The 10 Commandments Of City Hall …
… slightly abridged edition.
Saturday columnist Ron Benn commented on the post The Good, The Bad And City Hall: WHOPPER WATCH but The Bulldog editorial board thought it deserved better play. So it’s here:
The statement “but rather to encourage residents to rethink their disposal habits” is indicative of a mindset that is endemic at city hall.
City Prefers Toys Over Basic Garbage Service
Rather than focus on providing the requisite services in an effective and efficient manner, city staff are, once again, diverting their attention in the direction of social engineering.
Top of mind examples of this social engineering mindset, from the last couple of years include:
- thou shalt not drive, but if you must, thou shalt use an electric car;
- thou shalt neither live nor work in any location not proximate to an LRT station;
- thou shalt not occupy more space than We (staff having anointed themselves to be of Royal status) deem appropriate;
- thou shalt not occupy a residence outside the greenbelt;
- thou shalt not shop at any retail location that is not within 15-minutes walking or cycling distance, irrespective of what you are so bold as to think you might need;
- thou shalt re-use or recycle any and all detritus that accumulates in your residence.
I am confident that my fellow Bulldog commenters can identify another four examples, as 10 seems to be the accepted norm for commandments.
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Ron:
Most people don’t care. Never underestimate people’s ability not to care.
In my newspaper days, I’d write a story that I thought was a barn-burner and it wouldn’t get a whimper of response.
Then I’d write some boring crappy story and the response would be overwhelming.
People care about what they want to care about. Nothing else. It’s usually themselves.
The problem with so many people at Ottawa City Hall is that they think everyone is like them. They’re not. Not even remotely.
So they are the people who will throw their garbage onto someone else’s yard or in a park or the river.
They don’t care about the great public policies of the day. They don’t care about any government initiatives at all.
Good luck social engineering them.
The folks at city hall really must get out of the ivory tower. They’re lucky people use green bins at all.
cheers
kgray
City employees do the studies and submit them to Councilor’s who are supposed to read them. Do they? Not all employee’s actually live in Ottawa so where is their comprehension of what is practical or impractical?
I deal with the City daily in my work and I know of City employees who really should be ‘feet on the ground’people as I have suggested we meet ‘on site’ to discuss and resolve things and one of them admitted to me he was based a 5 1/2 hour drive away and had not been to the site and wouldn’t be and would rely on aerial photography and Streetview etc.
Luke, the lack of willingness to perform site visits isn’t limited to the small number of staff members who are based well outside the city.
During a dialogue with a member of the planning staff (pre-pandemic) it became apparent that they had not visited the site (lack of recognition of land marks, proximity to specific physical settings). This is in Stately Centrepointe (TM pending). Just down the street from where a couple thousand City of Ottawa employees report to work. Within the walking distance from Baseline Station that planning staff have deemed to be an acceptable radius to require inadequate on site parking. Across a couple of parking lots filled with about 1,600 automobiles driven by City of Ottawa employees (i.e. the ones who don’t subscribe to the Commandments of the city regarding thou shalt take public transit).
Having said that, I will be meeting some Parks & Rec staff, along with our councillor and her staff, in Centrepointe Park later this week to discuss possible changes to the grade of the land that underlies the site of our outdoor rink.
All of which is to say that some members of city staff get it, and some don’t care.
Thanks Ron Ben you are the first writer I read on Bulldog, sorry Ken. Ron Ben’s very true description of the Centre Point City Hall massive parking lots is just one of the many examples of ivory tower thinking (I prefer hypocrisy) at city hall. I attended a budget meeting where I asked why exactly those huge parking lots existed when one of the largest transit hubs in Ottawa is literally a stones’ throw away. Jan Harder (bless her for at least this) said, yeah why exactly do those lots exist? Last I heard of it. I also asked what % of the budget was allocated to staff salaries/benefits. I said I heard it was around 70-75% which meant there was little money for maintenance or capital. Notice how the roads are like a war zone? The acting manager of finance tracked me down later (hmmm, that never happens) later to give me a far lower #, something around 50%. At a local (Ron Kolbus, Bay Ward) budget meeting I asked Mayor Watson why OC Transpo on St. Laurent had such massive employee parking lots. He flubbed and dithered but had no answer. I saw him moving around the room asking people questions. Later on he came up to me and said it was because bus drivers started their shifts before regular bus service started. He looked like the Chesire cat at his answer. OK that’s fair but does anyone seriously believe those lots only have drivers cars in them? Anyone notice just how empty the buses on the SJAM are both am/pm, eastbound/westbound while the 417 east/west is jammed? Any answer you try to get from the city or my councillor is garbage. Speaking of garbage, is it any surprise that the solution to the Trail road dump is to increase the cash take instead of doing what “REAL” cities do and task staff to find a bloody solution. Far more environmentally minded cities found anywhere else have clean incineration systems (1 system), automated, hell one is even a ski hill. Our clown act is best at virtuous claims only. They can’t think past “tax and spend”. The only sign of hope I’ve seen is Councillor Wilson Lo who was an OC Transpo driver who seems to know where the skeletons are buried. But does he have a chance against those councillors who believe because public transit is good policy (yes it is) but fail to call out massive failures which have been OC Transpo’s stock and trade long before COVID. Yes it is poorly run, and will be for a very long time unless council can differentiate between a good idea and properly run. I’ll answer that with the response my wife got after telling a western Canada provincial employee she was moving to Ottawa…..all my wife heard was laughter.
Ian:
I spell much gooder than Ron.
cheers
kgray