What do Coquitlam councillors and city staff know that the rest of us don’t?
We ask because council’s vote Monday to proceed with a $2.7-million “performance plaza” — a strategic rebranding, perhaps, of the previously proposed and underwhelmingly received amphitheatre? — in Town Centre Park makes little sense to the average citizen.
In fact, the city earlier this year asked citizens to weigh in with their opinions on such a facility and their answer was, effectively, “meh.”
A public consultation process about the proposal showed just 52% of respondents generally favoured the project while 48% did not — hardly a tidal wave of public demand for such a facility.
Now, we do not oppose developing recreation assets in parks and Town Centre’s existing facilities are well used. But the city has provided insufficient evidence its plaza will be similarly utilized.
And the fact that Coquitlam is one of only a handful of cities without a similar asset is not a reason for building one, but a justification.
