I'm in the minority where I'm actually on the pronvince's side in regards to the green line. After over a decade of back and forth in new plans that are more expensive, and provide less track just to accommodate the downtown subway, enough was enough and the pivot to Plan B had to happen. The value wasn't there for the last subway iteration in comparison to alternatives (same alignment but elevated) that were never truly considered.
I'm not a fan of how we got to that point, and Smith/UCP bullied the city into it, but ultimately the city ignored the red flags that have been popping up over the duration of this project, and not prepare for an alternative plan if the value of the subway could no longer be deemed feasible.
They had tunnel vision (pun intended). It was that or nothing.
Yeah, I'm not saying their plan was optimal (imo they should have gone North first) as there was much better ridership on the "near downtown" leg) but the ucp plan is bad as well.
We needed someone who could negotiate with the province, not just say we want more money for our current plan.
That’s exactly where I’m at too. I’m not happy with Gondek’s performance as mayor, and I really don’t want Sharp.
Considered voting for Thiessen but he’s polling too low.
I’m willing to give Farkas a chance. I do think he has changed and grown since losing the mayoral race 4 years ago, though I know many are skeptical. I voted Gondek last time as the anti-Farkas option.
Some reasons why I’m not voting for Gondek:
Let the 2019 arena agreement collapse due to $10M road/sidewalk and climate mitigation costs. New deal is much worse for taxpayers
Poor / confusing communications during water main crisis
Declaring climate emergency as first major priority after getting elected
Supported pitching up to $100,000 of City money toward the legal fight against Quebec’s Bill 21
Along with council, passed Single-use items bylaw which was then repealed due to massive unpopularity
Marda Loop businesses have been struggling for a couple of years due to prolonged “Main Streets” construction. This past summer (with construction almost complete) another business announced it was shutting down, and only then did she publicly announce that she wanted to meet with affected businesses to hear their concerns
The biggest issue has been her poor communication.
I don't blame Gondek or council in general for the arena deal collapse. The CSEC was pulling out of that due to rising costs of the project in general. They used that excuse to try to blame it on council and people took the bait; however, Gondek could've communicated it better.
Water main and Marda Loop again aren't Gondek's fault, nor are they councils; but the communication from the city was/has been lackluster
The issue with Gondek is communication and messaging. She's been "fine" otherwise. But that has not stopped conservative groups from pushing agenda after agenda against her.
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Dammit now I'm confused. Do I go Gondek or Thiessen??
I think I'm going with Gondek as i really don't want Farkas or Sharp to win. I think Thiessen will pull enough votes from Gondek to have Farkas or Sharp pull ahead and win with 30% of the vote.
Tis the issue that I'm in myself. I prefer Thiessen over Gondek, but I dont want Sharp or Farkas. Do I vote strategically or who I think is best. I'm leaning towards who I think is best because the more strategic we are the more we lean into a two candidate, or in larger elections two party systems. I dont like that in the US and prefer Canada where we have more than 2, albeit not always strong, parties.
Strategically
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The biggest issue has been her poor communication.
I don't blame Gondek or council in general for the arena deal collapse. The CSEC was pulling out of that due to rising costs of the project in general. They used that excuse to try to blame it on council and people took the bait; however, Gondek could've communicated it better.
Water main and Marda Loop again aren't Gondek's fault, nor are they councils; but the communication from the city was/has been lackluster
The issue with Gondek is communication and messaging. She's been "fine" otherwise. But that has not stopped conservative groups from pushing agenda after agenda against her.
Yes! She is blamed for a lot of things that aren't her fault, but she needs to be better at communicating from the start. The communication at the beginning of the water main break was awful. She realized that and tried to improve (and did) but it was too late by then.
As mayor, you need to have a better sense of how things should be handled from the start, not after you've already done the wrong thing. Nenshi was great at that. Gondek isn't.
I decided not to vote strategically. I hate the parties, but the truth is Thiessen is the best candidate and I’m just voting for him. I’d that means there are more people voting for Farkas or Sharp, so be it. I don’t want a mayor who’s just going to say no to everything, and I don’t want a mayor who’s a provincial government lapdog.
And sure, maybe Gondek should get my vote to keep that from happening, but you know what? She should’ve done better to earn my vote.
Anybody vote early in wards 3/4? My wife’s friend (both teachers, so pretty invested) was telling her that as she was going to vote there were people saying that Laura Hack had dropped out of the race for trustee (she hasn’t!) and Joanny Liu had been acclaimed. A quick google search is saying that it was the elections workers themselves telling voters this! Anybody from the board experience this? and was it in fact the election workers or just rando’s outside? Pretty wild if true and there does appear to be multiple other accounts of this. Take Back Alberta in action???
I'm in the minority where I'm actually on the pronvince's side in regards to the green line. After over a decade of back and forth in new plans that are more expensive, and provide less track just to accommodate the downtown subway, enough was enough and the pivot to Plan B had to happen. The value wasn't there for the last subway iteration in comparison to alternatives (same alignment but elevated) that were never truly considered.
I'm not a fan of how we got to that point, and Smith/UCP bullied the city into it, but ultimately the city ignored the red flags that have been popping up over the duration of this project, and not prepare for an alternative plan if the value of the subway could no longer be deemed feasible.
They had tunnel vision (pun intended). It was that or nothing.
Price increase was completely the fault of delays caused by the Province. So when you say you're on the side of the Province are you on the side that paused construction for review, then agreed with tunneling. Or the side of the Province that paused construction again for review and forced through a new, crappy plan?
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Price increase was completely the fault of delays caused by the Province. So when you say you're on the side of the Province are you on the side that paused construction for review, then agreed with tunneling. Or the side of the Province that paused construction again for review and forced through a new, crappy plan?
The failure was having predetermined that tunnel and south were better and having studies and decision structures designed to pick that option from the start.
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Price increase was completely the fault of delays caused by the Province. So when you say you're on the side of the Province are you on the side that paused construction for review, then agreed with tunneling. Or the side of the Province that paused construction again for review and forced through a new, crappy plan?
I believe the only point you can say that province delayed the project was around 2021, where they wanted to review the new alignment the city put forth that reduced the line from crossing the Bow River downtown to ending at Eau Claire. I was not a fan of the province doing that, but they did endorse it afterwards, and we proceeded to the detailed design stage where we found out what the new costs were expected to be. Due do the inflation of all construction costs since covid, and other North American cities facing the same cost escalation issues with their transit projects that involved tunnels in their downtown core, I believe the stub line end resulted would've been the same even without the provincial delay.
The failure was having predetermined that tunnel and south were better and having studies and decision structures designed to pick that option from the start.
Predetermined by whom and why? The amount of consultation done was significant.
