, though I've also read estimates of $458 Million. The new retractable roof is expected to be the world's largest retractable roof for a domed stadium and it's anticipated completion is sometime next year.
After spending $5000. on my portion of my condominium building's roof replacement, I am not feeling up to spending my portion of $475 Million that will need to be paid from taxes.
Is there any large tax funded project where you live that you had to pay for whether you supported it or not?
15 comments:
That is interesting, Penny...looks like you were in the right place at the right time to get the photos.
Hope you don't have any further repairs coming up on your condiminium.
It is a fact of life that the areas that host the Olympics end up in debt.... I've read that is at the bottom of Greece's current woes.
Yes, the Gov't gave local councils funds to improve the main streets of towns, as part of preventing a recession, but our council has overrun the budget by probably about $1 million by the time it finishes, to be paid by borrowing and ratepayers, and to add insult to injury, there are far fewer parking spaces, and instead of 4 lanes so that there is no holdup on each side while parking and leaving, there are now 2 lanes and while one vehicle is paking, about 20 vehicles are banked up along the street.
All the best for a pleasant week.
Hugs and Blessings
The expense of a new roof for the place is high. Will it make the area more functional? I love you pictures.
BEAUTIFUL BLOG and I love your header !!!
Thanks for the note you left at mine...
Hugs Dena
Hi Jan, thanks for the photo compliments but only the top one is mine. I got the other one from the paper (see the photographer's name under the pic). I actually had a lot of special assessments this past year. The roof was only one of them. I hope that is the end of it for a very long time.
I can see that your government did what a lot of others did, tried to spend their way out of recession. In Canada's case the recession was supposedly not as bad as elsewhere. I think that is probably true especially where I live as there was a big boom pre-Olympics. Nonetheless there are scads of bills to be paid. The Olympic tab came to $1 Billion and I believe that was exclusive of some big expense. I generally tune out the numbers because you find out later they are not the full story.
I do hope you get some of your parking spaces back. It is hard to live in urban sprawl when there is no where to park the car. I actually live within the city and can walk to where I need to go :-)
Hello KleinsteMotte, welcome to my blog. I've visited yours now too :-) The new retractable roof will apparently be done for the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer team. The construction of the roof will make the venue more light-filled, intimate and allow the end zone areas to be redraped for expansion (though I have no idea how). The new venue will have to meet major league soccer league stadium standards.
When the stadium was first built, the Whitecaps played soccer there and the game was "bigger" in the city. I have no idea where they have been playing for the past decade or more but Vancouver and the Whitecaps team are certainly looking to put soccer on the map here.
Thank you Dena E! I think you are the first or second person to comment on my header which I especially love ;-) Thank you too for dropping by an dI hope to see you again soon :-)
Wow..I can see what you mean. I'm sure it happens all the time! It's too late and my thinking is too slow to nail something down here! What a pretty capture and quite a contrast (even looks over cast)! Big bucks though..whew!
Thanks Regina. I know what you mean by late..though I seem to have the clock (see date and time on your comment), set on Kenyan time, lol. Hope you get some shut eye. Does the strong sun in Hawaii wake you up early too?
Just imagine how many starving people could be fed for $400 million plus ! Imagine explaining this to a starving person - all that money spent on a mere roof ... wow ... what is this world coming to, hey ?!
Hi, thanks for your comments on my blog. Lovely to discover yours - we're big fans of BC in my family, so I'll be visiting again.
You asked what the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was. We have the main Festival, which is high culture in the big, expensive venues, with international musicians/actors/dance. The Fringe has no artistic selection process, so anyone can hire a venue and perform. They may not get an audience, or then again their show may be sold out months in advance. Some are spectacularly good. It ranges from classical music to traditional Scots, comedy, drama, mime, dance...and on and on.
I'm not wanting to think about projects my taxes have paid for here
Hi Linda, thanks for dropping by and letting me know all about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Sounds like an interesting concept :-)
I understand if you don't want to think about taxes for projects. It can be depressing and sometimes a way to cope with depressing thoughts is not to think about them. I know, I do it, lol On the other hand, some of us need to vent once in awhile, then we're ok ;-)
Nice to know you are fans of BC and look forward to seeing you again. Take care now.
Yes Lynda, it boggles the mind what one can spend on seemingly frivolous things when many go starving.
Hi, thanks for your comments on my blog. Lovely to discover yours - we're big fans of BC in my family, so I'll be visiting again.
You asked what the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was. We have the main Festival, which is high culture in the big, expensive venues, with international musicians/actors/dance. The Fringe has no artistic selection process, so anyone can hire a venue and perform. They may not get an audience, or then again their show may be sold out months in advance. Some are spectacularly good. It ranges from classical music to traditional Scots, comedy, drama, mime, dance...and on and on.
I'm not wanting to think about projects my taxes have paid for here
Just imagine how many starving people could be fed for $400 million plus ! Imagine explaining this to a starving person - all that money spent on a mere roof ... wow ... what is this world coming to, hey ?!
Thanks Regina. I know what you mean by late..though I seem to have the clock (see date and time on your comment), set on Kenyan time, lol. Hope you get some shut eye. Does the strong sun in Hawaii wake you up early too?
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