Rant against BestWestLRT NIMBY whiners

[nik-]

haha, I just checked that site and saw the before and after pictures.

I like how an elevated line instantly causes any flat surface to be covered in graffiti.

Hilarious.

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

If I was the city instead of spending the extra $20M because of the very small handful of houses, I'd expropriate the houses.

The city has already reached agreements with 17 of the 24 affected owners (as of a month ago so it could be more now). This NIMBY effort is by community members that have property which may or may not be directly impacted by the train right of way.

[ken0042]

Does anybody have a link to their site? Too many of the words I'm trying in google are bringing up other results.

[Kerplunk]

I was reading about some of this yesterday, and the consensus around some of the Internet forums is that if these people continue to whine then the city should take away their train extension and give it to other projects, like the SE line or maybe to help build the underground downtown.

Hell, use the money to upgrade some of other lines. How about giving the Rundle station more than 350 parking stalls to service 2 communities, or give us a raised or buried line at some of the major intersections on 36th.

[Mccree]

^^^

http://www.bestwestlrt.com/

[Boblobla]

The best part is how the existing overpass doesn't have graffiti on it but the CG one they added does.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Welcome to Calgary: The City of Invisible Barriers and Unnecessary Frustration!!

How can a city that is so focused on money and is so well educated be so short sighted in our development. What I would give for a little self awareness, reflective thought, and FORESIGHT in the general population. Perhaps the hands of our city planners wouldn't be so forced all the time.

I have to say that I agree with a lot of the comments left on the creatingcalgary website on this issue.

[browna]

Originally Posted by McMack

I don't live in Springbank Hill, but I drive past this complex that they're building every day and I have to say that this is a bizarre location to put housing for low income families. There's nothing there... No transit, no shopping, nothing. A family would pretty much need 2 cars to live there.


http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en...59988&t=p&z=13

I have a buddy who's in the middle of this. Take out the "oh they're rich in that area, deal with it" bs. Yes, you take a soundbbyte of a woman who's supremely pist and maybe not the brightest light to be saying generalizations like that, but take a step back and look at how that worked out and step into their shoes if you lived in an adjacent community that had this thurst a upon them without consultation, or even long term notice (they had 6 weeks notice) of this happening.

The city kept the plan under wraps (late last month) until last minute and nothing could be done. City stepped in to buy the place from the developer who couldn't sell his units off. (and city has dealt with this developer before, so questions as to arms length, or if this was the plan all along). The community association had some lawyers look into it apparently, and don't have much to stand on at this point, because something to do with the city can rezone the building now that its bult (they couldn't rezone something that wasn't built, again leading to questions as to the developer and city having this plan in the works for a while, only making it public after the place it built and zoning could be changed).

My buddy's steaming mad at this, living 700m away from this as the crow flies. Currently he backs onto a greenspace and nothing seperates him from this, but the city rezoned that land last year and now there will be another phase between him and that complex. But, all this wasn't in the community/area developers plan when he and everyone purchased 2-3 years back, and now property values and sales values have instantly plummeted, as they would anywhere when something suddenly gets rezoned to higher density then it was planned for.

Not a concidence, less then a week after this was announced, the community finally gets a bus route...previous to that, people in the area had to get to Westside Rec to catch a bus for the past couple years.

No matter what area of the city this is in, upper scale community or not, shady tactics by the city to say the very least, given the way this process has evolved.

Add to this just the comon sense factor...yes, is there not a better location for low income housing then out in the middle of nowhere at 17ave and 85th st SW, where most people to be living there don't have a car to get to their jobs, or to the nearest grocery store (Westhills or Westbrook) many on the entire other side of the city 40 mins away?

Make something like that senoirs low income housing (and get them out of the east village), which is also needed in this city....they usually don't need the proximity to the working areas that the low income younger people do somewhere else. Put the people moving in here into developments closer to where they're likely to be working, not in an area where its going to take you 2 or 3 busses just to get downtown or to the nearest Safeway, let alone halfway across the city to your job.

[GrrlGoalie33]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Yeah that website is pretty terrible. I just sent an e-mail to my alderman protesting this site using the "Best West" template but changing some of the words around to reflect my view point. Here's my template for anyone wishing to do the same. The Best West LRT site has a list of all the alderman's e-mail addresses:

Thanks for the letter! I have sent it off to my alderman already.

