[Bunk]

Calgary’s Petulant Purple Peacock is pouting.
Posted on February 24, 2013

Naheed Nenshi took Calgary’s mayoral throne in the 2010 municipal elections thanks to a vote-split by the center-right and an impressive galvanization of the normally electorally apathetic hipster population of Calgary.

Alright. That's a lot of hipsters.

Nenshi has since enjoyed something of a love-in from national left-leaning media outlets such as the CBC and Toronto Star since then but the realities of his role as the mayor of a major city are beginning to cut through the limelight for Nenshi and they are clearly getting on his nerves.

Calgarians seem to like him to with an 88% approval rating. The guy eats, sleeps, breathes the mayoral role. He loves the job.

The thin veneer of Nenshi’s support of free enterprise and citizen choice really faded away when notable planning extremist; Rollin Stanley was sought and hired to pursue an extremely questionable and ideologically driven obsession with increasing city density in Calgary despite the wishes of citizens who are increasingly moving out to the suburbs.

The Mayor does not hire General Managers at the City. That's the job of City Manager. The Mayor works with whomever is in leadership positions in Administration.

Taxpayers have already seen the cost as settlements have been paid to planners displaced by the new density driven specialists.

If he's referring to Stan Schwartzenberger. His departure had absolutely nothing to do with Rollin Stanley's hiring, or anyone else's. Mr. Schwartzenbeger was replaced by the former Director of Assessment - not even a planner - but someone viewed as an effective senior manager.

Nenshi is now discovering that despite his density agenda, citizens and businesses are simply moving to the suburbs or even out of the city to escape the urban congestion of his creation.

The City has a growth plan (The Municipal Development Plan) that seeks to shift some future growth to established communities. I didn't know in two years the Mayor had the power to completely reshape the urban landscape in Calgary. Is he suggesting Imperial Oil moved to Quarry Park because of the Mayor?

Nenshi wants to increase taxation powers, set up a charter and drag neighboring municipalities into His municipal fifedom. Finding himself halted by provincially elected officials, mobile citizens and those developers that Nenshi so clearly despises, Mayor Nenshi is now beginning to lash out in a way that can only be described as childish.

The Charter is not about more taxation powers necessarily. The Mayor, backed by Council would like a rebate on the taxes Calgarians send to the Province and Federal Government. For instance, he's said, let municipalities have 1% of the existing provincial income tax for capital projects. Failing that, Calgary should have more control over its own destiny. It's the province that mandated the creation of a Calgary Metropolitan Plan, and that long precedes the Mayor. Calgary and all the surrounding towns have all agreed to that vision. It's the rural municipalities that are not joining in. The Mayor has said, he wants the Province to solve the issue - he's agnostic whether they're in our out in the end, he just wants resolution.

Nenshi has called new developments “crap” and has been unapologetic in using city bureaucracy to hinder legitimate city expansion that does not fall within his personal utopian visions.

While some developers think the 'crap' comment was directed at every developer, that's simply not true. In context, it was directed at one very specific commercial project. The mayor has consistently praised developers who are innovating and doing thoughtful projects. Mattamy's Cityscape, Walden, Mahogany, Keystone, etc.

When developers dared to speak up and address this at a dinner, Nenshi went off the handle and is now trying to ban developers from city planning activity.

The tone and condescending arrogance in the letter sent from Nenshi’s office to Calgary developers is simply stunning. From the Sun:

The letter demands “a written apology, satisfactory to our office, be sent to each of your members” and posted on its website, the CHBA must also acknowledge they have been an active and supportive participant in City initiatives and they must “commit to working with the City and other industry partners in a constructive and
respectful manner.”

Honestly Nenshi just who the hell do you think you are? You differ with the views expressed at a dinner and pull this sort of stunt? These are Calgary business leaders who represent the interests of the hundreds of thousands of Calgarians who have utterly no interest in living in your crowded downtown dream. As other Councilors are pointing out, you probably don’t even have the authority to ban these important people from city committees anyway.

The Mayor does not take issue with someone with differing views. In fact, the CHBA itself has one of the strongest critics of how the City does things - that's Amie Blanchette, their point person for working with the City on its initiatives. She's their chief lobbyist. If you read the letter, you'll see that it praises Amie for her very thoughtful approach. While she's strongly, strongly critical, she's constructive and works with integrity. Our office (me specifically) fought for her inclusion on the influential Transforming Planning Working Group.

The issue is that their President made misleading statements that the City was putting a freeze on suburban development. This has absolutely no basis in fact. The President also rebuked the City's planning process (totally fair), but also failed to even acknowledge that they were a key partner in helping the biggest ever effort to fix the problem. It was just more blame game, which Amie herself led the charge to say needed ending. Participation in these initiatives comes with certain expectations that are clearly laid out and agreed to, and his speech or subsequent statements did not model this behavior.

Nenshi had better learn quickly that not everybody shares his vision and business indeed does have the right to vocalize that view. While it is unlikely that Nenshi will be unseated in this fall’s election, he still indeed is only one vote on council and may find himself regularly defeated in votes if he does not lose this growing thin-skinned Messiah complex.

Again, the Mayor takes absolutely no issue with people disagreeing with him or the City. However, if you want to participate as a partner, you should do so respectfully (as they agreed to do) and not mislead their membership with disingenuous statements that damage that relationship.