Convo Center

Craig blogs that he likes the Opus Group plan for the waterfront, but that they killed it by including a massive convention center in the plans. I don't like the Opus Group plan, and I agree that the most idiotic thing in it is the Javitz-like convo-center-sur-lac. The owner of downtown's somewhat faded Hyatt is trying to sell to an out-of-town developer, which intends to renovate the hotel and convert it into a 4-star Marriott property. But if they move the convo center to the waterfront, the deal's off. The Hyatt gets a lot of its business from the current convention center, flawed as it is. The waterfront development needs to complement what already exists downtown; not replace it. That's why I've been so supportive of the more moderately-scaled WestEnd project, which is more neighborhoody. You'll note that the NFTA's website has conveniently scrubbed links to the still-existing webpages of the two competing plans for the waterfront. I don't know what the NFTA is thinking with this process, but transparency doesn't seem to be paramount.