Calgary Civic Election Poll #2: Who do you support for Mayor?

[kermitology]

Great blog post from c.t.ner:

http://www.ctoverdrive.ca/article/87...0-mayoral-race

[Cowboy89]

Just a comment of mine about sprawl. As any informed voter should do I have been browsing candidate websites, reading newpaper articles, registering on twitter feeds, et al. I've noticed that generally any candidate who mentions development or sprawl is against it for the reasons being that it costs more in infrastructure, areas are unwalkable, transportation is car reliant, et al. To that affect I completely and utterly agree with that line of thinking.

After reading some stuff from Nenshi in developing more higher density, walkable communities with Garrison Woods being used as a beacon of enlightenment for future communities that can also feature many sizable family friendly town homes, I couldn't help but dream of living in a community like Garrison Woods. So I started looking at real estate sites and the like and found that town homes of size with backyards et al go for "From the 650,000s" according to the new 'Victoria Cross' Development http://www.homesbyavi.com/main.asp?CityID=1. Highly levered 5%, 35% mortgage option aside, realistically this dream can only be attained by a family that features a couple who both earn six figures and in the end it's still just a townhome.

Obviously when faced with a choice between Garrison Woods and a 1700 sq foot home in far flung suburbs its no wonder Joe Six Pack who makes less than $100,000 a year chooses to live in far flung suburbs. He gets more house and land for his dollar. Bottomline, there's going to be the same demand for the single family detached homes with a backyard regardless of what the city does. If the City of Calgary curbs this kind development then ultimately it will price Joe Sixpack out of the Calgary market and you'll see people like him develop the crap out of places like Langdon, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks. They'll still use City of Calgary infrastructure but the City will have no ability to tax his property.

This then brings me to the policies of Kent Hehr, who seems to be the only candidate that thinks of development and transportation in regional terms and sponsors more regional cooperation, http://kenthehr.ca/media/CEC%20Backgrounder.pdf. Not sure if I'm going to vote for Kent, but at least he acknowledges that Calgary doesn't exisit in isolation. Sprawl isn't a Calgary only problem. If there are not good regional plans with regards to housing development and transportation then the 'Calgary region' will ultimately look the same from space regardless of whether Nenshi's model of development is used or McIvor's. The only difference is where the imaginary border lines between cities will be drawn.

[Slava]

Anyway, the main point is really being missed here. There are candidates who are receiving most of their money from what are nearly special interest groups, or groups with a vested interest. While they have every right to back the candidate of their choice, it should be disclosed.

Candidates such as Hehr and Nenshi are far from the problem here. Instead it's the Ric McIver side of things were developers paid about half of the tab for him to run aldermanically last time around.

That isn't to say that developers are all evil either, it's just a case where these ties should be transparent so that the electorate can make an informed decision.

As I have said before, it's a shame that both Naheed and Kent are running. It causes a split here and discussions here that really are not for the better.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by kermitology

And did he specify when he would start doing that?

In May 2010 he told the Herald "I will be immediately disclosing every week all donors on my website."

It's covered here:

http://www.calgaryliberal.com/2010/0...ccountability/

And the video is in his own collection.

[Bunk]

The reason why Garrison Woods is so expensive is two-fold.

1. Because of its prime inner-city location
2. Because this kind of development is in high demand, but in short supply. If every community at the fringe was developed in the same manner as Garrison Woods (which still does have a lot of single family homes) I would argue that housing prices would be actually less - higher density, more efficient layout means more units on the same amount of land, thereby distributing land costs across more units.

It's not even that developers wouldn't want to develop a community like Garrison Woods, it's that the rules dictating subdivisions practically negate their possibility. It took Canada Lands 7 years to get Garrison Woods approved because it had to break practically every rule in the book Calgary has. No private developer is going to go through that nightmare. The rules need to support smart growth and prohibit out of date, financially and environmentally unsustainable growth patterns.

