I work for Mayor Nenshi, ask me anything!

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Courses like Maple Ridge and Shaganappi are profitable. However, smaller course like Lakeview, Richmond Green, Confederation are less so.

I believe the City's Recreation department is currently doing a strategic review of what to do with the various City golf courses. My guess is they will keep some, renovate others, perhaps close a couple for other recreational purposes.

Why does the city use unionised staff for it's courses? IMO it creates a disadvantage when when non city courses don't have unions.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Thanks for the information. I am hoping that a suitable use can be found for the building, but I also understand that funds aren't unlimited.

Along the same lines, has any thought been given to allowing small kiosks at LRT stations (like they used to have)? A place to buy small convenience items, tickets, etc.? Many other cities have such places in their subways, etc. and, assuming they can turn a profit, it might be a good opportunity for small business owners and bring in a little coin for the city too (in rent). Plus it adds a little bit of life to otherwise sterile environments.

In the past there have been a few, but have closed. The City a couple years ago put out an RFP for such kiosks with very little interest. I think as the system becomes busier, particularly in non rush-hour times, these kiosks will be more viable.

The better solution however is to actually surround our LRT stations with more intense land uses. Currently a lot of them are just parking lots with zero activity (except breakins) throughout the day. Building high density transit-oriented development at stations will not only increase ridership, but also make small businesses viable in the station's vicinity.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Sorry Bunk, but this is what I don't understand either.

When I have 10 people at my work who say they cannot work on certain days of the week, I start hiring more people.

One of two things happen - people magically become available on those days I was hiring for, because when I start adding bodies it reduces the total number of hours those people were getting.

Or, they do not open up their availability and someone takes a large chunk of their hours.

You may find those day only cabbies (specifically the ones who own their own car), are more open to working nights.

It's a very good question. It's a very complex problem this industry, and if it were easy to solve it would have been solved.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

I can't stand that line of thinking. Ultimately you as your own being of flesh, blood, and mind decides if you are going to drink and drive. And since the cab shortage is notoriously well known in Calgary I can argue it should actually force people to think about how they are getting home if they plan on having a few.

That's a pretty simplistic view of looking at it. Yes, everyone should be that responsible, but a lot of people aren't and it just isn't as simple as thinking of HOW one will get home. The transit doesn't run that late either and not everyone can get someone to pick them up. Cabs are often the ONLY option. So I guess you would argue, stay home then. Fair enough, but like I said, not everyone will. And is that really a good solution anyway? (It is for fixing drinking and driving, but just continue for a moment...)

The problem is not just for the people who want to enjoy themselves. It's for the merchants, the city's nightlife and the vibe of the city itself. How often do we hear that the city wants to encourage people to spend time and money downtown? How often do we hear that Calgary is dead downtown at nights and weekends? If the city really wants to promote things like that, especially in a healthy and fun fashion, it needs to give these people a way to get back home safely.

For something that seems to have such an easy solution, it sure seems like someone or some organization is making it difficult. And even if your feelings are as you mentioned, you have to know that a lot of people, especially young people won't act the same way you do. They might have done everything right up to the point of wanting to go home, including bringing extra money for cab fare, (and when it costs you an extra 40 bucks, planning like that IS being responsible for many who are young) and simply not be able to get a cab. Many of those people will drive home. Now, as far as preventative measures go, and costs associated with accidents, wouldn't this be a no-brainer?

To add my own question to this topic, I remember Nenshi saying he wanted to implement all night trains at some point when it became feasible. How close are we to that? Obviously that would help immensely, but that would most likely be a cost to the city. Adding more cabs seems like a better option in the short term. (Eventually we do need to get back to all night trains)

Really something needs to be done for night travelers, it's getting worse every year and is approaching the realm of ridiculousness. And you know what, it's not even the party goers, there are people who work at night too. I highly doubt 55 extra cabs is going to help much, a lot of the articles I've read said we need over 300.

I've been very happy with how Nenshi has run the city so far, but this issue is a bit of a thorny one for me. Mostly because, as people have mentioned, it seems to easy to fix. Yes, we all want the cabbies to make a good living, but do we want it so badly we are going to inconvenience hundreds of thousands of people until we find the right balance?

[JiriHrdina]

Would the Mayor go on a burger quest with us?

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Does the Mayor's Office consider the food truck initiative a success? Are there stats about these trucks that are showing anything notable/interesting? Rate of startups, trucks going uinder etc.

Also, which truck is his favourite?

Depends on your definition of success, but I'd say yes. From our initial conversation with prospective operators, we had 7 of them operation in 20 days, with a pilot program and a full set of regulations (which the Mayor's Office wrote).

