4 - Wednesday, Apri! 15, 1987 - North Shore News Bob Hunter ® strictly personal ® IF EVER there was a case to be made for getting rid of Crown corporations, it has been highlighted by the outrageous suggestion made by B.C. Place boss Stanley Kwok to set up two gigantic Bavarian-style beer gardens at former Expo sites. If I happened to be involved in the hotel or cabaret business, | would be foaming at the mouth. It was bad enough that Expo itself siphoned off so much business all around that the Lower Mainland experienced its highest rate ever of bankruptcies last year. For the czars of B.C. Place to turn around and try to install beer gardens to offset their $194 million deficit is the height of Crown cor- poration madness, the very reason for getting rid of such monsters wherever possible. If B.C. Place was to be given permission to establish a beer garden in the Challenge Pavilion that would sit 1,200 people — that’s five times bigger than any existing pub — and another such garden capable of seating 750 drinkers in the former food fair at the tip of Canada Place, the Black Hole which was Expo would open again, sucking away business from miles and miles around. * There was no doubt that the German beer gardens at Expo were among the very most popuar at- tractions. Certainly, I rate Bavarian-style beer drinking as one of the great joys of life. . 1 know I for one would be very much tempted to go there — and that’s the point. Sure, it would be fun. But it would also mean my money wasn’t being plunked down elsewhere. Do I really want to help produce black ink for a Crown corporation which shouldn’t be in the development business anyway, let - alone the entertainment business? The answer is a definite no! From the beginning, B.C. Place was a lousy idea whose time shouldn’t have come. It harkens back to the W.A.C. Ben- nett-inspired Social Credit fascina- tion with megaprojects. Everything about it is big, big, big. It will be the largest urban renewal project in North America if it gets off the grcund. The scope of the development boggles the mind: some nine million square feet of office, hotel and retail space, more than 11,000 new apartments spread over 225 acres. All of which is very exciting, if big is your thing. But keep in mind that the Crown corporation was set up in the first place on the assumption that it would make money for B.C. taxpayers by leas- ing the land to private builders at a profit. It might have worked if the only Start-out cost was acquisition of the land from the CPR, which was a mere $60 million. But then the cost of the B.C. Place stadium was added on — another $130 million. Yet to come are the costs of sewers, roads and other services, expected to amount to $200 mil- lion, which will make the former Expo site worth a choice $1 million an acre. If the taxpayer is to see any relief out of all this, the office spaces that are to be built will have to be rented out, something which will only happen if there is a massive explosion in demand. As it is, many developers who have bought land in the downtown peninsula have discovered that the government’s big-scale_ tinkering on the B.C. Place site has thrown their own plans for a loop by entering into savage, unequal competition with them. It is the same lesson the hotels, restaurants and cabarets are now learning. By setting up B.C. Place as a Crown corporation, the Socreds became the biggest land developers in the province, a rather ironic twist for a group of politicians dedicated to downsizing gov- ernment. In order for B.C. Place to get away with its plan for giant pubs, the liquor act would have to be amended. I sympathize entirely with Roger Gibson, president of B.C.’s cabaret owners group, who says: ‘‘We really .resent the gov- ernment changing the rules just to suit a particular operator.” It is even worse if that particular operator happens to be the gov- ernment's own creature. As it was, the liquor laws were bent all out of shape to accommodate Expo, giv- ing: on-site nightclubs an unfair advantage. But that nonsense is supposed to be done with now. Ripping off other businesses to balance the books of a Crown corporation is an ugly, stupid way of doing things. LEATHER FACTORY is moving. 260 West Esplanade North Van (near Trolls) 980-6813 GRAND OPENING APRIL 29 : 11-3051 Only” ae FREE LESSONS . EXCLUSIVE PICTOGRAMMING nn —p - SIXKINDS OF PROGRAMMABLE BUTTONHOLES + DUALLIGHTING BUILT-IN SEWING ADVISOR + WRITES LETTERS & NUMBERS EASY TO OPERATE re COMPUTERIZED ; JAMPROOF 742 WESTVIEW CENTER fe 86. 1 14 NORTH VAN. Of UPPER LEVELS HWY OPEN DAILY 9:30 - 6:00 SUNDAYS 10:00 - 5: 00 Marquerite Daisies Blooms all summer long flowers 1 0 for Thuja reg. 18.95 Smaragd, g og 48” B&B Deep Green colour year round Peat Moss Soil adds humus ideal Planter Box and to scil Garden use 5% for white, yellow ‘or pink Sale 99 20 Litre Bag each__ reg. 2.99 Sale prices effective April 22nd. 55 Litre 1821 Marine Dr., West Vancouver 922-4171 922-3968