I 100% agree with your assessment of the mayor's and council's priorities and have been growing more and more frustrated with Ottawa leadership post-amalgamation. I say all this as someone who grew up in Arnprior and lived as a young teen within Ottawa city limits on a rural route. It makes zero sense that our home 10km from highway 417, that public transit did not serve and that was a 45-minute drive from Kanata Centrum was and is considered a part of the city of Ottawa. The needs of rural property owners are completely different from city-dwelling renters, and the way our city is run needs to reflect that, especially as cost of living continues to rise.
The snow-clearing downtown has been abysmal this winter, and has only marginally improved as winterlude approaches (snowbanks around the QED near Pretoria were only just cleared this morning, about 3 weeks after the major snowfall) which speaks volumes to me about the priorities of council and the mayor. I fail to see how allowing the city center of the alleged capital of Canada to crumble in favour of those living within city limits but outside of the city helps anyone or even generates any of the capital needed to sustain us ... maybe that's a bit dramatic, but it's feeling pretty dire around here. I thought tourism was major in Ottawa, but based on the poor quality of street cleaning, public transit (and communication around how to access public transit) and the infrastructure needed to support public transit (bus lanes, benches and shelters), and sanitation (sometimes feels like there are maybe 3 public trashcans in all of the downtown core) among other things (like housing, mental health services and harm reduction programs that would most definitely make a positive impact on what are perceived as "dangerous" areas, aka underserved areas with a large houseless population) ... I'm wondering why anyone would want to visit. I've never been a great enjoyer of tourism as an industry, but seeing as that's one of many ways to stimulate our local economy that we hear so much about, it seems foolish to take for granted that people will want to visit and spend money here. It's become abundantly clear that the priorities of the majority of council do not include the vast majority of downtown residents, so I'm taking the tourist perspective instead of the "person-just-trying-to-live" one.
I'm not sure where people who work at all the gastropubs, pot shops and boutiques that have taken over the downtown core (for what I am sure is close to if not sub-minimum wage) are supposed to live when rent prices continue to rise, public transit is slowly dismantled, and essential businesses like pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. don't seem to be prioritized when planning new developments. We don't need a dispensary every 5 feet and 10 artisanal sandwich restaurants (as fun as these things can be), we need affordable groceries and basics.
Further, parking spots for renters can cost upwards of $200 extra dollars a month. So if you can't find a place to live within walking distance of work, can't get a bus and can't afford a car...???? I guess in the eyes of city leadership, that's simply not their problem. I would honestly love for council and the mayor to have to seek out housing and live like a lower-middle-class person for the entirety of their term - maybe then we'd finally see some social gains. Really seems like most if not all of city leadership outside the Greenbelt have no clue what it's like to actually live with the austerity policies many of them support.
Anyways. Thank you Neil for your thoughts and efforts!!!
More than what's important to me, council is not working in the best interests of the City of Ottawa. It's not a zero-sum game! When part of society improves, we all improve. More for one part of the city doesn't mean less for another.
As for missing evidence, that's a huge issue in city decision-making. Data drives good decisions; emotions do not.
Finally, Mayor Sutcliffe's behaviour is looking much like Jim Watson's and Larry O'Brien's. And that is definitely not a good thing for the city.
in a perverse way it's good that Luloff and Hubley / (even Tierney ! ) have said, what they said;
' we ' now have the opportunity to push back ... since it doesn't look like Menard is itching for a further fight with Luloff et al ... ( eg. by suing Luloff for libel ) ; but Luloff's 'bluff' (and Tierney saying it was " extortion") need to be called ... somehow. Menard couldn't do this if he were an MP ... but I'm guessing that in a Municipal Council meeting ... there are no such rules about what one says in that chamber. So Luloff / Tierney need to be pushed back on ... in public !! Make them show the evidence ... or at least publicly apologize and admit they don't have it.
This is precisely how Giuliani got caught bluffing about having the evidence ...ie. re." voter fraud "; his lawyer-assistant that day in the meeting with the head of the elections process ... Rusty Bowers (-in Arizona ? ) has recently plead guilty re. that situation ... as the two of them pretended to 'have the evidence': but in the end, Giuliani's bluff got called; he had to utter what has become an iconic phrase ( " we have theories, but we don't have the evidence " as Bowers was pressing him to hand over the evidence that Giuliani said, several times, they had.
