2010 Mayors Race

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by getbak

When compared to Edmonton or Ottawa, both approximately the same size as Calgary, Calgary Transit blows them out of the water.

It does?

[mykalberta]

Damn it. I could vote for him, I cant vote for an ex Liberal MLA.

[Knut]

I am someone that votes conservative mostly, but when I met Kent Hehr I was very impressed with him. Not often that a politician can take my blinders off.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Damn it. I could vote for him, I cant vote for an ex Liberal MLA.

He'll only be the ex-MLA if you get out vote for him though!

I suppose you could stay home like everyone else does for the civic elections though...wasn't there about 20% turnout last time around?

[mykalberta]

Like last time I will vote, everyone must vote even if its a protest vote for the NDP.

Nenshi might have actually made a good mayor.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Slava

He'll only be the ex-MLA if you get out vote for him though!

I suppose you could stay home like everyone else does for the civic elections though...wasn't there about 20% turnout last time around?

If only I could get a $50 tax credit for municipal elections, then I'll vote!

[mykalberta]

Time to put the money where the mouth is.

If a $100 donation to Nenshi from a conservative caucasian doesnt get him to run, nothing will.

I only know him from his articles in the Herald and reading his authored city plans but that is good enough for me.

+1 for using Paypal.

[Bunk]

My own personal view is that Nenshi would be the best mayor for Calgary. He has the best grasp on issues and not only seems to think about what should be done, but how to achieve it.

However, he's not particularly well known yet, not having been alderman, which makes a mayoral run pretty difficult. It's too bad, but I think if he can run a successful aldermanic bid, he can be a strong voice on council and position himself to the be the likey successor for mayor down the line. I also put my $100 toward any sort of run he takes.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Damn it. I could vote for him, I cant vote for an ex Liberal MLA.

Why not?

[kermitology]

Can someone explain to me what a fiscal conservative mayor will do to benefit the City of Calgary? I generally vote conservative in every level of government, but civic elections are critical and I'll vote for whoever has the best plan to continually improve the city.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

If a $100 donation to Nenshi from a conservative caucasian doesnt get him to run, nothing will.

You consider yourself a conservative?? My goodness. You whine, bitch and moan about people who don't live the same lifestyle as yourself. You whine, bitch and moan about financial "parasites" and want to tax everybody that isn't like you. Dude, you're so damned left winged, it's a wonder you don't walk in circles due your body leaning left.

As for people "leeching" off roads, that's why there's a very substantial gas tax.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Table 5

They sure get to use the roads for free though.

As for the C-Train, you're only counting the fare. The train network also has to be built in the first place....a good chunk of that was paid by the Calgary tax payer.

Even if they pay the fare the average cost for a C-train ride is $7. The city taxpayers subsidize the service so its affordable.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Shazam

You consider yourself a conservative?? My goodness. You whine, bitch and moan about people who don't live the same lifestyle as yourself.

I'm pretty sure that is a conservative trait.

And then add discriminate to the list.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by SebC

I'm pretty sure that is a conservative trait.

And then add discriminate to the list.

He sure as hell ain't a fiscal conservative in any sense of the word.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Shazam

He sure as hell ain't a fiscal conservative in any sense of the word.

I don't pay that much attention to individual posters that much so I don't really know what you're refering to, but eliminating subsidies for suburbs seems like a fiscally conservative move to me.

Infrastructure for everyone, courtesy of the city centre's taxes is a lot more socialist.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by Shazam

You consider yourself a conservative?? My goodness. You whine, bitch and moan about people who don't live the same lifestyle as yourself. You whine, bitch and moan about financial "parasites" and want to tax everybody that isn't like you. Dude, you're so damned left winged, it's a wonder you don't walk in circles due your body leaning left.

As for people "leeching" off roads, that's why there's a very substantial gas tax.

I am fully aware of what "you" believe from your previous posts. I think people should be taxed fairly and that no one should get anything for free, if that is a Liberal than sign me up - so long as the name is something not associated with Trudeau.

I am in full support of a square foot taxation system where denser communities are taxed cheaper based on home values than less dense communities. If you want your private yard and a street that visitors can park on, then you should pay for it. Unfortunately with Bronco in the developers pockets that would never happen under his regime I have no illusions it will ever happen because of complainers like yourself.

The simplest thing in Calgary would be to institute a toll road system into downtown and refund 100% of the money if your residence is within Calgary even if it only broke even I would be all for it as a way of increasing property values within the city of Calgary. I live in Calgary and could care less about leach communities around Calgary - I would be surprised if anyone who actually lives in Calgary cares any more about those communities than I. And Calgary isnt even close to having a serious problem with leach communities, look 300km north and you will see a serious problem.

Socially I am 100% conservative, Financially I am 100% common sense whatever party offers that. With mayoral politics social issues dont matter to me anyways - its financial and life issues that matter.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by getbak

In similar sized cities?

Sure, when compared to New York, London, Boston, Toronto, Paris, etc, Calgary's Transit system isn't as good or extensive, but those cities are all significantly older and larger than Calgary.

When compared to Edmonton or Ottawa, both approximately the same size as Calgary, Calgary Transit blows them out of the water.

I had done up a post for another forum that would be applicable as a response to or extension of the above post, so I'll reproduce it here. A bit tangential to the mayoralty race topic, but transit is certainly a municipal issue.

Here's a few metrics.

The numbers for the LRT system are more readily available, at least in comparison to other cities. As a preface though, direct apples-to-apples comparisons between rail systems is difficult because systems have much different configurations, vehicle technology, etc. Really, the only other light rail system in Canada is Edmonton's. Toronto and Montreal have heavy rail subway systems, and Vancouver operates ALRT, which is kind of a middle ground between the two, often called a "mini metro" There's a wide variation between systems in American cities too.

