A Rising Tide Raises All Boats

While the local "adults" are busy insulting each other in the op ed pages of the Standard Examiner over the proposed Recreation Center, gondola, Intelligent Design and of course—the war—what are our local youth doing and thinking in their "spare time?"

According to one worried citizen during the last Ogden city council meeting-- Ogden teens might decide to loiter around the new Recreation Center, heaven forbid, wanting to actually use the facility [—gee, that would be terrible.]

• Ogden must create something unique so people will WANT to go visit our city.  The rec. center will include Gold's Gym, Fat Cat's bowling, an arcade, a wind-tunnel (for indoor skydiving year-round - ages 3 and up), a flowrider (a water feature that combines surfing with skateboarding), a climbing wall, restaurants, and more.

• The rec. center is NOT the entire Mall Project.  It is only a small piece of the puzzle, but a very important piece.  The rec. center takes up approx. 24,000 square feet out of 20 Acres of land.  That's less than 3% of the entire mall area.
  

• The rec. center will provide more than 200 NEW JOBS to downtown Ogden!

• The rec. center will draw AT LEAST 600 - 1,000 people per DAY to the downtown.  This will help current business owners and will encourage other business to come to the Ogden area.  What business owner wouldn't want a guaranteed 600 - 1,000  people going by their business everyday?

• Larry Miller has agreed to build a theater complex in the Mall Area ONLY if the rec. center is built.

• The Boyer Company has agreed to develop part of the project and to provide anchor stores and other retail ONLY if the rec. center is built.

• The land already purchased by private entities to develop a three-story mixed-use building and a six-story mixed-use building was purchased with the agreement that the city would build the rec. center.

• If the city does not build the rec. center the Mall Project does not happen.  We will still have a big dirt pit sitting in the middle of downtown.

• Nationwide, urban renewal projects have required some funding from city sources.  The results have shown success.  The cities provide the spark to attract private business where no interest existed.

• The rec. center is a result of careful study of what has been successful for urban renewal projects, months of input from citizens during many, many open forums, and a cooperation between developers and the city.

• The citizens of Ogden are NOT responsible for paying back the loan to build the rec. center.  The loan is bonded through revenue from the BDO, which means the loan, if defaulted on, would be paid back through BDO.  NOT TAX DOLLARS!