You know you live in a great city when the apparent source of inspiration for the downtown booster club is Atlantic city circa 1976.
The infrastructure being "lobbied" for by Downtown Moncton centre-ville are a casino, a justice building and conference centre. Who exactly is being lobbied is a tad mysterious as governments stopped dishing out money for conference centres in the 1990s.
But a casino!? Come on people. This is 2008. I'd like to think that the myth of turning your city into Monte Carlo has passed. Hull, Windsor, Halifax, Montreal, Niagara Falls, etc., etc, etc, these casinos primarily serve locals. That is not good for the local economy. Especially when the massive profits generated would be shipped to the provincial government in... Fredericton.
If a casino goes up, it should be reserved for out of province visitors only. I suggest we make it rather small, perhaps in a room in the back of the Moncton Museum.
The only thing that is going to save Moncton's downtown, or any other downtown for that matter, is zoning. You zone massive tracks of land for retail and office use on the outskirts of town, and you can kiss your downtown goodbye.
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