Current ridership (measured in boardings per weekday) and length:

Calgary Light Rail - 266 100 48.8 km
Edmonton Light Rail - 74 400 20.5 km
Vancouver Skytrain ALRT - 344 800 68.7 km

(Source)

So, if you compare the 2 LRT systems in Canada, plus the somewhat-similar ALRT in Vancouver, Vancouver has the highest absolute ridership, but Calgary has the highest ridership per km.

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Here's an older chart comparing capital expenditures with ridership of light rail systems in North America.


(Source)

A little dated of course, and Calgary's ridership numbers have grown about 70%, but in this instance, it really blows several other systems out of the water. That has been one of the biggest feathers in the cap of the LRT system in Calgary. Bang for buck.

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Here's another interesting chart. Ridership per metro population. The numbers are from 2007, and the cities included are those that have LRT as their highest order of transit (i.e., no Montreal, Toronto, New York since they have subways). Sorry for the bluriness, but that is how it appears in the source document I got it from.



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Finally, looking at North American light rail systems, wikipedia has this ranking of systems, by ridership (I just pulled the top 15)


(Link)

This list is a bit tenuous though. Vancouver's ALRT system is not included, whereas Monterrey's system is fairly similar to Vancouver's. Toronto's numbers are for its streetcar system, which is kind of a different kettle of fish.

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As for Ottawa, they have arguably the best busway system in North America. However, it has its own issues (capacity) and there is a reason that after 20+ years, they are going to start building an LRT system of their own in the next couple of years.

[llama64]

Originally Posted by kermitology

Can someone explain to me what a fiscal conservative mayor will do to benefit the City of Calgary? I generally vote conservative in every level of government, but civic elections are critical and I'll vote for whoever has the best plan to continually improve the city.

Because in Alberta we vote based on our "team". If the candidate once played for the enemy "team" or subscribes to anything that closely relates to the "evil team" philosophy then we can't vote for them no matter what. If you don't vote for team "Conservative" get the hell out of our province! At least that's what the Herald and Sun tell me.

I'm mostly kidding - but it is distressing to see people bringing the tired "fiscally conservative (ie, not scary religious conservative)" vs "socialist (everything else)" debate into a municipal setting. It just doesn't translate well.

I'm going to vote for the most level headed candidate with the clearest plan for improving Calgary. So far my choice is Kent Hehr but I am looking forward to the actual campaigns later this year.

My stance is if any election should really matter, it's the municipal one. Individual personalities directly affect the policy coming out - there is no munged party group think going on like there is in Provincial and Federal politics. And since Calgary doesn't change it's mayors up all that often, who ever we vote in is likely to stay there for well over a decade.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

The numbers for the LRT system are more readily available, at least in comparison to other cities. As a preface though, direct apples-to-apples comparisons between rail systems is difficult because systems have much different configurations, vehicle technology, etc. Really, the only other light rail system in Canada is Edmonton's. Toronto and Montreal have heavy rail subway systems, and Vancouver operates ALRT, which is kind of a middle ground between the two, often called a "mini metro" There's a wide variation between systems in American cities too.

What are the differences between light rail and heavy rail that makes comparing them unfair, besides cost? Is heavy rail better for future expansion, better service, or something else? Because otherwise I don't see why you couldn't compare them.

(Not rhetorical questions, I don't know the answer and I'm hoping you can explain it.)

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by SebC

What are the differences between light rail and heavy rail that makes comparing them unfair, besides cost? Is heavy rail better for future expansion, better service, or something else? Because otherwise I don't see why you couldn't compare them.

(Not rhetorical questions, I don't know the answer and I'm hoping you can explain it.)

That's just the thing, you almost have to treat each system on a case-by-case basis since even the definitions of "heavy rail" and "light rail" are pretty muddled, especially light rail. The term "light rail" has been used to describe things like in-street-running streetcar systems that only cover a couple of streets downtown, to automated systems that are entirely grade-separated (Vancouver), to ones that operate more like commuter rail with low frequencies and stations in outlying bedroom communities and downtown only. All sorts of vehicle types and train lengths too.

Lines between heavy and light rail are usually drawn on vehicle capacity, length and frequency of trains, and grade separation.

Heavy rail (usually subway or sometimes elevated as in Chicago) is good for providing high capacity service in very dense areas and corridors. The tradeoff is that it is much more difficult to expand, both cost and logistics-wise. It's not exactly easy or possible to dig up every subway station in Toronto and extend the platforms so you can have longer trains. Route extensions can be very expensive as well. Toronto is spending $2B to extend one of their routes by 8.4 km and 6 stations. Calgary is spending a little over a third of that on the WLRT with the same number of stations and length that will connect directly to downtown (the Toronto example just extends the end-of-line like the recent Crowfoot extension in Calgary). If you wanted to add a whole new line (like Calgary's WLRT) to a subway system that connects to downtown, you are looking and a pretty hefty price and planning process. New York City has been trying to add the Second Avenue Subway for the better part of a century. The 14 km line will cost an estimated $17B.

The advantage of light rail is its lower capital cost, and easier scalability/expandability. It is much easier to add lines as you go, extend those lines, and expand capacity (increase the length and frequency of trains). The tradeoff is there is a lower ceiling to capacity. With the older and bigger established cities in North America already having their subway systems in place, I would wager that there won't be a city that will build a new heavy rail system in North America for the foreseeable future, although there will be expansions to existing systems. Lots of cities have and will add light rail systems though. Phoenix, Charlotte, Norfolk are the latest with Kansas City, Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo and others forthcoming.