Calgary Civic Election Poll #3: The race heats up

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Disdain doesn't mean she'll lose....I mean, comeon, Rob Anders somehow manages to remain my MP......

Rob Anders - a prime example of peole who vote for the party, not the candidate.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Slava

I don't think that he is in third at all. The last legitimate poll (which was horrible as it was done the same day that Higgins announced) had him at less than 1%. Surely things have changed since then, and they have for a lot of candidates. Him moving to third though would mean a leap frog of both Kent Hehr and Bob Hawkesworth (and whoever else was in that less than 2% category).

I suppose that is possible, but I highly doubt it. I expect that he is soundly in 5th or worse at this stage. I don't say that out of malice or anything like that either. I just think that the average voter (which is really what matters here) has no idea who the guy is. People who follow politics might be extremely unimpressed with Higgins but there is a reason she polls so well. I had a woman tell me that she wasn't voting for me because she is voting for Barb Higgins! Pretty clearly with that kind of voter being relatively commonplace expecting that 20% of the voters know who Naheed is would be a minor miracle, never mind voting for him.

No offense as you're working on Hehr's campaign, but based on my observations I don't see the bolded point being much of a stretch to believe.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Such as?

Her closing down parts of Memorial and giving residents of Calgary no idea of what she wanted to do with. Then having someone else come up with an idea.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by Dion

Her closing down parts of Memorial and giving residents of Calgary no idea of what she wanted to do with. Then having someone else come up with an idea.

This did not occur, so far as I understand. Nor is it a political move in the capacity of alderman.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

This did not occur, so far as I understand. Nor is it a political move in the capacity of alderman.

The Bow River Flow didn't happen?

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Dion

Her closing down parts of Memorial and giving residents of Calgary no idea of what she wanted to do with. Then having someone else come up with an idea.

Were you stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Memorial that day or were you just opposed to the idea in general?

If I sound snarky, I'm really not trying to be. It just seems to me that the majority of the vocal opposition to that event is coming from people who in all likelihood wouldn't even use Memorial on a Sunday afternoon. Although I haven't lived there since 2007, her ideas seem to be very popular with the citizens of her ward (Sunnyside/Kensington area) AFAIK.

[Muta]

The discontent to a street festival is laughable at this point. Is your life so serious that closing half a street (not completely shutting it down), for an afternoon, once a year on a weekend for a family event makes your blood boil?

Man, some people will find reasons to bitch about anything.

[JiriHrdina]

The Bow River Flow is a topic that tends to generate a lot of talk and while I'd love to get into it again it is a big risk to really de-rail this thread. So let's save that for a thread specifically about that issue please.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Were you stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Memorial that day or were you just opposed to the idea in general?

Just opposed to the idea that major artery had to be used.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by Dion

The Bow River Flow didn't happen?

No, it did not happen as you state it. Druh Farrell did not "close down parts of Memorial Drive."

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Were you stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Memorial that day or were you just opposed to the idea in general?

If I sound snarky, I'm really not trying to be. It just seems to me that the majority of the vocal opposition to that event is coming from people who in all likelihood wouldn't even use Memorial on a Sunday afternoon. Although I haven't lived there since 2007, her ideas seem to be very popular with the citizens of her ward (Sunnyside/Kensington area) AFAIK.

The thing about the Bow River Flow is that the whole process and what ended up happening is very telling of an immitation of a Toronto style 'war on the car', 'progressive' type alderman. From the view of the average suburban person, closing the road provided very little utility and the event itself took on a 'holier than thou' shot to the lifestyles of people who live away from the core.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Muta

The discontent to a street festival is laughable at this point. Is your life so serious that closing half a street (not completely shutting it down), for an afternoon, once a year on a weekend for a family event makes your blood boil?

Man, some people will find reasons to bitch about anything.

You'd be pissed too if someone added 15 minutes to your trip to Chicken on the way, especially if you drove all the way in from High River.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

The thing about the Bow River Flow is that the whole process and what ended up happening is very telling of an immitation of a Toronto style 'war on the car', 'progressive' type alderman group of citizens. From the view of the average suburban person, closing the road provided very little utility and the event itself took on a 'holier than thou' shot to the lifestyles of people who live away from the core.