Within a year of this, we had 40 trucks operation relatively smoothly. The program was picked up so quickly that we had to temporarily pause on giving out anymore street use permits until we could transition the program the pilot, which was largely running out of the Mayor's office and a few City staff, which were doing this above and beyond their regular duties to a regular business license approach. That transition is happening right now.

All it took was exploiting an existing special street use permit in the pilot, and crafting some simple, common sense regulations - needing proper inspections, respecting bricks and mortar businesses through 25 m proximity rules and cleaning up after themselves.

We get lots and lots of calls from other municipalities asking us "how did you do it?!" It's really not that hard, but a lot of other cities got mired in red tape (Toronto being a good example).

As for the food, it's a matter of opinion on the quality, but I think that's something the market will sort out - the creative/good quality ones will thrive, the not so good ones will die off.

Don't know the Mayor's fave.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Swayze11

Can you ask Mr. Nenshi why everyone got a horrible mark in his marketing class at MRU?

Maybe you were all bad at marketing? I don't know.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Maybe you were all bad at marketing? I don't know.

Why would Nenshi be teaching a marketing class? Isn't he a poli sci prof?

[getbak]

During the campaign, I remember Nenshi talking about reducing traffic problems in the city by using new technologies to improve the flow of traffic. There were a number of things related to that, but the big one was light synchronization.

IIRC, he mentioned that the software used to control traffic lights was at least 30 years-old, and only a small percentage of the lights city wide were even synced at all.


Has any progress been made on improving this? There are some streets where it seems like the lights are timed to force you to stop at every intersection rather than to allow a decent flow of traffic...32nd Ave NE westbound between 36th St and Barlow, for example (and there's nothing more annoying than sitting at a red light for an entire cycle and having zero cars go through on the cross street).

[Sliver]

Thanks for doing this, Bunk and tell Nenshi I voted for him, please.

With the latest pit bull incident, I'm wondering if the City is considering a breed ban like they've done in Winnipeg and in Ontario...is this on anybody's radar at City Hall?

[Daradon]

^^^ Heh, knew it would be a dog related question as soon as I saw on the forum page that Sliver was the most recent poster.

However, I don't want to come down too hard on you Sliv, I wouldn't be against restrictions or bans on a very small number of breeds. I doubt I'd be for it either, but it wouldn't upset me.

It was just kinda funny when I saw your name and I thought, Aha, I know what this is about!

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

With the talk of a North C-Train line the two ideas being knocked around were up Centre Street, or up Edmonton Trail. Does council really see either of these two options as viable ideas? I would assume the cost of land alone would be huge. I believe they are doing a study to see their options, where does the Mayor stand on this?

Great question. It was the Mayor that pushed Transit to reconsider the alignment from Nose Creek to a more central alignment. Nose Creek is just fraught with too many downsides - particularly that practically no one lives or works in that corridor and it would bypass the majority of the 110,000 people that live in North Central Calgary. It also had the problem of connecting into downtown. Would it interline with the NE line going into downtown? If so, where would we find the capacity? Where would the train turn around?

The NC line needs to be the same line as the SE line. You'll hear the Mayor start talking about it as one giant North to SE line called "the Green line" 40+ km, $5 billion +.

Calgary transit is currently studying the two options Edmonton Trail and Centre Street.

Edmonton Trail suffers from some of the same issues as Nose Creek - how to get it in and out of downtown? The SE line comes up into downtown via 2nd street SW - it wouldn't be possible to connect over to Edmonton Trail.

As such, Centre Street is the likely choice as it would be possible by tunnelling or by bridge to connect it from Eau Claire, up the bluff and then onto the Centre Street alignment.

Your question about land acquisition and cost depends really on the vertical alignment of the train. Will it run underground for a portion (say from Crescent Heights to 32nd Street?), will it run primarily at grade, or will it run above ground. Each has its pluses and minuses and each may or may not require land acquistion.

For instance a subway may not require much land at all. Even at at grade urban-LRT - something like Toronto's St. Clair streetcar line may be able to be achieved within the existing right of way - it would just require sacrificing a lane or two for general traffic. Given how many buses currently run up and down centre street now, the curb lanes become defacto bus-only along certain stretches anyway. The volume of people carried on an LRT might justify reducing the vehicular lanes on Centre Street - and Edmonton Trail and 4th NW may be able to take on some additional traffic volumes (although one would hope that there would be fewer overall cars due to more people taking the train). As a precursor to North Central LRT Transit does plan to construct dedicated, fully separated bus-lanes on Centre Street - potentially that could be converted to rail lanes in the future.

The big trade-offs of course are cost. Underground is ideal, but may be cost-prohibitive. At-grade can be really attractive for the streetscape if done right, but also reduced travel speed, can have a greater impact on traffic congestion, reduce on street parking etc. Above grade is uglier, and slightly costlier, but has big travel-time advantages.