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Just a comment of mine about sprawl. As any informed voter should do I have been browsing candidate websites, reading newpaper articles, registering on twitter feeds, et al. I've noticed that generally any candidate who mentions development or sprawl is against it for the reasons being that it costs more in infrastructure, areas are unwalkable, transportation is car reliant, et al. To that affect I completely and utterly agree with that line of thinking.

After reading some stuff from Nenshi in developing more higher density, walkable communities with Garrison Woods being used as a beacon of enlightenment for future communities that can also feature many sizable family friendly town homes, I couldn't help but dream of living in a community like Garrison Woods. So I started looking at real estate sites and the like and found that town homes of size with backyards et al go for "From the 650,000s" according to the new 'Victoria Cross' Development http://www.homesbyavi.com/main.asp?CityID=1. Highly levered 5%, 35% mortgage option aside, realistically this dream can only be attained by a family that features a couple who both earn six figures and in the end it's still just a townhome.

Obviously when faced with a choice between Garrison Woods and a 1700 sq foot home in far flung suburbs its no wonder Joe Six Pack who makes less than $100,000 a year chooses to live in far flung suburbs. He gets more house and land for his dollar. Bottomline, there's going to be the same demand for the single family detached homes with a backyard regardless of what the city does. If the City of Calgary curbs this kind development then ultimately it will price Joe Sixpack out of the Calgary market and you'll see people like him develop the crap out of places like Langdon, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks. They'll still use City of Calgary infrastructure but the City will have no ability to tax his property.

[Bunk]

Yes he did say that, but clearly he's changed his mind probably for a number of very logical reasons, but not for any lack of belief in transparency. As long as he does follow through and disclose donors early enough in the campaign, I really don't see a big deal here.

Originally Posted by First Lady

In May 2010 he told the Herald "I will be immediately disclosing every week all donors on my website."

It's covered here:

http://www.calgaryliberal.com/2010/0...ccountability/

And the video is in his own collection.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

After reading some stuff from Nenshi in developing more higher density, walkable communities with Garrison Woods being used as a beacon of enlightenment for future communities that can also feature many sizable family friendly town homes, I couldn't help but dream of living in a community like Garrison Woods. So I started looking at real estate sites and the like and found that town homes of size with backyards et al go for "From the 650,000s" according to the new 'Victoria Cross' Development http://www.homesbyavi.com/main.asp?CityID=1. Highly levered 5%, 35% mortgage option aside, realistically this dream can only be attained by a family that features a couple who both earn six figures and in the end it's still just a townhome.

You can't just look at the housing prices and go from there, it's more about the design of Garrison Woods. Mackenzie Towne is actually designed in a similar manner, and has won awards for it. The focus is more on looking at existing neighbourhoods and redeveloping them to be more like Garrison Woods and Mackenzie Towne instead of putting more and more subdivision developments like New Brighton and Silverado.

Developers in Calgary are only interested in making huge profits off of the cheap neighbourhoods they can pump out like clockwork in the deep south where every home is one of three or four models and people can afford them. But the problem is huge for the city. Don't quote me on this, but I believe that Silverado isn't connected to the main sewer system, and all sewage goes into a big septic tank that is emptied daily. That kind of thing is insane! We're building beyond the limits of the cities ability to provide services to the people.

And it's not just utilities, transportation corridors are choked with people trying to get between downtown (where the majority work) and the deep south. Existing schools, hospitals, fire stations, etc, aren't being used to proper capacity because the people are fleeing to the edges of the city, meaning that there is now a desperate need for those services in the suburbs.

[c.t.ner]

Originally Posted by Bunk

The reason why Garrison Woods is so expensive is two-fold.

1. Because of it's prime inner-city location
2. Because this kind of development is in high demand, but in short supply. If every community at the fringe was developed in the same manner as Garrison Woods I would argue that housing prices would be actually less - higher density, more efficient layout means more units on the same amount of land, thereby distributing land costs across more units.

To add to Bunk's comments. The price range for Garrison Woods was not initially at 650,000 when it was proposed to the public. There was numerous properties designated as affordable housing entries, but because of the demand everything was gobbled up and now the property is far outside the average Joe 6 Pack's price range.

