Councillor Opts For Noversight: WHOPPER WATCH
“I am not seeing anyone saying ‘Let’s make it easier for cars to get around and let’s make it easier to have free-flowing traffic.’ ”
Knoxdale-Merivale Councillor Sean Devine
Perhaps the good councillor didn’t hear what drivers were saying in those two-hour lineups at the foot of the Champlain Bridge when the bright bulbs at the National Capital Commission narrowed the span to one lane governed by two construction workers with “Stop” and “Slowly” signs.
Maybe it’s better he didn’t hear what those drivers were saying.
Not quite as nice as the whopper above but expressing the sentiment that Devine thinks doesn’t exist.
Or maybe the words of drivers routinely facing traffic jams on Highway 417 outside of the traditional rush-hours.
Bad Leadership, Bad Organization: BENN
Yes, Devine might have missed the closing of the Champlain and Chaudiere Bridges or the impending closing of the Alexandra Bridge. Or the lack of an east-end bridge to take the trucks out of the dangerous clown show through downtown leading to the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge. Or the narrowing of the Ottawa river parkway to one lane with another pair of construction workers toting “Stop” and “Slow” because the self-proclaimed geniuses of planning in this town decided to rebuild Westboro Beach at the same time that the very late Stage 2 of our world-famous LRT was moldering across the road.
Devine says that the urban planning community supports him in closing streets for patios and the like in the summer. That’s like having the backing of the townsfolk for Gary Cooper in High Noon. Where’d everybody go?
The fact of the matter is that we have a transportation crisis in this town with cars being the only somewhat-reliable way of getting around the city. With the Trillium Line still closed, the Confederation Line between breakdowns, roads and bridges being closed and Phase 2 LRT ready to be completed for the 200th anniversary of Confederation, tall-forehead Devine wants to close more roads.
Council has been AWOL on LRT oversight. In fact, the light-rail subcommittee went on vacation in the midst of a paralyzing closure of the Confederation Line. If Confederation had gone as badly as this rail line, Canada would be the 51st state.
About $6.4 billion being flushed on light rail and Devine wants to close more roads. Maybe if council spent less time on blue-skying and more time on getting light rail right or providing basic services, maybe we might be able to deal with the frills like a night mayor.
Noversight. Big ideas, like light rail, are fun to talk about as ideas and concepts to be built down the road. But the hard work is getting these things to be built correctly and making sure they run correctly.
That’s the job of council. It’s called oversight. It might not get you votes or cut a ribbon or get a grip-and-grin photo but it’s the right thing to do.
Why Don’t Voters Turf Councillors Out? THE VOTER
That’s rather than coming up with ideas that work at counter-purposes to solving a transportation crisis and not dealing with the extremely serious light-rail issues at hand.
It’s about being a good councillor and agent for the people. And at that for the last 12 years or more, Ottawa City Council has failed miserably, embarrassed this city in Canada and around the world and wasted $6.4 billion on an LRT that doesn’t work.
It’s time for Devine to become part of the transportation solution rather than exacerbating it.
Ken Gray
Having the support of the planning community, as Councillor Sean Devine says he has, is kind like having the backing of the townsfolk in High Noon. Where are they now that city council has screwed up Lansdowne, LRT and the new (vanity project) central library? Best you get out of town by noon, councillor. These urban planner compadres won’t save you.
—
Don’t miss our regular features
Everything Ottawa Full Local Bulldog Canadian
Opinion Comments Breaking News
Ontario World Get Cheap Gas Big Money
Pop Gossip Your Home Relax …
Bulldog Weather Full Local Sports
Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
Perhaps Councillor Devine might read a newspaper (print or on-line) from time to time. Had he bothered to keep up with local news earlier this summer, he might have seen a column by one of his colleagues, Mayor Sutcliffe, asking that the NCC reconsider its edict to close a two and a half kilometre stretch of the Queen Elizabeth Driveway to vehicle traffic during the work week. He might have read his colleague Councillor Leiper’s response about how, at least in the good councillor’s mind, Mayor Sutcliffe doesn’t speak on behalf of the city. He might have seen what passed for a rebuttal from NCC CEO Nussbaum a few days later. Maybe he could have cruised over to the Letters to the Editor section and read the comments from people who supported both sides of the discussion.
If three columns and numerous letters to the editor in the Citizen don’t qualify as people discussing the merits of “Let’s make it easier for cars to get around and let’s make it easier to have free-flowing traffic.” what does?
Hey Mr. Benn:
Let’s cut Councillor Devine a break, it’s summer holidays after all.
Perhaps he has been listening to too many of his constituents thanking him for the traffic jams almost everyday on Merivale or along Hunt Club Road.
Hey Kosmo:
How come Ron gets Mr. Benn and I get slime-faced dog?
Just wondering.
lol
cheers
kgray
Councillor Devine has his senses mixed up. He says he “is not seeing anyone saying”. This could be the reason he i unable to read the news or emails or letters to the editor or even the Mayors comments. He expects to HEAR the words which are written? A lack of “common sense” which in the case of LRT has led to a lack of CENTS leading up to a billion dollars short and not on time.
And on Thursday, transportation committee will consider the closing of two through vehicle lanes on the Billings Bridge (Bank St. over the river). This is to provide bicycle lanes. Part of this is to shorten green light time on Riverside Westbound to allow “cycle only” time southbound on Bank. City staff have acknowledged significant traffic back ups, but they can’t quantify them. A footnote to this is, Policies 4-1 and 5-2 in the Transportation Master Plan tend to support this. Highlights of Policy 5-2 are, “Policy 5-2: “In urbanized areas, destination accessibility
and multimodal mobility will therefore be the priority
over peak period vehicular capacity; this will require
additional investments in walking, cycling, transit, and
“complete streets”…” So walking and cycling before vehicular capacity is City policy.
How stupid we have become!!! Is this stupidity a side-effect of covid, is it a Canada-wide issue do you think, or is it local to Ottawa? If it’s a local problem it needs to be stamped out before it spreads throughout the rest of the country.
Hey Ken, if it’s any conciliation you’re my favorite dog… the kind I don’t need to clean up behind.
lol k