09-14-2020, 10:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-14-2020, 11:16 PM by danbrotherston.)
Sidewalk clearing is officially dying as I type this....
....and done.
So a lot of discussion around it. Melissa as always provides excellent twitter commentary.
My main takeaways.
Proactive enforcment will see a few hundred k spent on it. I used to support this policy, but I no longer do. Worse, it has ZERO evidence for it presented in the study. It was the base case. As a taxpayer, I am very frustrated council is wasting money on this, there was no justification for this recommendation beyond "it's something we can do, that might improve things, but we have no data showing so".
We also wasted money on the study...half a million or so. The study was very clear, city clearing is effective, and supported. But council did not listen to that evidence. They went for the cheapest option. So why did we do the study? Now we've wasted more money.
I am beyond disappointed that nearly unanimously (with Debbie Chapman dissenting) they supported pro-active bylaw. It makes me very angry, because there is zero justification for this policy it's done because doing nothing would look bad.
Councillors comments were full of bullshit platitudes like "we must all be neighbourly and care about our community"...I care about my community, that's why I fight for clear sidewalks. Some councillors also expressed concern about residents with uncleared sidewalks which they might have made some small attempt to clear getting tickets. So I suspect some will try to further lower the already ridiculously lax and broken standards.
Some spoke about how they saw other communities having it. But then proceeded to explain how it was too expensive here. I'm not sure I believe that Peterborough is a vastly wealthier town than we are...I mean, I hear the tech industry is at least a little profitable.
Which brings me to the fact that all, including the mayor spoke very passionately about how important this issue is, and how much of a priority it. Except the priority is shown in the budget. We can afford this, we are choosing not to make it a priority, if it was a priority, the budget would reflect that.
And of course, everyone also spoke about how it's an ongoing process, that we are looking to improve, except that there are no staff actions, no studys, not even an evaluation of how effective pro-active enforcement is coming back. Maybe others have plans, but from this meeting, this issue is dead.
KW will not have clear sidewalks....my choice is either to buy a car or leave, it's clear that the city will not support living car free year round.
....and done.
So a lot of discussion around it. Melissa as always provides excellent twitter commentary.
My main takeaways.
Proactive enforcment will see a few hundred k spent on it. I used to support this policy, but I no longer do. Worse, it has ZERO evidence for it presented in the study. It was the base case. As a taxpayer, I am very frustrated council is wasting money on this, there was no justification for this recommendation beyond "it's something we can do, that might improve things, but we have no data showing so".
We also wasted money on the study...half a million or so. The study was very clear, city clearing is effective, and supported. But council did not listen to that evidence. They went for the cheapest option. So why did we do the study? Now we've wasted more money.
I am beyond disappointed that nearly unanimously (with Debbie Chapman dissenting) they supported pro-active bylaw. It makes me very angry, because there is zero justification for this policy it's done because doing nothing would look bad.
Councillors comments were full of bullshit platitudes like "we must all be neighbourly and care about our community"...I care about my community, that's why I fight for clear sidewalks. Some councillors also expressed concern about residents with uncleared sidewalks which they might have made some small attempt to clear getting tickets. So I suspect some will try to further lower the already ridiculously lax and broken standards.
Some spoke about how they saw other communities having it. But then proceeded to explain how it was too expensive here. I'm not sure I believe that Peterborough is a vastly wealthier town than we are...I mean, I hear the tech industry is at least a little profitable.
Which brings me to the fact that all, including the mayor spoke very passionately about how important this issue is, and how much of a priority it. Except the priority is shown in the budget. We can afford this, we are choosing not to make it a priority, if it was a priority, the budget would reflect that.
And of course, everyone also spoke about how it's an ongoing process, that we are looking to improve, except that there are no staff actions, no studys, not even an evaluation of how effective pro-active enforcement is coming back. Maybe others have plans, but from this meeting, this issue is dead.
KW will not have clear sidewalks....my choice is either to buy a car or leave, it's clear that the city will not support living car free year round.