2013 Calgary Municipal Election Thread

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Perhaps he works for the mayor but is on the city's payroll. I know someone who works in the mayor's office but it's not Bunk. I'd think they're city employees who report to the mayor.

I'm a political appointee - contracted (term aligned with the term in office - 3 years) to work for the Mayor. I work at the City of Calgary (as does the Mayor himself) but we are apart from City Administration - for example not in any union. There's only one staff in the Mayor's Office that works for the City Administration that's embedded - the Administrative Liaison.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Just my 2 cents. I know that this forum entry is going to be all happiness and light for Nemshi and a big part of it is a member of his team is a member of this board and using this board as a heavy campaigning instrument. And that's great, but lets not chase off people because they don't agree.

I'm hoping that this is used as an instrument to help people understand the issues that this city is facing and there is some impartial discussion and its not just a purple campaign poster and free advertising in an election.

Totally concur.

In my capacity as employee of the Mayor I've used the "ask me anything" thread I started as a conduit for people in this community to ask questions about issues, provide feedback (positive or negative).

As for the election, I share the hope that this thread can be an open and broad discussion about issues, and not just the Mayor's race but the ward races. Hopefully the Mayor's re-election platform can be a catalyst for some of that discussion as it was in 2010.

[Bigtime]

Nenshi Captain.

[Bigtime]

I think this:

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I don't necessarily believe in the whole cutting taxes thing, this city has gotten too large and too service dependant (which is a bad thing).

Is what gets us this:

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The amount of propery tax increases in this city, especially since 2005, and the increase in basic services costs has to be bought under control. You can't keep doing increases above the cost of living index and expect people to be happy about it.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The amount of propery tax increases in this city, especially since 2005, and the increase in basic services costs has to be bought under control. You can't keep doing increases above the cost of living index and expect people to be happy about it.

Our taxes should have never got so low in the first place. We can't have the highest road spending per capita and lowest tax rates (of major Canadian cities), all while subsidizing the fringes, and expect that to be sustainable.

We're at the point where taxes have to go up to address our fiscal and infrastructure debts. Unless the province and the country decide to let more of Calgary's tax dollars stay in Calgary, that's really all we can do to get out of the whole we've dug ourselves.

[Slava]

Lol, of course SebC doesn't miss a chance to tell us (yet again) that its the suburbs that are the root of all evil in the city. Can we just start "SebC vs. Suburbs ongoing mega thread" and park all this there?

[Jacks]

Didn't even know there was an election in October. Haven't seen any signs, any press coverage, no one has knocked on my door, etc.

Don't even know who is running, I assume that Oscar guy is running for mayor again.

Are you sure there is going to be an election?

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Slava

Lol, of course SebC doesn't miss a chance to tell us (yet again) that its the suburbs that are the root of all evil in the city. Can we just start "SebC vs. Suburbs ongoing mega thread" and park all this there?

Well, he has a point. The suburban model of development that has been happening since the 50s has started to rear it's ugly head all over North America with aging infrastructure. Even lots of what is considered "inner city" today, is developed in a way that is really, really expensive to maintain. Building new stuff just adds to it.

[CaptainYooh]

No, he doesn't, he just keeps repeating the same thing. There is no respectable growth model that is absolutely healthy and without any growth problems. Drooling over parises, san-franciscos and portlands of the world is pointless and laughable - they are different cities with totally different factors affecting their growth. Calgary has grown to over a million population in just over one hundred years, which is a phenomenally fast pace for a municipality. The reason - favourable business environment and good labour market, which have historically been paid for by the entire taxpaying population (assuming that it wants the growth). These factors must be kept in check by low taxes, affordable housing prices and variety of housing for all income levels. This is similar to the yeast reaction - take any of the major components away and growth will stagnate, turn to recession and die.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Jacks

Didn't even know there was an election in October. Haven't seen any signs, any press coverage, no one has knocked on my door, etc.

Don't even know who is running, I assume that Oscar guy is running for mayor again.

Are you sure there is going to be an election?