At this point I think the Mayor is agnostic vertical alignment - and will wait and see until it reaches that stage of design. It's still not certain (although I think it's the only actual choice) that it will be Centre Street.

Maybe frinkprof has more thoughts on this.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Would the Mayor go on a burger quest with us?

Dunno - send him a tweet maybe (although he's off the radar this week and next). He's finally taking a proper vacation.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Daradon

^^^ Heh, knew it would be a dog related question as soon as I saw on the forum page that Sliver was the most recent poster.

However, I don't want to come down too hard on you Sliv, I wouldn't be against restrictions or bans on a very small number of breeds. I doubt I'd be for it either, but it wouldn't upset me.

It was just kinda funny when I saw your name and I thought, Aha, I know what this is about!

Haha, yeah I know I've been kind of a one-topic poster for the last little bit, but I've had so many bad dog experiences lately...I'm honestly like a magnet for them. You guys would have giggled with glee if you saw all the dogs crawling all over me and my family around Christmas while I smiled and pretended not to mind. The cold weather meant a lot of dogs that would normally be outside were indoors. I don't blame the owners or the dogs at all as I wouldn't want to see an animal suffer outside in the extreme cold, but it did mean I had to spend more time with multiple dogs than I usually do.

[InglewoodFan]

What's the current status of the 6th/7th St bikeways? The momentum behind these seems to have disappeared, I thought they were supposed to be done last summer?

With the the city making some good first steps in the direction of improved cycling infrastructure, will there be any efforts put into motorist education?

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Why would Nenshi be teaching a marketing class? Isn't he a poli sci prof?

He was a professor in non-profit management. May have taught marketing at some point too - he was in the business school - not poli-sci

[HerbalMagic]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Thanks for doing this, Bunk and tell Nenshi I voted for him, please.

With the latest pit bull incident, I'm wondering if the City is considering a breed ban like they've done in Winnipeg and in Ontario...is this on anybody's radar at City Hall?

you mean the bans that Ontario is currently trying to overturn cause it does NOT work? Or the same ban that edmonton just overturned because well it doesn't work.

Breed specific bans work about as good as prohibition does...it doesn't.

You won't fix the attacks that huskies inflict, the ones border collies inflict, the ones labs inflict by banning pitbulls. If you want to ban a dog for biting ban them all and wrap us all in bubble wrap...OR teach proper dog ownership and a cultural shift towards proper dog ownership and education.

Banning just 1 breed(which by the way is a mix of about 20 different types of dogs) of the hundreds or recognized and thousands of hybrids is such a waste of time.

Oh just one more thing. There is no such dog as a pitbull, its a blanket characterization for a broad range of different dogs that have "pitbull looks"


http://www.ckc.ca/en/
http://www.akc.org/breeds/index.cfm

Can you find this "pitbull" breed you speak of?


I wish sliver would disappear....

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Bunk

He was a professor in non-profit management. May have taught marketing at some point too - he was in the business school - not poli-sci

Ahhh. i see.

Any chance of getting the Mayor to start r2 zoning more communities in the city? Like for example Varsity!

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by getbak

During the campaign, I remember Nenshi talking about reducing traffic problems in the city by using new technologies to improve the flow of traffic. There were a number of things related to that, but the big one was light synchronization.

IIRC, he mentioned that the software used to control traffic lights was at least 30 years-old, and only a small percentage of the lights city wide were even synced at all.

Has any progress been made on improving this? There are some streets where it seems like the lights are timed to force you to stop at every intersection rather than to allow a decent flow of traffic...32nd Ave NE westbound between 36th St and Barlow, for example (and there's nothing more annoying than sitting at a red light for an entire cycle and having zero cars go through on the cross street).

Some, although not as much as he'd like. In the budget last month the Mayor decided to push for the allocation of $2 million annually specifically to implement "targeted congestion solutions". Things that don't cost a lot of money (we don't a lot of money for big-ticket projects since provincial and federal grant moneys are already spoken for) but have big impact. This specifically includes things like smarter light synchronization, intelligent transportation systems (ITS techology), incremental intersection improvements, lane reversals and other projects. The Mayor called them small "surgical strikes" at key congestion points to ease traffic. For instance, the City implmented the change at Lake Fraser Gate at very little cost, and it has massively improved traffic flow on Macleod Trail there. Could we do similar things along Crowchild Trail? The City is also meant to put together a new ITS strategy.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Thanks for doing this, Bunk and tell Nenshi I voted for him, please.

With the latest pit bull incident, I'm wondering if the City is considering a breed ban like they've done in Winnipeg and in Ontario...is this on anybody's radar at City Hall?

I don't know the Mayor's opinion on breed-specific bans. It hasn't been something we've heard an awful lot about from citizens, so no it isn't currently on the radar.