Quote:
Originally Posted by Phanuthier
I think it makes sense to things like this for suburban cities, so Calgary isn't overburdened. National parks have enterence passes to cover passes, so I don't think its outrageous for a suburban city.
Saying that... this does bring out the worst in people. What people whine and bitch about for a few hundread bucks. People should feel fortunate to live so well to complain about what they do. North America is (arguably) one of the best places in the world to live and there is a 5% chance of you being born into North America (~330M/7B) where you are given so many resources and opportunities. And then everyone bitches and whines over the smallest complaints. I live in the USA and spend less than 1 week a year in Canada, but because of my work visa, I pay USA taxes and Canadian taxes, and since I'm in the high tax bracket, so while everyone here whines about paying $600 for what they don't use, I'm paying probably the a year's worth of salary for some Calgarian's salary of this board to Canada ON TOP of paying USA taxes. But I'm not going to whine about it, because I feel fortunate to be given the opportunities that I have and received a fantastic education in Canada. If you pay a little extra for something you don't use, consider yourself fortunate such that you are given an opportunity to succeed because of where you were born/grew up/educated and that the success you enjoy because of it, you give back to the community.
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I was actually having a similar discussion with me GF, all 3 of her sisters are 'Townies' who live in Airdrie, Okotoks and Irricana and commute to work downtown.
And yeah, 'it only takes 25 minutes and I get a yard....'
I dont know, or pretend to know what the right answer is. But at some point the City of Calgary and the surrounding (I want to say it, but I wont!) communities are going to have to come to a compromise because the current setup is completely unsustainable. The City cannot endure subsidizing the services that they do as more and more people move out but continue to utilize.
frinkprof said it best, its the difference between operating expenditures and capital costs, as the City subsidizes the net difference in operating costs after user fees the difference has to come from somewhere, and the people not living here are burdening the system, but are not burdened themselves with the costs.
And I'm speaking in general, theres more to this than just Park and Ride (dont give me this (N') crap, its a three letter word, we can take the time to spell it out) it applies to all services and infrastructure that includes ones that dont have user fees.
Calgary is in the position where the number of people whose livelihoods depend on the City, but who dont participate in the payment and cost structure of the City itself is growing more and more as costs in the City continue to increase.
Eventually, something has to give. At this moment, many people are getting something for nothing, granted, they want to keep it that way, who wouldnt? And at the moment the situation hasnt reached its critical mass. But it will at some point.
Further, over my time being involved with 'Townies' and 'Parasite Communities' I have come to understand that I use these terms as tongue in cheek humour, and for the most part everyone gets a bit of a laugh. But very soon its going to have to stop, because if we continue to draw that line in the sand where 'they're different than us' then the process of reaching an amicable agreement in the future is going to be much harder. Already, in this thread alone you can see several posters getting very defensive about it.