As Ottawa City's Council's crucial Lansdowne vote approaches, the Friends of Lansdowne is gearing up to communicate the concerns of citizens from across Ottawa about this costly development project.

Friends of Lansdowne is a city-wide, entirely volunteer coalition working for the revitalization of Lansdowne in a fair, open and fiscally responsible way.

FOL member June Creelman says: "We are looking forward to seeing the designs for the urban park this week.  Unfortunately,  we’ll only be seeing part of the site. Most of Lansdowne was excluded from the design competition. The design of the stadium, and the commercial and residential areas have been commissioned by developers who have made an unsolicited offer to take over the park. No competition. No choice.”

FOL member, economist Michael Tiger, continues "No matter how great the designs are, the Lansdowne plan is a bad deal for taxpayers. The city is giving away land for free and taking on a major debt in a financially risky venture. On top of that, without rapid transit, transportation and parking will be huge problems.”

Over the next six weeks. the Friends of Lansdowne will review the plans and reports that come out and post information on its letsgetitright.ca web site to engage citizens in the issues, beyond the pictures.  Says Creelman: " We are providing citizens with an additional tool to communicate with their councillors on the Lansdowne issue, and with each other.”

Letsgetitright.ca was first launched in the Fall as an interactive tool to allow the residents of Ottawa to voice their opinion about the Lansdowne Live proposal. James O’Grady (candidate Knoxdale-Merivale) has passed the tool to the Friends of Lansdowne to carry the effort forward.

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For more information:

Michael Tiger, 613 235-3113
Joan Spice, 613-230-2442.