I work for Mayor Nenshi, ask me anything!

[Bigtime]

I would LOVE to see any development on the Triangle site incorporate some community space like there was in the Ant Hill building. With the streetscape improvements coming to 2nd avenue east of 10th street there is a real opportunity to "extend" the Kensington area into that first block of Sunnyside.

[morgin]

Bunk - anything your office is working on that you think we as a city should collectively be showing more interest in? If you could have 5 minutes to present to everyone living in Calgary and force them to do an hour of reading on a municipal subject, what would you pick?

[Wormius]

On the topic of things people in the city should be interested in, can we host a street festival that is not 95% vendors selling jams, salsas, chutneys, and miscellaneous crap? I know its easy to complain about something that is free, but it would be nice to see more entertainment at the lilac and sun&salsa festivals - which surprisingly, lacked salsa last year.

[Bunk]

Speaking of the Triangle Site

Open House for Triangle Site

HSCA Community Centre, 1320 5th Avenue NW

The Bow to Bluff Initiative and Springboard invite YOU to a public open house to discuss a temporary place-making vision for the Triangle Site (2 Ave. & 9 St. NW)!

Who are we?

A partnership of local organizations who are collectively seeking to foster great public spaces that can be experienced and enjoyed as arts and cultural hubs for all Calgarians.

What are we up to?

With the demolition of the City-owned former triangle warehouse building, the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association (HSCA) has partnered with the City to lease the open space temporarily, until a future date when the City plans to undertake a mixed-type affordable housing development.

Ground-breaking community engagement work to foster great public spaces on this site and along the whole Sunnyside LRT corridor completed in 2011-12 by the Bow to Bluff initiative is being combined with the success of Springboard’s ContainR project -- a street installation at the crossroads of urban culture, arts, cinema, public art, and sustainable design. This vision has brought together a cross-section of local arts groups who are now actively exploring opportunities for temporary programming of this space in 2013.

This Open House is your opportunity to hear more about our vision and to provide your input

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by morgin

Bunk - anything your office is working on that you think we as a city should collectively be showing more interest in? If you could have 5 minutes to present to everyone living in Calgary and force them to do an hour of reading on a municipal subject, what would you pick?

The Mayor has pushed the idea of more involved citizenry. This is really the most important thing - to not just be a passive citizen and go out and change and improve things yourself. To this end, the Mayor has the 3 Things for Calgary movement. Do three things to make your community/city better using your talents and interests. It could be anything really.

http://www.3thingsforcalgary.ca/

As far as doing reading on a municipal subject - hmmm, read and understand ImagineCalgary

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Wormius

On the topic of things people in the city should be interested in, can we host a street festival that is not 95% vendors selling jams, salsas, chutneys, and miscellaneous crap? I know its easy to complain about something that is free, but it would be nice to see more entertainment at the lilac and sun&salsa festivals - which surprisingly, lacked salsa last year.

I'm laughing right now because this is exactly what the Bow River Flow could have become.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Wormius

On the topic of things people in the city should be interested in, can we host a street festival that is not 95% vendors selling jams, salsas, chutneys, and miscellaneous crap? I know its easy to complain about something that is free, but it would be nice to see more entertainment at the lilac and sun&salsa festivals - which surprisingly, lacked salsa last year.

Most street festivals are operated by Business Revitalization Zones - Kensington, Inglewood, 4th Street, Marda Loop etc. They cost a lot to run, so they need some revenue coming in from vendors that can afford to pay the fees.

There has been a few street festivals like Bow River Flow that attempted to have a different theme, but we know what happened there.

The City doesn't really run any street festivals itself - it only accommodates other groups that initiate them. The great thing about Calgary is, if there's something you see is missing, you can usually pretty easily get people excited about making it happen.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Speaking of the Triangle Site

The Bow to Bluff Initiative and Springboard invite YOU to a public open house to discuss a temporary place-making vision for the Triangle Site (2 Ave. & 9 St. NW)!

