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Gunter: Edmonton's Quarters experiment a multi-million dollar dud

It hasn’t worked, and now Edmontonians could be on the hook for almost $64 million in cost overruns

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The city’s Quarters experiment has been a dud.

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The Quarters is the district immediately east of Downtown, which the city has been attempting to defibrillate into vitality for nearly a decade – with taxpayers’ money, of course.

It hasn’t worked, and now Edmontonians could be on the hook for almost $64 million in cost overruns.

Later this week, council’s executive committee will receive a report from administration showing that of the $100 million the city has spent trying to gentrify and spark some life into The Quarters, only a little more than $36 million is likely to be recouped through a special tax assessment known as a CRL – a community revitalization levy.

Essentially, a CRL allows the city to borrow money to build neighbourhood infrastructure and facilities that it hopes will attract private investors whose taxes, over time, will repay the loans the city has taken out to prime the pump.

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In the Quarters, it’s been a giant flop. There has never been anything close to enough private development to generate taxes that would cover the city’s investment.

When new, private investment arrives in large numbers, it can, theoretically, generate enough new property tax in the area to pay back the CRL.

But when that fails, as it has in the Quarters, guess who gets to make up the shortfall with their property taxes? That’s right, every Edmonton taxpayer is on the hook for the shortfall created by council’s and the administration’s overheated dreams.

The Quarters may no longer be as full of derelict warehouses and flop house hotels, porn shops and decaying steam baths as it once was, but it remains a long way from the cozy, middle-class neighbourhood within walking or biking distance of Downtown offices and attractions. Right along the Valley Line LRT for those not wanting to walk or pedal.

A good example of this urban development fantasy — the if-we-build-it-they-will-come fallacy — is the Hyatt Place hotel on Jasper Avenue at 95 Street.

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It was meant to be a glimmering anchor for other private development and tourism, but is most famous for having failed a health inspection when its ventilation system was found clogged with pigeon droppings.

The developments the city has paid for with the CRL to jumpstart the district include Kinistinâw Park, which is a magnet for the homeless and the scene of three overdose deaths. The Quarters also contains the city-paid Armature, a “green street” pilot project that is supposed to be the commercial and social hub of the neighbourhood, complete with “all-season parks, urban plazas, shopping, eating, and entertainment areas.”

Yeah? How’s that working out?

But this kind of failure is nothing new for the city’s big dreamers, both on council and in administration.

Think of Blatchford, the “green” development on the old city centre airport lands that is years and years and hundreds of millions behind schedule because the city insists it be net-zero emissions and that administration develop it itself rather than turning it over to pros.

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The city was sure if it just built the LRT Valley Line from Mill Woods to Downtown, residential and commercial developments would pop up like mushrooms, especially in Bonnie Doon, Holyrood and Strathearn.

It’s the same with the northern extensions of the Capital LRT line. There’s been some development near the northern terminus, but the jewel the city has put the most effort into – Belvedere Station – has never fully materialized.

Council and administration just cannot free themselves of the idea that they can use taxpayer dollars to promote elaborate private projects in parts of the city where most people don’t want to live, work, shop or recreate.

It will be the same for the Downtown CRL that council extended another 10 years, last year.

If people don’t want to go downtown because there is too much crime and open drug use, the city cannot wave an expensive wand and turn it into a paradise.

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