The election is still over 2 months away, and the candidate registration deadline is 5 and a half weeks away.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Jacks

Didn't even know there was an election in October. Haven't seen any signs, any press coverage, no one has knocked on my door, etc.

Don't even know who is running, I assume that Oscar guy is running for mayor again.

Are you sure there is going to be an election?

Don't know about Calgary but many/most communities don't allow signs before nomination day.

[Jacks]

I guess so, if I was trying to knock off an incumbent I'd be out there banging on doors and building a list of lawns where I could plant a sign.2 months isn't a long time.

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Don't know about Calgary but many/most communities don't allow signs before nomination day.

Why do we even allow campaign signs to be posted on public property?

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Jacks

I guess so, if I was trying to knock off an incumbent I'd be out there banging on doors and building a list of lawns where I could plant a sign.2 months isn't a long time.

Quite a few incumbents and candidates are door knocking as we speak.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

No, he doesn't, he just keeps repeating the same thing. There is no respectable growth model that is absolutely healthy and without any growth problems. Drooling over parises, san-franciscos and portlands of the world is pointless and laughable - they are different cities with totally different factors affecting their growth. Calgary has grown to over a million population in just over one hundred years, which is a phenomenally fast pace for a municipality. The reason - favourable business environment and good labour market, which have historically been paid for by the entire taxpaying population (assuming that it wants the growth). These factors must be kept in check by low taxes, affordable housing prices and variety of housing for all income levels. This is similar to the yeast reaction - take any of the major components away and growth will stagnate, turn to recession and die.

You're right, it's absolutely not about copying a growth model of any other city. It's about creating an efficient growth model that's suited to Calgary's unique circumstances. A somewhat more compact growth model will be more efficient for the tax-paying public and the individual. We can build out in this way, and create a place people really want to live and work.

This whole growth discussion shouldn't be about being so doctrinaire. It's not a radical shift really (despite some people's efforts to create false dichotomies of 500sq ft downtown condos vs. the suburban single family home) and we're witnessing this evolution already.

[Knut]

BTW. The Hesla arguing with Nenshi on Twitter is not me. My brother needs to change his username.

[Bunk]

Ward 2 is wide open - who do people like in this race?

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Jedi Ninja

Why do we even allow campaign signs to be posted on public property?

Hey, if it was up to me I'd ban signs on public property and require every voter to attend a forum in order to vote. Too many people vote for poor reasons. If people had to attend a forum then they might actually have a clue.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Calgary has grown to over a million population in just over one hundred years, which is a phenomenally fast pace for a municipality. The reason - favourable business environment and good labour market, which have historically been paid for by the entire taxpaying population (assuming that it wants the growth). These factors must be kept in check by low taxes, affordable housing prices and variety of housing for all income levels. This is similar to the yeast reaction - take any of the major components away and growth will stagnate, turn to recession and die.

"Growing the city generates tax base, which can pay for more growth, which will generate more tax base" is the economics equivalent of "if I put a wind turbine on my car, it will generate electricity to power the car, which keep the turbine running". You end up putting more in than you get out.

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by SebC

"Growing the city generates tax base, which can pay for more growth, which will generate more tax base" is the economics equivalent of "if I put a wind turbine on my car, it will generate electricity to power the car, which keep the turbine running". You end up putting more in than you get out.

OK, we can use a vehicle analogy. The cars already have a generator. It generates the electricity that is uses for its needs and recharges the battery. And, yes, you need to add some kind of exterior energy (fuel) to keep it running. In a society, the electricity is money; the external energy is people. You stop bringing in more people and money will start diminishing. Naturally, it is not that simple and primitive, but it is generally true. And cities have to accommodate as many people as the "electricity" needs are. They accommodate them by catering to the needs of the business, so that it can grow and by providing lifestyle that people can afford on their wages at all income levels; which, in turn, means accommodating growth by supplying infrastructure.

Business needs must always come first for any municipality, no matter how much we might dislike this notion and prefer to think that people's needs come first. This is a nice thesis, philosophically, but not the current reality for the same reason you brought in your car analogy - money doesn't grow on trees. Marx and Lenin thought they could rearrange things differently but most people know what has become of that experiment.