I 100% agree with your assessment of the mayor's and council's priorities and have been growing more and more frustrated with Ottawa leadership post-amalgamation. I say all this as someone who grew up in Arnprior and lived as a young teen within Ottawa city limits on a rural route. It makes zero sense that our home 10km from highway 417, that public transit did not serve and that was a 45-minute drive from Kanata Centrum was and is considered a part of the city of Ottawa. The needs of rural property owners are completely different from city-dwelling renters, and the way our city is run needs to reflect that, especially as cost of living continues to rise.
The snow-clearing downtown has been abysmal this winter, and has only marginally improved as winterlude approaches (snowbanks around the QED near Pretoria were only just cleared this morning, about 3 weeks after the major snowfall) which speaks volumes to me about the priorities of council and the mayor. I fail to see how allowing the city center of the alleged capital of Canada to crumble in favour of those living within city limits but outside of the city helps anyone or even generates any of the capital needed to sustain us ... maybe that's a bit dramatic, but it's feeling pretty dire around here. I thought tourism was major in Ottawa, but based on the poor quality of street cleaning, public transit (and communication around how to access public transit) and the infrastructure needed to support public transit (bus lanes, benches and shelters), and sanitation (sometimes feels like there are maybe 3 public trashcans in all of the downtown core) among other things (like housing, mental health services and harm reduction programs that would most definitely make a positive impact on what are perceived as "dangerous" areas, aka underserved areas with a large houseless population) ... I'm wondering why anyone would want to visit. I've never been a great enjoyer of tourism as an industry, but seeing as that's one of many ways to stimulate our local economy that we hear so much about, it seems foolish to take for granted that people will want to visit and spend money here. It's become abundantly clear that the priorities of the majority of council do not include the vast majority of downtown residents, so I'm taking the tourist perspective instead of the "person-just-trying-to-live" one.
I'm not sure where people who work at all the gastropubs, pot shops and boutiques that have taken over the downtown core (for what I am sure is close to if not sub-minimum wage) are supposed to live when rent prices continue to rise, public transit is slowly dismantled, and essential businesses like pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. don't seem to be prioritized when planning new developments. We don't need a dispensary every 5 feet and 10 artisanal sandwich restaurants (as fun as these things can be), we need affordable groceries and basics.
Further, parking spots for renters can cost upwards of $200 extra dollars a month. So if you can't find a place to live within walking distance of work, can't get a bus and can't afford a car...???? I guess in the eyes of city leadership, that's simply not their problem. I would honestly love for council and the mayor to have to seek out housing and live like a lower-middle-class person for the entirety of their term - maybe then we'd finally see some social gains. Really seems like most if not all of city leadership outside the Greenbelt have no clue what it's like to actually live with the austerity policies many of them support.
Anyways. Thank you Neil for your thoughts and efforts!!!
More than what's important to me, council is not working in the best interests of the City of Ottawa. It's not a zero-sum game! When part of society improves, we all improve. More for one part of the city doesn't mean less for another.
As for missing evidence, that's a huge issue in city decision-making. Data drives good decisions; emotions do not.
Finally, Mayor Sutcliffe's behaviour is looking much like Jim Watson's and Larry O'Brien's. And that is definitely not a good thing for the city.
in a perverse way it's good that Luloff and Hubley / (even Tierney ! ) have said, what they said;
' we ' now have the opportunity to push back ... since it doesn't look like Menard is itching for a further fight with Luloff et al ... ( eg. by suing Luloff for libel ) ; but Luloff's 'bluff' (and Tierney saying it was " extortion") need to be called ... somehow. Menard couldn't do this if he were an MP ... but I'm guessing that in a Municipal Council meeting ... there are no such rules about what one says in that chamber. So Luloff / Tierney need to be pushed back on ... in public !! Make them show the evidence ... or at least publicly apologize and admit they don't have it.
This is precisely how Giuliani got caught bluffing about having the evidence ...ie. re." voter fraud "; his lawyer-assistant that day in the meeting with the head of the elections process ... Rusty Bowers (-in Arizona ? ) has recently plead guilty re. that situation ... as the two of them pretended to 'have the evidence': but in the end, Giuliani's bluff got called; he had to utter what has become an iconic phrase ( " we have theories, but we don't have the evidence " as Bowers was pressing him to hand over the evidence that Giuliani said, several times, they had.
We need to get rid of amalgamation and separate urban from rural with their different interests
not too many Mark Sutcliffe fans in Bells Corners! https://youtu.be/eBoB-DPzEiQ