If we saw the same sort of development encouraged in other areas of the city, we'd see these types of properties at a much more reasonable price range.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by First Lady

In May 2010 he told the Herald "I will be immediately disclosing every week all donors on my website."

It's covered here:

http://www.calgaryliberal.com/2010/0...ccountability/

And the video is in his own collection.

I notice there is no mention of Nenshi trying to get that guy to understand that he said he would immediately disclose when the campaign becomes official.

[jdso]

I noticed in this thread that Joe Connelly isn't that well liked by some posters. Any specific reasons why? My wife didn't think he was too bad after seeing him at the mayoralty forum.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by jdso

I noticed in this thread that Joe Connelly isn't that well liked by some posters. Any specific reasons why? My wife didn't think he was too bad after seeing him at the mayoralty forum.

I actually think Connelly has done a reasonable job as alderman, though his predecessor (Burrows) set the bar pretty low. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he decided to run for mayor though - he doesn't have as high a profile as McIvor, but still has the baggage associated with being on the current council. He also doesn't seem to have stood out from the pack in any way yet. Unless he comes out with a killer platform and performs really well at any public debates, I just can't see him being a major factor.

[Mango]

Living in Connelly's ward, I can say he's done a pretty good job when it comes to infrastructure. I'm especially happy about the 37th Street/Glenmore interchange that will soon be completed. For Connelly, I think he needs a few more terms as alderman under his belt before he has a chance at being mayor.

Originally Posted by Ashartus

I actually think Connelly has done a reasonable job as alderman, though his predecessor (Burrows) set the bar pretty low.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Mango

Living in Connelly's ward, I can say he's done a pretty good job when it comes to infrastructure. I'm especially happy about the 37th Street/Glenmore interchange that will soon be completed. For Connelly, I think he needs a few more terms as alderman under his belt before he has a chance at being mayor.

That may have more to do with where Bronconnier lives than Connelly's representation. Connelly is a very difficult person to deal with on the city side, from what I understand, because he's always telling people one thing and doing another. Extreme fence sitter.

[Mango]

Good point. I didn't really think of that. I wish there was somewhere that I see a chronology of what each alderman has done throughout his or her term. It would be interesting to see.

Originally Posted by kermitology

That may have more to do with where Bronconnier lives than Connelly's representation.

[MarchHare]

Will there be a run-off election, or is this purely FPTP? With so many candidates in the field, I forsee the result resembling something like this:

1. 22%
2. 20%
3. 15%
4. 13%
5. 10%
All others combined: 20%

[Slava]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Will there be a run-off election, or is this purely FPTP? With so many candidates in the field, I forsee the result resembling something like this:

1. 22%
2. 20%
3. 15%
4. 13%
5. 10%
All others combined: 20%

Purely FPTP...so you could well be right. Somewhere around 35% voter turnout as well...which would be an enormous improvement as sad as that is.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by kermitology

That may have more to do with where Bronconnier lives than Connelly's representation. Connelly is a very difficult person to deal with on the city side, from what I understand, because he's always telling people one thing and doing another. Extreme fence sitter.

Bronco lives in Strathcona, can't see the 37th/Glenmore interchange being something he greenlighted for personal reasons.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Bronco lives in Strathcona, can't see the 37th/Glenmore interchange being something he greenlighted for personal reasons.

I read that location wrong, but how else is he supposed to get to the Rockyview?

He did try to give preference to his former ward.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Bunk

It's not even that developers wouldn't want to develop a community like Garrison Woods, it's that the rules dictating subdivisions practically negate their possibility. It took Canada Lands 7 years to get Garrison Woods approved because it had to break practically every rule in the book Calgary has. No private developer is going to go through that nightmare. The rules need to support smart growth and prohibit out of date, financially and environmentally unsustainable growth patterns.

Can you elaborate on what these rules are?

[Ashartus]

And we have yet another candidate - a member of the Communist party no less: http://communities.canada.com/calgar...r/default.aspx. I'm sure the promise to hike business taxes will thrill small business owners.