2010 Calgary Civic Election issues ?

[octothorp]

No votes for backyard chickens? Colour me shocked.

I'll admit I can easily be bought out. If any of the (non-fringe) candidates makes building a world-class downtown library an issue, I'll be on voting for them. But given how other 'showcase' infrastructure projects have gone, I don't see that being anything that anyone is going to want to talk about.
So, densification including TODs and secondary suites are a key priority. The airport tunnel... not that it directly affects me, but it's such a common-sense thing. Not cutting arts and culture funding... I'm not looking for anyone to increase it, just not cut it.

[frinkprof]

Could the OP share what they intend to use this information for?

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by octothorp

No votes for backyard chickens? Colour me shocked.

I'll admit I can easily be bought out. If any of the (non-fringe) candidates makes building a world-class downtown library an issue, I'll be on voting for them. But given how other 'showcase' infrastructure projects have gone, I don't see that being anything that anyone is going to want to talk about.
So, densification including TODs and secondary suites are a key priority. The airport tunnel... not that it directly affects me, but it's such a common-sense thing. Not cutting arts and culture funding... I'm not looking for anyone to increase it, just not cut it.

The fact that the central library will face about $50 million in necessary repairs if nothing is done soon will fortunately force the hand of council. A project like the library has been talked about for many years now and the initial setting aside of the $40 million 5-6 years ago was met with very little opposition. I think it is an amenity that pretty much everyone on council will get behind. It`s intersting that because of the Peace Bridge that doing international design competitions is now pretty much a political imperative, which should result in an excellent signature design for downtown. Much of the problem with the Peace Bridge was that it seemingly came out of nowhere and as such was viewed as a vanity project (even though it was actually identified as a key project in the Centre City Plan - but that fact was never communicated).

As for TODs, things are chugging along. Chinook, Brentwood, Westbrook, Sunalta and Anderson are all approved, which is a big hurdle. Banff Trail will be next and Lions Park will be not too far down the line too.

Brentwood actually had its first development permit applications submitted a few weeks ago, so marketing for the first couple towers could be happening as early as this summer! Exciting for me personally, because I wrote the Brentwood Station Area Redevelopment Plan.

Next I think Corridor studies should be done for the Urban Corridors like Centre Street North.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by Bunk

As for TODs, things are chugging along. Chinook, Brentwood, Westbrook, Sunalta and Anderson are all approved, which is a big hurdle. Banff Trail will be next and Lions Park will be not too far down the line too.

Brentwood actually had its first development permit applications submitted a few weeks ago, so marketing for the first couple towers could be happening as early as this summer! Exciting for me personally, because I wrote the Brentwood Station Area Redevelopment Plan.

Next I think Corridor studies should be done for the Urban Corridors like Centre Street North.

Anderson has not been approved.

Also, someone before mentioned the London development at Heritage being TOD. It actually isn't. The key word in TOD is oriented. London is merely Transit Adjacent Development. Actually some of the issues arising from the London towers was partly what led to the City initiating the station area plans for other stations that were seeing development interest. This way, the plans would act as a guide for developing these sites and avoiding some problems, like not orienting the developments in such a way as to encourage transit use and make it a more natural choice.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Could the OP share what they intend to use this information for?

I think someone else answered this before you asked....

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Everyone on this site knows who FirstLady is ......

....

Seriously though. Yes, I am active politically. One thing I have learned in my time posting on CP, this is an excellent spot to get a cross-section of vews. Usually some great debate with strong points being made by either side.

[RougeUnderoos]

Maybe a dmub question, but what is a TOD?

I'll vote for the "New Library" candidate, if such a candidate exists. If he or she also makes it a priority to uncrappify the CTrain, I'll vote twice.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Maybe a dmub question, but what is a TOD?

Transit Oriented Development. Answered in more detail here:

http://www.calgary.ca/portal/server....velopment+.htm

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

If he or she also makes it a priority to uncrappify the CTrain, I'll vote twice.

Could you elaborate?

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Anderson has not been approved.

huh. I thought it had gone through long ago. Well, it will be a while anyway before the city does anything about selling off or developing that land. I think Westbrook will be a really hot TOD location, along with Brentwood in the immediate future. Hopefully Bridges phase 2 finally gets going. It's long overdue.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Transit Oriented Development. Answered in more detail here:

http://www.calgary.ca/portal/server....velopment+.htm

Could you elaborate?

I guess I mean the whole system in general. It can take 45 minutes (on a bus) to get from Richmond Road/17th to City Hall station in the morning. You can walk that fast (going east, down the hill).

Funny thing -- just tonight I saw a bit on the local news about new train cars that have a single row of seats running along the outside walls, facing in, opening up a lot more space for people to stand up. That is a good start.

Seems to me that "rush hour" is too short. Trains going into the barns at 8:30 (in the south) when there are still plenty of people going to work bugs me. At the other end of the day, the number of buses moving people are roughly equal to the ones that are "Not in service", and this is at 5:30pm.

Eight, nine years ago, the trains were like clockwork. You never had to watch one go by because there wasn't room on it. I understand that there are more people here now, but that doesn't seem to have been taken into account.

[Joborule]

For me, these are my big issues.

Airport Tunnel. Come guys, we had this planned for decade. Don't jip the NE, which already gets a bad rap, by messing around with key expressways to ensure good connectivity to the airport from all sides. When the runway and new terminal is open, Airport Trail should be from Deerfoot to Stoney Trail as well.