And Bobbola - you don't need to remind us that no one cares about the NE - those of us who live there already know

[Eagle Eye]

I like the Sunalta2 pictures. The after picture shows grafitti on the building on the right, but if you look at the before picture the same building looks like it had graffiti already covered up

[browna]

As for the LRT, I'm more hoping they can come up with a plan to not disturb the first 3 holes at least at my fav Friday afternoon track (Shag), and maybe thus have to scrap the 9 hole Executive Par 3 (which was good for taking the wife to) for the reconfiguration.

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by Frankster

And Bobbola - you don't need to remind us that no one cares about the NE - those of us who live there already know

I was just playin, I am in the NE quiet frequently...

To go to the airport

[Ozy_Flame]

My dad is a big time architect in the city, and he and other urban developers are FUMING at the thought of a few residents holding up a big development like this that is so obviously needed to address the growing pains.

Typical conservative, narrow-minded NIMBY's that can't appreciate a good idea when they see it. It reminds me of people who think pink stucco and fake stone make their houses look good.

[metal_geek]

They need to scrap the whole thing and build the SE line.

1) They were gonna do the SE extention before the West extention but the SE was expected to cost way more but now the costs are getting closer and closer with every delay.

2) The VAST majority of people using that train from the west never touch or cross deefoot trail during thier commute. The benifit , from reduced deerfoot vehicle traffic, and the benifit to that roadway from a SE line alone would be worth the cost difference. Not to mention the enviromental aspects.

3) People in the SE have 1 option... Deerfoot, that's it.. doesn't matter if it's city bus, car pool, motocycle they all have to deal with deefoot.


Seems to me this whole argument is misguided anyway. Like arguing about what color to paint your bedroom, when your livingroom is on fire.. For as many NIMBY people are there are there are prolly 100 who can't wait to ditch thier car for the C-tain that runs a few blocks away.. Put up a couple sound barriers along thier back fence so the people on the ctrain don't have to hear the NIMBY folks whining...
________
Xtremeblonde

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by nik-

I like how an elevated line instantly causes any flat surface to be covered in graffiti.

Is that a CG bum smoking crack at the CG Sunalta station?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Homer_J

That website is emabarassing. I wrote them an email a while back saying that they're only hurting their cause by using those sensationalized photos.

The areas depicted in the photos don't look too spectacular to begin with. They show surface lots and freeways. How are those going to be hurt by an LRT line?

I love that one photo from sunalta with the building without graffiti and then theres a track overhead and a few pillars and suddenly there's graffiti everywhere.
Why would there suddenly be graffiti there? Because there are more surfaces to paint on? There's no station! Why would graffiti artists suddenly flock to that area to paint? And how would they get there? Bus?

What a lame site.

[Ozy_Flame]

Where is the link to the CG drawings / designs? I want to see this. I can't seem to find them.

[FurnaceFace]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Fair enough. I don't think taxpayers in any community object to extending the LRT to your neighbourhood per se, rather, the complaint we have is that NIMBY whiners are demanding that the track be built underground at an excessive expense when it's completely unneccessary.

I feel that any time the track approaches any residential area or area where it would cause traffic issues, it should be underground. How I wish it were possible to turn back the clock to the 80s and sink the Ctrain from the get-go. I do realize that's likely a flight of fancy but it would really have helped the city in general if it were all below grade where warranted.

I suspect the grade track works best for the sub-divisions instead of the inner city. I think the at grade track up Crowchild works very well because it is in the middle of an expressway away from houses. As it gets closer to the center, it doesn't. There is really nothing "Trail" or expressway about Bow in my view...to say nothing of 17th ave.

I've recently come back from Paris and Barcelona and I did wonder how these cities managed to build the extensive underground network through cities that have been around forever.

Having said all that, my comments are mostly wishful thinking as it's unfortunately not realistic for this city to create a subway system and I'm happy to accept anything which will alleviate some of my transit issues...plus it'll be great to be able to take the train from home to the game and back.

[WhiteTom]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Where is the link to the CG drawings / designs? I want to see this. I can't seem to find them.

http://www.bestwestlrt.com/Default.aspx?pageId=136942

The part that gets me is that the car is shown parked in the same place the whole time with the apparent graffiti artists and degenerates running around and it hasn't been touched?

Whoever did this are amateurs.

[FurnaceFace]

Just read the landing page on the creating Calgary site.

Mayor David Bronconnier has suggested the "cut-and-cover" strategy as a possible solution to the noise issue, which involved wide trenches dug in the ground to accommodate the trains. The trenches would then covered by roads.

This I would wholeheartedly support. It seems to address any concerns I'd have.