Fixed.

[JiriHrdina]

Again let's move away from this specific issue - if someone wants they can start a new thread on it.

[Mazrim]

Hey Slava, are you going to be putting up signs and such for your campaign? Another runner for trustee in Ward 13 (Taylor I think it said) has some big ones up on Canyon Meadows Drive, and you obviously don't want him/her to get a head start on that.

As for other Ward 13 stuff, I'm likely to vote for Sandy Jenkins mainly because he isn't Dianne Colley-Urquhart, but also because his comments about infrastructure, and the SW Ring Road, are good. I literally can't find anything what DCU's platform ideas were for these things, other than endless news articles with her agreeing with residents about rejecting it, and then "SAVE SHAWNEE SLOPES!!!" a hundred times over.

(As a side note, am I the only member of Ward 13 who doesn't give a crap what happens to Shawnee Slopes Golf Course? It seems like the only people who want it to stay are those with the backyards on it.)

[4X4]

Got anything else, Dion? There has to be more than one thing on your list.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

A lot of people believe that McIver would be the right guy - but for one term and one term only. The reason being he could turn the tide of what is perceived by many to be an overspending City Hall that is controlled too much by the bureaucrats instead of the elected officials.

Good post and I might be exactly that guy.

I would rather vote for someone with a vision *and* an appreciation for my pocket book. If I have to choose, I'll vote with my pocketbook.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Got anything else, Dion? There has to be more than one thing on your list.

He probably has to go reference his collection of Rick Bell columns before he gets back to you on this.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Fixed.

BS. No Druh Farrell, no Bow River Flow. You go to great pains to make it seem like there was an overwelming uprising of grassroots support, but in this article she takes credit for the idea, which BTW wasn't to create a festival but rather to close the road for the sake of closing the road. Only when the closures all Sundays in August moved to one Sunday in August did it become a festival.

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/colum...99966-sun.html

For the hundreds of unhappy motorists who've hammered their anger home in emails and calls to media outlets, hearing Farrell's heels digging into the asphalt is not good news.
Her idea, to close the south lanes of Memorial Dr. on Sundays in August between 3 St. and 10 St. S.W., has upset a great many who could care less about cycling and sauntering on a stretch of riverside road.
Farrell says Calgary's media is helping to fuel the negativity -- and it's true, plenty of ink and pixels have been devoted to criticizing the Ward 7 alderman and her proposal.
But Calgarians are a free-thinking lot, and many clearly believe that a major artery is no place for people to play -- some have said so in reasonable terms, while others have suggested burning the alderman in effigy.
Farrell is listening, but the insults and fist-shaking fury are doing little to keep Memorial open.
Indeed, Farrell says she is so perturbed by the foul reaction, that she believes the closure must proceed, if only to keep the negative element in Calgary from taking over.
"If the cynics were making the decisions in Calgary over the years, we'd have no LRT, no old city hall, no Performing Arts centre, no Lougheed Building," said Farrell.

While critics say any lane closure will result in clogged traffic, Farrell said she took the idea, inspired by similar shut-downs in cities like Rome and Chicago, to the experts at the city's transportation department.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by fotze

Since they blast through Sunnyside do 70 kph to shortcut the traffic jams they are 100% responsible for I can understand the sentiment. The day I got honked and fingered by an a-hole doing that, for merely parallel parking in front of my own house (parallel parking because of illegal parkers commuting downtown) is a day I will never forget. The rage.

If a holier than thou festival not in your neighborhood is all that you pay (along with much lower taxes) then I think you are doing alright in the grand scheme of things. I would have preferred a random monthly Roofing Nails On Shortcut Roads shot at suburbia to a hippy hemp hiking party in a weirdass location.

I only honked after you took 4 attempts to parallel park. Seriously its only a tiny escort, you should have this figured out by now.