Calgary Civic Election Discussion

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

The multiplier effect will work on capacity if they tunnel underground or go above ground with it like Chicago and make it less than 5 minutes to get into, through, and out of downtown. At that point they can just send more trains at even tighter intervals improving efficiency. I understand the massive costs (Quite possibly in the billions of doing this) but this is the ONLY way to make transit work properly. Anything short of that is posturing and dithering and completely unacceptable for a city our size.

Agreed, but can you imagine what a construction mess it would make downtown?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Question for the rest of you guys- are taxes really an issue for any of us? Don't get me wrong; I'd rather pay less- who wouldn't. But if they said "we are raising taxes by 20%, and plan to have all the infastructure improvements done by 2010"- would any of us complain too loudly?

I just keep hearing all these candidates talk about taxes, and for me that isn't an issue. Obviously the example I gave above is a little extreme, but for me I'm in a position where I would rather pay a little more to get more.

I agree with that entirely. Taxes are an issue only when services rendered don't seem to match up.

[Bill Bumface]

Going above ground with the train is a b*tch because you need to reach settlements with every single building owner along 7th avenue, who in turn has to come to terms with every tenant on their first 2 or 3 floors.

[Eagle Eye]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

###. If they can dig and build the chunnel between France and England, going underground in downtown Calgary (Which they have no problems technically doing before the Stampede park station) Should be easy technically. That's just what the politicians said to save face in the 1980s when they ran out of money tunneling initially. BTW there is an unfinished tunnel dug that lies somewhere underneath near city hall. CFCN did a special on it way back when and actually showed pictures of it (and it didn't look flooded from the water table). Someone with more time can find the pictures on google (I saw them once).

I had a website of some guy who went into the CTrain tunnel under city hall, and he took a bunch of pictures. The entrance was some manhole in the Parking lot to the East of city Hall. You can clearly see the tunnel (is it blocked off) just before you enter downtown from the south (in the tunnel after the victoria park stop)

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by Eagle Eye

I had a website of some guy who went into the CTrain tunnel under city hall, and he took a bunch of pictures. The entrance was some manhole in the Parking lot to the East of city Hall. You can clearly see the tunnel (is it blocked off) just before you enter downtown from the south (in the tunnel after the victoria park stop)

As per wikapedia....

Although it initially planned to build most of the downtown portion underground, and actually built some tunnels which still exist, the city deferred the plans due to the high costs and an economic recession. It also discovered that the surface system could accommodate higher passenger volumes than expected without incurring the costs of a tunnel. As a result of the original plans, when it built a new Municipal Building, it built an incomplete LRT station beneath it and a short section of tunnel leading to it under 8th Avenue S. The turnoff to this station is visible in the tunnel on Route 201 entering downtown from the south, shortly before City Hall. However, after urban explorers discovered the tunnel and visited it during a transit strike, the city walled off the spur tunnel with cinder blocks. The underground station it connects to still exists, although it is not open to the public.

I'll try and find the photos...

[someguy51]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Yeah, the on street parking situation is the source (or the start) of most of the issues in my neigbourhood.

Peterson seems to have pretty good knowledge of the issues since he was (is?) head of Coral Springs community assoc. as well as a few other committees. I won't count Chahal out yet, but Peterson seems to have impressed me so far.

I'm leaning towards George Chahal myself. I'm going to be voting for the candidate that will work hard to improve city transit in our area. I won't be voting for Helen Larocque due to all the negative things I've been hearing about her. Jim Stevenson seems to be more concerned with building more roads instead improving public transit. That leaves me with George!

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

BTW there is an unfinished tunnel dug that lies somewhere underneath near city hall. CFCN did a special on it way back when and actually showed pictures of it (and it didn't look flooded from the water table). Someone with more time can find the pictures on google (I saw them once).

I saw them once also, but can not find them again. The only thing I've found is a sketch that I believe to be fairly accurate.

http://uea.ca/viewphoto.php?photo_id...ullview=1&sid=

I think they put the station/line under the new City Hall (when they built it) "just in case", since there would no way it could be done after the fact.

I used to ride the train past there many moons ago, and you could always see the tunnel on the west side if you looked out the window. The city has now cinderblocked the entrance off to keep people out.

Edit: Tron beat me to it.

