More and more, we are being deluged with complaints from our drive-home audience about parking tickets, bike lanes, diamond lanes, and the state of our bridges and streets. The lack of genuine consultation, the secret meetings with special interest groups, the bullying of unaccountable agencies and bureaucrats -we'll get back to that in a moment...
Today on the show at 4.30, the story of a listener, who has drawn the line with the Parking Authority after they threatened to seize his car over a ticket that was tossed out of court. And that's not his only bad experience with the WPA, and their perverted interpretation of drivers as 'customers' and what they do as a 'service'.
Plus your emails about garbage bins, another bike lane with no consultation coming?, why society is NOT guilty for the assault on Faron Hall, and a doozy of a Winnipeg Free Press "Our Mistake".
Also today, at 5.15 our final NFL panel for the year recaps the fabulous Super Bowl, with the very enriched Frank the Italian Barber, Brad Harrison, and Spirited Kenny.
Now getting back to the audience complaints, we have a guest editorial, reprinted with permission from the local Neighbourhood Living newsletters that are on area retail counters today. Nail, meet head.
You have the Power
by Bob Axford
The last six months have been a wonderful time to be in the alternative media. We have had a lot of fun with hydro, climate change, parking authorities, photo radar, bike paths and other policy initiatives.
What has happened is that the ability of high paid spin meisters to control messages in the mainstream media has been rapidly eroded. People are catching on that you can get better information from blogs and backrooms and that they do have the power to influence government.
One of Winnipeg's best spots to check is 92.9 KICK FM at 4:00 every afternoon when Marty puts the boots to officials who need a wake up call. His show comes during the drive home from work portion of the day and it tends to keep abreast of issues of interest to motorists.
The most important issues which has surfaced is the abysmal manner in which Winnipeg citizens have been consulted by arrogant organizations trying to extort street rights for themselves at the expense of others.
It seems everybody from overbearing parking authorities, to revenue hungry photo radar operators, to indifferent construction people plugging up more than they need, to bike consultants with delusions of private ownership, to diamond lane promoters demanding pavement from someone else's budget, to city purse holders who have never seen a pothole that they didn't love, to insensitive, ill informed planners; each in their own way has some enhanced power and entitlement to the stewardship of our city streets and to the detriment of efficient circulation
What has city officials running scared is the cumulative affect of many of these issues coming together under one banner. Elections are coming and it is painfully obvious that politicians have never consulted with drivers and have not reigned in the aspirations of lobbies for oppressive and foolish change.
This newsletter’s interest, similar to others calling in and emailing, has to do with the continued impediments and incremental intrusion into the lifeblood of mobile commerce in Winnipeg. To be clear, we do have infrastructure, but on key arteries, it is becoming ungovernable as it is all over-allocated for a multiple number of purposes and ignores the original purpose. As well, our street management dismisses the interests of original driver/funders who supported its structure through fuel taxes. Drivers do not like getting steamrolled.
When the ability to circulate and conduct business or even the hassle free ability to use streets to get to work or school or shop becomes impaired, people especially people who have never been consulted, react.
As a city, if we cannot drive from one side to the other, vehicle intact, with a reasonable expectation of getting there in sensible time without fear of oppression from regulators or fear of attack from other entitled users or a myriad of traps, detours and pitfalls, we are poorer for it and no longer competitive to other locations.
Business, which is much more portable than it used to be, simply moves away.
Collectively we are also at the stage where the average driver's perception of this issue is rapidly approaching the tipping point to becoming a serious political obstacle. And it should be! People are waking up and are angry!
Listen to Marty this week and join with others who are fed up. The days are numbered for boneheads. If we can’t fix the parking authority or the car hating bike radicals, we can fix the politicians that allow them to continue get away with their baloney.
