He makes excellent points about the LRT. The West LRT not coinciding with MRC is quite stupid. However, the targeted area is not exactly sparsely populated either. Also, the downtown LRT does belong underground. Taking a road away from drivers as well as clogging a train by having traffic lights was bad planning to begin with.
Seeing as he mentioned nothing about intracity driving conditions, I have to assume he doesn't have any good ideas about smart growth and moderation. If he did, they'd be front and centre, right? Lets face it, transit doesn't work for going between quadrants, it was designed for downtown traffic. Essentially, I'd leave the LRT planning to getting people from the burbs to downtown, and focus on roads to get vehicles (and buses) everywhere else without gridlock. I'd like to see special parkades built and direct downtown LRT lines. (ie: Building big parking complexes off of Deerfoot and Crowchild and having LRT cars shuttle people directly from that lot to Downtown)
I'm a little concerned with all this basement suite talk as well. I think it will only produce slumlords, clog up parking in unsuitable neighborhoods, an excuse for rent to go up, not down, as well as raise the cost of home ownership by flooding the lower end. The city should be more concerned with pushing medium density and mixed income suburbs, hi-rise condos, and punishing bad developments. I'd like to hear a candidate talk about making developers accountable for new roads and not choking the life out of existing ones. I'd also look at extending the LRT into the satellite cities and squeezing money from them and the counties. They use it anyway without tax money paying for it. (ie: commuters drive from Okotoks -> Bridlewood, Cochrane -> Crowfoot, Airdrie -> Whitehorn)
I hate to admit it, but I'll probably vote for Bronco. I like how he thoroughly embarassed Stelmach and brought urban infrastructure issues to the forefront.
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