[Bobblehead]

C-Train tunnel photos

http://www.geocities.com/corrosionia/passages.html

[Eagle Eye]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

C-Train tunnel photos

http://www.geocities.com/corrosionia/passages.html

Thats the website I was talking about, thanks bobblehead

[Cube Inmate]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Question for the rest of you guys- are taxes really an issue for any of us? Don't get me wrong; I'd rather pay less- who wouldn't. But if they said "we are raising taxes by 20%, and plan to have all the infastructure improvements done by 2010"- would any of us complain too loudly?

I just keep hearing all these candidates talk about taxes, and for me that isn't an issue. Obviously the example I gave above is a little extreme, but for me I'm in a position where I would rather pay a little more to get more.

One part of the issue is "tax creep" (kind of like "scope creep"). I don't know about the accuracy of this platform plank, but Kassam has a note on several new tax sources that *could* (?) be implemented by municipal governments. The city already gets revenues from:

-Property taxes
-User fees
-Enmax profits
-Traffic tickets
-Provincial treasury
-Administrative fees

Given all these revenue sources, do you really want a muni government that can add taxes on all sorts of other services (e.g. vehicle registration)? As it is, none of us really has a clue how much it costs to deliver certain services because of the large mix of revenue sources, and we really have no idea how much of the cost is from those various sources.

When you go to the Southland Leisure Centre, does your admission fee cover the cost of the service? If not, how much tax revenue is needed to cover the deficit. If the admission fee more than covers the cost, what happens with the surplus? Without knowing this, it's very difficult to assess the value of the various services we receive and campaign for adjustments. I'm sure the data is out there somewhere, but it's not something that can be easily found.

How about treating your poop? That's one of the main responsibilities of the municipality, and so you'd think that it's a "public service" supported by tax revenue. If that's the case, then why are we paying for "sanitary & storm" sewer services on our Enmax bills? How much of this service is supported by property taxes (and others) and how much by user fees?

So, in summary...it's not necessarily the amount of taxation that's an issue for me, but perhaps the complexity of the system that's a problem. If we can't answer the type of question I posed above, and most of us can't, then the issue of how the tax system is administered remains an issue.

[MaDMaN_26]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I seriously hope not everyone is going to blame the Mayor for the almost unheard of growth we have experienced.

Hopefully people will realize that the City of Calgary (as a corporation) is having the same staffing problems that every other company in this city is having. It's not like we don't have a major road other than Deerfoot because we have Bronconnier as our Mayor... We could have had Rudy himself as our Mayor and that still wouldn't change the fact that there just aren't enough people to do all the work that needs to be done, as fast as it needs to get done.

Do people want to fire the CEO of Burger King just because some of the Calgary locations can't find enough employees to keep their drive-thrus open?

Well it’s not about the growth that is making me go and vote against Dave B. (and against every other "re-Elect" candidate...) I want new blood this Monday, I don't normally bother with Civic elections but I will this year. I am taking an interest for two reasons mainly. The most important being that this council and Mayor have done nothing to make parking in the core better and continue to allow new developments to pay them a cash lump sums in lieu of the developers building the required parking spots for the new high rises etc… this is a mistake that will haunt us for years… parking is a renewable resource that would benefit us for years… what does a lump sum cash settlement do long term that could possibly out weigh the benefit of more parking... that to me is unacceptable and plain stupid.

Secondly the fact that Dave has an issue with the “Support Our Troops” stickers... it was an unbelievably stupid stance to take, why city council should care if a city employee wants to put a magnet on their work truck is beyond me... instead valuable time and money is wasted in city hall discussing and repeatedly going over an issue that simply never should have been an issue in the first place... the unbelievably obvious answer of leave it up to each employee with a vehicle to decide if they want to have a magnet is so obvious to me and the fact that it was turned into this huge embarrassing ordeal and has been argued repeatedly in council meetings and is on the agenda still instead of real issues that need attention is enough to prove to me that the current administration is way too F%^$#ing dumb to run this city.

I appreciate that this city has grown but Dave and most of the Existing council members have done plenty of stupid far and above the constraints of a growing city to warrant all there a$$es being tossed into the street… I hope every goes out like I plan to on Monday and ensure they do get the message loud and clear. It sickens me that my ward has no competition and the idiot won by acclamation… probably because someone didn’t make the 3 hour nomination window.

