darwink
Senior Member
Yeah, his position is just a little weird. "let us make the line worse for everyone"
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Calgary Municipal Politics
- Thread starter Always_Biking
- Start date
Silence&Motion
Senior Member
For those of you who don't think any politician would be dumb enough to scrap a transit project that is ready to go, I lived under Ford/Tory and watched the exact same thing happen in Toronto. Multiple funded LRT lines were scrapped and replaced by a politically-driven unrealistic subway plan that, almost a decade after Ford was elected, has still not started.
Please, for the love of god, vote for Nenshi to save the Green Line!!
Please, for the love of god, vote for Nenshi to save the Green Line!!
BKha
Active Member
Add me to the list of those who hadn't decided to those who have. I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would think scrapping the Green Line at this point is a good idea. If someone questioned it in it's infancy, I could see it, but it's been studied and thought out for a long period of time and funding has been arranged....now is not the time to put the kibosh.
Estella Havisham
New Member
I will vote for Nenshi because I agree with him on most things, but I find him extremely irritating and I hope he passes the torch to someone better socialized.
Alex_YYC
Senior Member
I find myself in exactly the same position. If Nenshi had better people skills and was more likeable he would easily have this election won already.
Supposedly he wasn’t going to run even for this election, so I wouldnt be surprised if he won’t be running next time. Maybe someone like Evan Wooley will take a run at it.
Supposedly he wasn’t going to run even for this election, so I wouldnt be surprised if he won’t be running next time. Maybe someone like Evan Wooley will take a run at it.
MichaelS
Senior Member
I think Evan Wooley is going to have a hard enough time winning his seat again this election. The changes to the ward boundaries I think have really hurt him and his re-election chances.
Silence&Motion
Senior Member
It doesn't help that people have been going around the ward trashing his signs. Seriously, conservatives in this city have a serious entitlement problem. They're so convinced that they should govern the city by right, that they're willing to stoop to the lowest levels to take back control: vandalism, lawsuits, push polls, PACs, etc.
We face the prospect that all of the Beltline could be represented by conservatives who are openly hostile to urbanism. At least with Ford/Tory in Toronto there is a contingent of inner-city progressive councilors who can serve as the voice of opposition. I really fear for our city if there's a conservative sweep and a return to the days of backroom governance and developers running wild at public expense.
MichaelS
Senior Member
Developers running wild at public expense..... Ask some of the residents of the Marda Loop area their thoughts on that statement, under Councillor Wooley's term. Maybe DougR would like to weigh in? How many projects got approved that did not conform with the ARP, so the developer could get extra density? I know you probably mean more along the lines of urban sprawl, but I am just trying to point out how it is not a simple issue of pro-sprawl = pro-developer = bad councilor vs. anti-sprawl - anti-developer = good councilor.
From what I have heard through many members of industry, both inner-city and greenfield builders, is just an entire group fed up with the ever increasing red tape and bureaucracy they have faced in the past 7 years under Nenshi and this latest council. Despite the claims of wanting to cut red tape, getting applications through has taken longer and gotten much more expensive, while the administration has grown by thousands. The levies have increased, but the service has not. Growth Management reviews have not been objective or consistent, and decisions have caused delays of over a year at times.
While having a grand vision of Calgary is great, people don't see the value of the vision if it is struggled to be implemented. Right now, I get the sense that people like the vision Nenshi has put forward, they just have less and less faith in his ability to implement it.
From what I have heard through many members of industry, both inner-city and greenfield builders, is just an entire group fed up with the ever increasing red tape and bureaucracy they have faced in the past 7 years under Nenshi and this latest council. Despite the claims of wanting to cut red tape, getting applications through has taken longer and gotten much more expensive, while the administration has grown by thousands. The levies have increased, but the service has not. Growth Management reviews have not been objective or consistent, and decisions have caused delays of over a year at times.
While having a grand vision of Calgary is great, people don't see the value of the vision if it is struggled to be implemented. Right now, I get the sense that people like the vision Nenshi has put forward, they just have less and less faith in his ability to implement it.
darwink
Senior Member
This is from the approved 4 year budget, so may not have been followed exactly.