Calgary Transit - 8th Ave Tunnel & SE LRT. Frankly, it seems we're playing major catchup with the LRT system due to lack of progression during the 90s. As a result, downtown is quite congested during peak hours with the lack of 4 car trains and both lines having to share one line in downtown. The Stephen Avenue Tunnel needs to get down asap along with 4 car train expansion getting done so this can be resolved. Right after, the SE should be getting the LRT so most areas of the city are served by a region specific line.

While on the transit topic. How about improving the system fare wise? Why can't it be more electronic? This is 2010. We should be able to have cards now that can add fare credits so then people don't have to dig for change, or always get monthly passes. And why the hell can't the ticket machines give change? Heck, why can't they shoot out month passes right there?

Make the system more modern and convenient.

I really only have two concerns. For a third, I'm curious to see if there is some timeframe to address the lacking of a proper E-W expressway/freeway in the northen area of the city. The south have Glenmore, but the north doesn't really have a expressway. 16th ave defiatnly isn't getting the job done with it being a urban cordoir between Crowchild and Deerfoot. McKnight/John Laurie is a bit better, but still too much of just being a major road. In the future, with expansions to the north and east of the city, it's going to be necessary.

[StealthOiler]

Bike lanes. And lots of them.

Calgary is a joke when it comes to this. If you want to encourage people to drive less, creating alternatives is a logical step that Calgary has failed to see for far too long. In a time where transit is getting more and more expensive and there are thousands more cars on the road, Calgarians deserve the option; it's something that not only benefits Calgary, but our environment and each and every person that steps on a bike each day (heath-wise).

Calgary has an incredible population of people that commute on their bikes each day, so I would assume I can't be alone on this. It's a passionate issue where I stand, as I'm getting tired of near-misses and even getting hit on a far too regular basis. Not only can our infrastructure not handle a large amount of cycling commuters, but drivers (especially downtown) simply don't know how to navigate the roads when sharing them with cyclists.

[Bill Bumface]

^ Agreed. A good North route is required through downtown. Going South on 3rd St to get from Eau Claire/Prince's Island is alright, but going up 2nd street to get back is a nightmare.

Put in a dedicated bikeway on something like 3rd Street with a North and South lane.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by StealthOiler

Bike lanes. And lots of them.

Seconded. Bike lanes are an easy, space-efficient and cheap modification to the roadways that make both cyclists and motorists happier.

[jammies]

#1 for me is serious talk about and subsequent action reducing the rate of urban sprawl. #2 is fiscal responsibility and transparency.

Further, just don't give us another Al Duerr. All the money the councils under him "saved" Calgary by not upgrading roads and rails are costing us far more to fix now.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Also, someone before mentioned the London development at Heritage being TOD. It actually isn't. The key word in TOD is oriented. London is merely Transit Adjacent Development. Actually some of the issues arising from the London towers was partly what led to the City initiating the station area plans for other stations that were seeing development interest. This way, the plans would act as a guide for developing these sites and avoiding some problems, like not orienting the developments in such a way as to encourage transit use and make it a more natural choice.

That was me. London may not be part of an official TOD but it is still transit oriented development, lowercase, which because uppercase as an acronym (). They sell it as close to downtown via LRT, and I unless the plans have changed they're putting in an special overpass to the station. Call it semantics?

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Seems to me that "rush hour" is too short. Trains going into the barns at 8:30 (in the south) when there are still plenty of people going to work bugs me. At the other end of the day, the number of buses moving people are roughly equal to the ones that are "Not in service", and this is at 5:30pm.

Eight, nine years ago, the trains were like clockwork. You never had to watch one go by because there wasn't room on it. I understand that there are more people here now, but that doesn't seem to have been taken into account.

Oh absolutely. It seems weird that in a city where a lot of people work long hours and bank time for Fridays off that the window for good transit service is so short. You work 8.5 - 9 hours, add a 0.5 - 1 hour unpaid lunch, and you don't have much choice for when you go to work if you want good bus service on the way home. And then the city is asking people to stagger their work times to alleviate the load, when for most people that's simply not practical.

http://www.calgarytransit.com/html/a...ridership.html

Ridership has gone up >50% since 2001. Went down between 2008 and 2009... more unemployment, people getting turned off by the crowds or some of each?

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by SebC

http://www.calgarytransit.com/html/a...ridership.html

Ridership has gone up >50% since 2001. Went down between 2008 and 2009... more unemployment, people getting turned off by the crowds or some of each?

New parking rates at stations might also have been a factor.

[Slava]

Hey First Lady, you might not have realised that I was asking you, but are you going to run this fall?

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by StealthOiler

Bike lanes. And lots of them.

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

^ Agreed. A good North route is required through downtown. Going South on 3rd St to get from Eau Claire/Prince's Island is alright, but going up 2nd street to get back is a nightmare.

Put in a dedicated bikeway on something like 3rd Street with a North and South lane.

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Seconded. Bike lanes are an easy, space-efficient and cheap modification to the roadways that make both cyclists and motorists happier.

I wonder why McIver doesn't push this more as a fellow cyclist? Or is he worried that he would lose votes from his base supporters for pushing such a "fluffy Euro-centric" idea?

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by Slava

Hey First Lady, you might not have realised that I was asking you, but are you going to run this fall?

Oh I knew what you were asking, but we really shouldn't derail the thread.

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by First Lady

Oh I knew what you were asking, but we really shouldn't derail the thread.

So, what ward ?