Comments on: Roundhouse, Vancouver’s community centre, suffers funding cuts due to the Olympics http://www.culturalolympics.org.uk/2010/03/roundhouse-vancouver%e2%80%99s-community-centre-suffers-funding-cuts-due-to-the-olympics/ Issues, Trend and Perspectives, Edited by Andy Miah & Beatriz Garcia Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:11:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: The Blackbird http://www.culturalolympics.org.uk/2010/03/roundhouse-vancouver%e2%80%99s-community-centre-suffers-funding-cuts-due-to-the-olympics/comment-page-1/#comment-331 The Blackbird Sat, 27 Mar 2010 07:14:13 +0000 http://www.culturalolympics.org.uk/?p=891#comment-331 Great article but, just to be clear, The Roundhouse is one of 24 community recreation centres throughout the City of Vancouver, many of which have had their funding cut. This cannot be blamed solely on Olympic spending, though. A greater impact was caused the downturn in the worldwide economy which led to falling property values and, thus, less property tax revenue for the City. Also, many businesses went bankrupt during the worst phase of the market crash so business tax revenue also dropped. When the Olympic Village financial backer stopped funding the $1.1 billion project, the City leveraged its own multibillion dollar public lands endowment to borrow enough to take it over. This caused its credit rating to slip making it more difficult to raise capital to continue spending on programs and services for the community. I think it's important to be clear on why these funding cuts had to be made. I should state my bias by offering that, while I write as a private citizen here, I am a full-time employee of the CIty's Board of Parks and Recreation. Great article but, just to be clear, The Roundhouse is one of 24 community recreation centres throughout the City of Vancouver, many of which have had their funding cut. This cannot be blamed solely on Olympic spending, though. A greater impact was caused the downturn in the worldwide economy which led to falling property values and, thus, less property tax revenue for the City. Also, many businesses went bankrupt during the worst phase of the market crash so business tax revenue also dropped. When the Olympic Village financial backer stopped funding the $1.1 billion project, the City leveraged its own multibillion dollar public lands endowment to borrow enough to take it over. This caused its credit rating to slip making it more difficult to raise capital to continue spending on programs and services for the community. I think it’s important to be clear on why these funding cuts had to be made.

I should state my bias by offering that, while I write as a private citizen here, I am a full-time employee of the CIty’s Board of Parks and Recreation.

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