A thousand. The growth came and will come from:
Corporate Administration: 35
Corporate Services: 72
Planning: -30
Police: 100
Civic partners: -2
Community Services and Protective Services (ex. Bylaw, Fire): 352
Transportation: 343
Utilities and Environment: 194
Page 1014- 1015 of http://www.calgary.ca/_layouts/coci...-2018-Complete-Approved.pdf&noredirect=1&sf=1
7% FTE growth while the population grew from 1,120,225 --> 1,246,337 (11.3%) and the number of dwellings grew from 459,339 --> 506,392 (10.2%).
Seems reasonable to me.
Attachments
BKha
Active Member
The numbers seem reasonable to me too, but as devil's advocate I would point out that the city has always been bloated, and they probably could have stayed at the previous levels or even downsized and would still be okay. I don't profess to know the whole of the city and all of its employees, but I do know some people who work at the city and I've heard an awful lot of stories.
As a side note the company I work for has grown substantially over the last 10 years, but my department (which is an administration department) hasn't added any new people.
And back to your point, at least the growth numbers are less than population growth, so that's positive.
As a side note the company I work for has grown substantially over the last 10 years, but my department (which is an administration department) hasn't added any new people.
And back to your point, at least the growth numbers are less than population growth, so that's positive.
Silence&Motion
Senior Member
Ironically, a conservative council will likely be much more supportive of anti-urban NIMBYism in the inner-city, since it fits with their view of city-building. The best way to handle development in the inner-city is not to fight density, but to ensure that density is added in a way that produces walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods and not the "vertical suburbs" that we see in the west side of downtown. So even in the inner-city, developers cannot be left to "run wild". They need urban-minded councilors to press them on the principles of good urbanism.
As a Marda Loop resident myself, I welcome increased density as long as it makes the neighborhood more walkable and increases the mixed-use character of the neighborhood. The ARPs are not written in stone and, because they are created by the community, they typically err toward NIMBYism. The current Marda Loop ARP is too restrictive in my opinion. There is demand to extend mid-rise and mixed-used development well beyond the current boundaries of the BRZ and we should embrace that demand. There's no reason, other than a misguided desire to preserve 1950s-style suburban lifestyles, that 33 Ave shouldn't be lined with mid-rise, mixed-use development all the way to 14 st (and 14 st all the way to 17 ave).
Silence&Motion
Senior Member
Thanks for the figures. Most of the growth seems to be occurring in the "front line" services (transportation, police, bylaw officers, etc.). Perhaps the reason people are complaining about red tape is because there are too few people working in the bureaucracy. Planning fell by 30 people!! No wonder we're still stuck with all of these planning guidelines that are relics of a bygone age.
simster3
New Member
This always frustrates me. We are all entitled to our opinion. Usually when you do something like this you are hurting your cause... Unless it is an elaborate plot to boost Woolley.
http://www.metronews.ca/news/calgar...idate-has-over-120-election-signs-stolen.html
Anyhow, it has finally pushed me to ask for a lawn sign from Woolley.
http://www.metronews.ca/news/calgar...idate-has-over-120-election-signs-stolen.html
Anyhow, it has finally pushed me to ask for a lawn sign from Woolley.
darwink
Senior Member
Sometimes a plot. Much more dangerous now that way more video surveillance exists. Usually by non-affiliated hyper motivated people — for example people who think everything to the left of Thatcher is socialism and any regulation is communism, or freemen on the land, or people that really really hated that secondary suite that a local councillor allowed. Sometimes you have people with mental illness doing it (in 2007 one campaign's signs were targeted and eventually someone was recommitted).
Spring2008
Active Member
Just voted for Nenshi - Bill Smith would be a huge step backwards - he's nothing but a suburban developer shill. I hope people read between the lines and make the right choice.
Vote for Nenshi if you want Calgary to keep moving towards becoming an international player that supports inner-city development, walkability, transit, bike lanes, arts, public realm, other key inner-city infrastructure etc. Vote Bill Smith if you want to go back a few decades to prairie town mentality, shifting investment to build more suburban interchanges and subsidizing sprawl, while regressing against the North American mass movement towards mixed-use, transited oriented development within established communities.
Vote for Nenshi if you want Calgary to keep moving towards becoming an international player that supports inner-city development, walkability, transit, bike lanes, arts, public realm, other key inner-city infrastructure etc. Vote Bill Smith if you want to go back a few decades to prairie town mentality, shifting investment to build more suburban interchanges and subsidizing sprawl, while regressing against the North American mass movement towards mixed-use, transited oriented development within established communities.
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