So, Mayor Kiss, of Burlington, Vermont, USA, decides that the 86 percent of tax payers that voted to change the empty, decommissioned power plant into a park were wrong. Mayor Kiss decides that turning the building and the grounds it stands on into a commercial facility is more financially intelligent for the city. Why is this relevant at all?
It would be nothing but an angry man complaining about the government if one of the commercial interests wasn’t a Scottish Company called Ice Factor. The Scottish version of this facility has a rock gym, an ice climbing gym of all things, a sauna, a cafeteria, and, most exciting to an aging climber with too much appreciation for beer, a bar. Yes, that’s right, the climbing gym now has a giant refrigerated ice climbing room and a place to drink.
I don’t know if this proposed development will come to fruition, but I may have to move to Vermont if it does.