70 KING - SAME OLD PIG NEW LIPSTICK

70 KING - SAME OLD PIG NEW LIPSTICK By Joe Ingino Editor/Publisher ACCOMPLISHED WRITER/AUTHOR OF OVER 800,000 Published Columns in Canada and The United States “I live a dream in a nightmare world”

Before I begin.... Please don’t think, I am being negative. I am not. If I think like the City.... “SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING”. Well, as romantic as that sounds. It is not progress. That is an ingredient for failure. In life we do not play to be second and satisfy our efforts with mediocre. We wake up every morning as if it was the day after the fact and we awaken in celebration of the win the day before. This type of thinking is as foreign to our elected official as the idea that the City of Oshawa sits on a gold mine of opportunity and no one is doing anything about it. Did you know that the City out of political spite has neglected you from knowing about all kinds of important events, notices, closures. Instead they expect all citizens to go online. The numbers online speak for themselves, minimal at best. No one is going on line. This means you the taxpayers are not getting notified. You the taxpayers are not benefiting from all that is taking place in our city. You the taxpayers are not being informed on the many studies, by-law passing that affect you. Now back to the PIG IN THE ROOM at 70 King St. This week the relaunched 70 King St took place. An event that was supposed to be a huge success and due to no advertising or promotion.... the only in attendance included a few local municipal elect and their handful of brown nosers. 20 people showed up if that. A huge failure. Now let’s analyze this failure. Now don’t get me wrong there is a difference between being negative and a realist. In this case the facts speak for themselves. 20 people on a grand opening is a failure. The building is the former Genosha Hotel a state of the art building when it was built in 1929. Since those days, it has gone through some transformations. At one time it served as a strip bar, a bikers hang out. A drug heaven. A general party place. The city ran out the strip bar, the bikers and it sat empty and an eye sore for years. The City looked for one out of town sucker after another with no success. The property was put up for sale and it became a hot potato. Developer Rick Summers - apparently bit the hook and decided to bring back the Genosh. The problem is not the Genosh and it’s phantom curse. The problem is it’s location. Lack of walking traffic. I feel for the vendors they talked into going in that property. It is a matter of time before they start feeling the realities of downtown Oshawa. Downtown is not promoted. Walk in traffic is minimal at best. The atmosphere on the streets is horrible due to the homeless and open drug trade. I feel for Rick Summers that he fell for the shinny dog turd gold nugget the city passes as a great idea. The reality is that the core needs some serious promotion. Serious cleaning up. More parking even though Mary St. Parking lot is there.. but who wants to be harassed by those homeless living in the halls of the garage. It is time that will once again sink a good idea due to poor planning and lack of City vision and support.