TEWIN: What Urban Boundary?
You hear the likes of the left on Ottawa City Council spouting intensification and destroying the old neighbourhoods of Ottawa.
Then you get this.
Not intensification, but intensification if necessary.
With apologies to former prime minister Mackenzie King
From X:
By the way, good to see former Citizen colleague Joanne Chianello walkin’ the city walk.
– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
Here we have the Algonquins of Ontario division of Taggart getting approval for this subdivision which sure looks like urban spawl and now we pay for infrastructure. You and me. Horizon Ottawa has documented generous Taggart related donations to municipal candidates. The new zoning bylaw looks like it will effectively carve up existing neighbourhoods for developer profit, and now we fund urban sprawl the zoning intensification is supposed to control. So we pay for urban sprawl while the new zoning is destroying existing neigbourhoods. Who is winning here?
Whatever is GOOD for developers is “good” for the city and staff who run and ruin the city
In other news, the city is looking for a new landfill site. Thanks for getting rid of all those trees.
John:
If you listen to Leiper et al., you will notice that all the “rich people” in neighbourhoods such as Westboro will have to take a hit on their property values because of his ideological stupidity. We all know that intensification will create much housing and save the climate. And we should close roads because they are evil. And after the old hoods have paid the price, they pay more through sprawl which flies in the face of intensification and Ottawa single-handedly saving the planet.
And on the subject of saving the planet, Leiper was providing no-versight for the creation and building of the current light rail. That has damaged the climate more than anything else he or others at the city have done. And he was the guy who wanted electric buses without checking on the capacity of Hydro Ottawa. So we have $1 billion of unreliable electric buses charged with natural gas.
Leiper might have his ideology right but his implementation stinks. He has been an abysmal failure as a councillor and has actually pushed back the progress in issues he supports by his incompetence.
But if it makes Leiper feel better, he is not alone in the effect on council.
Just thinking of the wasted $6.4 billion, the destruction of the trasit system and $1 billion wasted on electric buses just makes my blood boil.
cheers and thank you for this
kgray
folks:
After Tewin, does anyone still believe that intensification is anything more than more money for developers at the expense of homeowners?
Intensification (extremification) is height of dishonesty. Were council serious about intensification it would strike down Tewin. It’s not. It’s about helping out their developer buddies who pay lots of money to get their favourite councillors re-elected.
It turns your stomach the lying and dishonesty.
kgray
A councillor recently advised the audience at a public meeting that the city is proceeding, and will continue to proceed, with its policy of intensification, with a focus on public transit rather than roadways. The councillor acknowledged that the residents will suffer as the city works in this direction. When challenged on whether there is any evidence of a direct correlation between living or working proximate to major public transit stations and use of public transit, the councillor was silent.
Clearly the righteousness of the cause is sufficient reason to proceed. Collecting evidence to establish or refute the direct correlation of intensification and public transit use is to be avoided at all costs. Why? Because evidence can and will be used against the city, and its councillors. Not so much in a court of law (although that may be possible). No, the fear is that the voters will use it when standing in front of the ballot box. And for many who populate the council chamber, this is the best job (in terms of compensation) that they will ever have.
As councillors are giving away tax payer money to developers, and therefore cannot put money into basic city needs, I’m curious as to how long before Ottawa ends up like Detroit was about 10 years ago.
i believe this is called corruption. Am i correct. k
mm
I am sick to death of subsidizing developers and paying $6.4 billion for non-working light rail, $1b for gas charged electric buses, a huge library overrun, an appalling police service, and now we can’t put out all our garbage. The place is so bad that good people will not apply for jobs. we have a council that can’t or won’t do its jobs. I can’t find the words for how bad this is kgray
mm
I wonder how long it takes to bankrupt the city and not be able to provide basic services?
Like garbage .. for example
k
mm:
the city is in crisis and the province is doing nothing to solve this and the people at city hall can’t or won’t solve the crisis and keep wasting or giving our money away.
k
Ken,
Maybe we should stand back and let them bankrupt the city. Then the province would have no choice but to step in. It’s a very extreme action but, if it’s where we’re going to end up anyway, it might make more sense to get there as quick as we can.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that the province would do anything more than what they’ve done up to now. I just can’t believe that, having seen the total s**t show that passes for municipal government here, Ford is still handing money over to the City for anything. Anything at all! Maybe he just likes to see Mark Sutcliffe’s “eager puppy” response when he throws him a bone.
Or maybe Ford is just waiting for that absolute-breaking-point moment when he can sail in and take over without any significant opposition because a) people will be so fed up and b) it will be readily apparent to one-and-all that it’s a lost cause to expect Council to put their Big Girl and Big Boy pants on and actually run the City.
If he needs a head start, I have a list (and it’s getting longer) of who among senior management needs to be issued with a couple of banker’s boxes to gather their personal belongings in. Should they get a complimentary bus ticket to help them on their way or would that be rubbing their noses in it?