Temporary place making? Pssh, call me when we are discussing the BUILDING that will be going up there. Bigtime demands mid-rise on that site!

[Table 5]

I for one love jam, chutney, and salsa stands......but only if they have free samples.

[Addick]

What's happening with the proposed Cycle Hire scheme? Last I heard, Council was going to revisit the topic.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Addick

What's happening with the proposed Cycle Hire scheme? Last I heard, Council was going to revisit the topic.

Bike share? Not a lot. Council made the decision that such a program would be challenging without the infrastructure in place first, so that's what it's focusing on. The point of bikeshare is to attract the casual rider, however the casual rider won't ride downtown streets until they're safer. It also decided it didn't want to operate a program itself, but instead facilitate a private operator if it were to come forward. An RFP may be issued in the next couple years.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Bike share? Not a lot. Council made the decision that such a program would be challenging without the infrastructure in place first, so that's what it's focusing on. The point of bikeshare is to attract the casual rider, however the casual rider won't ride downtown streets until they're safer. It also decided it didn't want to operate a program itself, but instead facilitate a private operator if it were to come forward. An RFP may be issued in the next couple years.

Bike lanes in the +15s! That'll solve the downtown cycling problem!

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Bike lanes in the +15s! That'll solve the downtown cycling problem!

People can't even walk in the +15s properly, although adding bikes might actually help take out some of the strugglers.

[Hocus Pocus]

What is going on with Poppy Plaza? This project has been underway since 2009 and still isn't finished. I realize that there were some legal issues along the way but it's hard to believe that building a small park should take four years.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Bike lanes in the +15s! That'll solve the downtown cycling problem!

So long as bikes are forced to drive through any in-prompt-to meeting in the middle of the hallways to bust those beeatches up, then I am fine with it.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Hocus Pocus

What is going on with Poppy Plaza? This project has been underway since 2009 and still isn't finished. I realize that there were some legal issues along the way but it's hard to believe that building a small park should take four years.

I don't have an answer for you, but it looks like it is finally nearing completion. I'm hoping to see it open by the spring if we are really lucky.

[nik-]

As a resident of Sunnyside, I demand the Triangle Site be turned into a Gladiator arena.

Make it so Bunk.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Hocus Pocus

What is going on with Poppy Plaza? This project has been underway since 2009 and still isn't finished. I realize that there were some legal issues along the way but it's hard to believe that building a small park should take four years.

There were contractor issues (and subsequent legal issues). Those have been cleared up now and work is progressing toward completion. Should be only a couple months now.

[ranchlandsselling]

So, not really sure if this is an appropriate avenue. I work across the street from the Calgary Court Parkade (the newish underground one at 515 6th ave SW). Somehow in the last few weeks the alarm on the exit of the parkade has increased in volume. I'm certain it wasn't that loud before or for some reason the majority of people in our office didn't notice it before. Now we can hear it in our office all day every day like a car alarm that keeps going off. It's becoming really annoying trying to work and hearing this thing go off.

We called 311 who suggested a noise complaint.

Checked in on the complaint and was told "sorry, The City of Calgary doesn't have to adhere to bylaws". We asked about having the volume turned down and were told "it's a safety issue, and they don't have to adhere to bylaws, and The City is exempt as well". I then said that yes, I understand, but given I'm many floors up in an office building perhaps the people on the street could still hear it if it was turned down a little. I was then given a bunch of unrelated comparisons like fire trucks going to a fire and emergency road construction to repair a water break at 2:00am. Both of which I found rude and not applicable to what I'm talking about. One is an annoying alarm that could be adjusted to not bother people - the other is a one-time necessity to solve an immediate problem.

311 suggested I call the Downtown Association. I tried that and was helped by some very nice people who suggested that they would try to help out but it very well could just die at the next person they send the request to.

Any other thoughts?

Help us Bunk - you're our only hope... and Bigtime isn't.

[FireFly]

McKnight is awful. Are there any plans to repave it in the future? Particularly Metis to Deerfoot.