Explain the Marina District hub-bub to me.

In the words of Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell in The Office, "Explain this to me like I'm an eight-year-old."I usually try to stay out of the controversial topics with my blogs, unless you consider "snot" controversial, but I love our area, I love our views and I love our access to the waterfront.I just don't see the Marina District as a bad thing.I've watched a countless number of sunsets from the Jackson Street Pier, taken plenty of walks with my family in Shoreline Park and taken plenty of pictures of the Cedar Point skyline from Battery Park. The current Battery Park is a decent park with trees, benches and a playground. But I don't remember a time where I have been to that area and saw a line of people waiting for some shade, a place to sit or a turn down the slide.What I'm trying to say is I like the current Battery Park, but if I still have the same access to the waterfront with the proposed Marina District, I can live without the current grassy area, trees, benches and playground.If I want to take a stroll through a shady area, I'll use Washington Park, if I want to sit down and look out on the waterfront, I'll still be able to in all of the previously mentioned areas and if I want a playground near the waterfront, there is a better one already next to Shoreline Park.Better yet, "Explain this to me like I'm a five-year-old."One thing that bothered me throughout this whole process is that the ice rink was taken out of the proposal. It showed a positive attraction for the community and a draw for out-of-towners. It looks like we may still have the chance to get an ice rink with the recent money being donated for a study. And I would look forward to the various events I would be able to cover for the Register and also take my kids to should it ever become a reality.Even with the ice rink being dropped, there are two things that stick out to me as being huge positives to the city.1) A downtown Sandusky hotel. There isn't one and there should be. The tax revenues would be nice, but more important for me is people coming in from out of town to go to Cedar Point, the islands or wherever could enjoy our waterfront during their stay and be more apt to spend money downtown. Meaning more businesses looking to downtown as a positive location.2) The city building relocating to somewhere more central. I would agree we need a new city building, it's getting old and the police facilities are nothing to write home about. I think they were using a boiler room for physical training at one point. The size of a new facility is up for debate, but the local traffic from city residents down to Market and Columbus rather than Market and Meigs sounds better to me. Both city residents and city workers would give a mini-boom in foot traffic to the downtown area.Maybe those boarded up windows on so many second and third floors of many downtown buildings would see the light of day for the first time in decades.Register photo/JASON WERLING 2007 aerial photo of Battery Park, the Sandusky Sailing Club and city building; the site for the proposed Marina District.