[fredr123]

Better Calgary releases it's endorsements.

[someguy51]

Originally Posted by MaDMaN_26

Secondly the fact that Dave has an issue with the “Support Our Troops” stickers... it was an unbelievably stupid stance to take, why city council should care if a city employee wants to put a magnet on their work truck is beyond me... instead valuable time and money is wasted in city hall discussing and repeatedly going over an issue that simply never should have been an issue in the first place... the unbelievably obvious answer of leave it up to each employee with a vehicle to decide if they want to have a magnet is so obvious to me and the fact that it was turned into this huge embarrassing ordeal and has been argued repeatedly in council meetings and is on the agenda still instead of real issues that need attention is enough to prove to me that the current administration is way too F%^$#ing dumb to run this city.

I think that you can blame the Calgary Sun for making it such a big issue by having the sticker thing on its front page for what seemed like weeks.

[MaDMaN_26]

Originally Posted by someguy51

I think that you can blame the Calgary Sun for making it such a big issue by having the sticker thing on its front page for what seemed like weeks.

No I disagree… I think the Sun saw it as a ridiculous stance as well and publicized it because it showed how big of a twit he is...

The Sun would have had nothing to print if he had simply said... "What’s that, it will cost taxpayers nothing? Well sure then, seem obvious to me that if employees want to put it on their vehicles I trust them to make that decision. Now I'd like to move on to some real business."

It was a stupid move, and it means one of two things... some special interest group that doesn't want the war or troops supported has him in their pocket or he is a moron and should not be in charge of a city this size... he can go run Drumheller or Turner Valley. Small towns are notorious for their dimwitted council, and quite used to it. We can't afford that here.

Don't make excuses for stupidity.

[Neeper]

Larocque's stance on the anti smoking ban is enough for me to not vote for her. I emailed her about my concerns and never heard back. And then all this other negative news as well.

Bronco wants to tax me on my Flames tickets and movie tickets?? What a load of crap!

Alnoor does seem shady from his past. I think the candidate that would probably work the hardest to make this city a better place is the one no one will take seriously, Jeremy Zhao.

[OzSome]

The alderman in our area were already acclaimed so I don't see any point for me to vote at all. I do not like Bronco but there is competition for mayor. It sucks because I really think Bronco needs to go. If I ever vote, I might vote someone that I don't even know like AL NOOR or something.

[ken0042]

But Oz, that's where the vicious circle starts.

You don't vote, because you think Bronco will get in, and then he does. 3 years from now the right candidate considers running, but being fiscally responsible he decides that with ~20% voter turnout it isn't worth his money to run. So he doesn't run, people say there are no good candidates, don't vote, and the cycle continues.

Vote for the university kid. Doesn't matter if you don't have somebody you like- pick somebody; anybody.

[Bean]

Question from somebody who is obviously ignorant:

Under Alnoors' write up, why does it claim that he is an international criminal?
"Alnoor Kassam is a local businessman, entrepreneur and international criminal."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary...on,_2007#Mayor

[ken0042]

Because its Wikipedia- and somebody else has already edited it back.

[smithtofuhr86]

Bronco's going to win easily, there really isn't much stiff competition running against him. He got bonus points recently after locking horns with the premier and not backing down until the city got it money they were promised. As an outside observer to this I think it's about time some diversity (as far as alderman / women) got added to City Hall. We are a diverse city and it should show a little with the people making decisions for our city. Should be interesting, I went to an open debate a few years back and Madeline King spent the entire session trying to get the name of "Alderman" switched because she thought it was sexist. She wanted "Alderperson" or something. Many of the observers left shaking there heads cause the city had 4 murders over the past 2 weeks at that time and she was going on and on about this name change?? Then recently you had Craig Burrows take a course of some kind at the U of C spending $12,000 on it and charging the tax payers for it. Also I know a lot of people are choked at some of the Alderman who have C-Train parking in there zone (which is most of them) for the lack of security or patrolling at parking lots. People pay freakin $75 (pass) to ride transit a month, which is strongly encouraged by City Hall to prevent the busy traffic / congestion down town only to come back to your car to find it has wither been broken into or stolen. I read a letter one time in the Herald where a person had there car broken into 10 times in a year at Chinook. (bad Luck!).